Eli5: Historically, time during the night was measured by ‘watches’; eg. First watch, Second watch, etc. How did people determine when one watch ended and the next began?

Question

It can’t be influenced by the moon or stars in the sky, because how would they measure the time during a moonless cloudy night?

Edit: How would, say, 3 common travellers camping on the road measure time at night?

In: 38

Answer 1

It varied widely. In some medieval Christian traditions, church bells would ring (and monks would say prayers) at 7 p.m, 2 a.m., and dawn. So first watch might be from 7 p.m. to 2 a.m. and second watch from 2 a.m. to dawn.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canonical_hours](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canonical_hours)

Yet for sailors traditional watches consisted of 5 four-hour periods and 2 two-hour periods. First watch would be from 2000 hours (10 p.m.) to midnight, middle watch from midnight to 400 hours (4 a.m.), and morning watch from 400-800 hours (4 a.m. to 8 a.m.). That said, there were a number of alternative watch systems as well.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Watchkeeping](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Watchkeeping)