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

You could measure time from the time it takes a fire to burn something or by the length of a lit candle. The hourglass goes back quite a ways in history as well.