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?

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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?

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With an hourglass, actually. If you can handle the salty and the (maybe) cursing, Sacred Cow Shipyards on YouTube just did a fantastic video about keeping time on historic Navy Wessels. I learned a lot from it:
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