[zachalexander]

Can you support this claim? I'm not skeptical so much as curious. How did people keep more or less consistent time back then?

[wolf550e]

They didn't keep consistent time as we know it. They scheduled things with fuzzy ranges instead of precise timestamps and used public reference clocks which were inaccurate but useful for two people to know the meeting is whenever the church clock says it's 2 o'clock, regardless of the true astronomical time.

[analog31]

The only option was to compare the reading of a clock, to an astronomical observation such as the zenith of the sun.

[cauterized]

Right. And the zenith can be identified by eye or using a sundial to within an accuracy of a minute or so, but not to a matter of a second or two AFAIK. Maybe using a sundial the height of the Eiffel Tower?