It’s a forgotten nugget of horological history that from the 14th to the 18th century, the Italians (and also, for whatever reason, the Czechs) organized their days starting from sunset using 24-hour clocks mounted on their more illustrious city buildings, including the Duomo of Florence and the bell tower of St Mark’s Square in Venice.

Driven by movements that completed a full rotation only once a day, these meant that effectively the day began at a different time each day—half an hour after sunset, in fact—as the year wore on. On the upside, it was a handy way to know how many hours of daylight you had left for finishing up the day’s work.