Simply Abu Dhabi XIII

S IMPLY T IME By Kerry Smith Time is perhaps themost precious luxury of all. B ut just what is it? Time is a continuing sequence of events occurring in apparently irreversible succession– fromthepast through thepresent to the future. It is ameasureof thedurations and frequencies of events and the intervals between them. It is fundamental to being human. So it is no surprise that time has long been a major subject of study in religion, philosophy, and science – but defining it in a manner applicable to all fields, without circularity, has consistently eluded scholars. Diverse fields such as business, industry, sports, the sciences, music, dance, and theatre nevertheless all incorporate some notion of time into their respective measuring systems. Perhaps we can do no better than simpledefinitions of time, suchas: "time iswhat clocks measure"; and "time is what keeps everything from happening at once”. Horology (from the Greek: ωρα , "hour, time" and λόγος ,logos,"study,speech"),literallymeans the study of time. Fortunately, keeping track of time is simpler than defining and studying it, and a wide variety of devices have been invented to do just that, among them: clocks,watches, clockwork, sundials, clepsydras, timers, time recorders andmarine chronometers. A&J take a look at the world’s finest time keepers and share their stunning visual beauty with you. 9 1 S I M P LY A B U DH A B I