Zero Hour: Telling time was a matter of survival and strategy during WWI (2014)

Automated excerpt

Instead, it became necessary to coordinate time and to tell it accurately; the practice and the phrase synchronize watches was born from this need during the war. A watch then gives the illusion of controlling time, a sustaining fantasy of life at the front. The British military brass remained unconvinced, however, and the “trench watch,” a pocket watch in a double-sided metal case, remained official issue.

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