Is there a place for skull motifs in your life? What about on your wrist?
For many people, this familiar symbol might conjure cartoonish images of leather-clad bikers, aging rock stars or pirates — but there’s a way to understand the appeal other than trying to look badass, especially when it comes to watches: It turns out that timekeeping has been particularly associated with skulls and death themes for centuries.
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From memento mori mottos on sundials and medieval clocks to art featuring skulls with hourglasses, ruminations on time and mortality have proven an enduring motif. Famously, Mary Queen of Scots was said to carry a pocket watch shaped like a three-dimensional skull, the cranium of which would hinge open to reveal the dial. Though viewed as rock-n-roll or rendered in playful pop-art styles today, such themes had more philosophical meanings through most of their history.
Not to be confused with skeletonized watches, skull-adorned watches remain surprisingly popular today. Here are a few of the best examples.
CourtesyMr Jones Watches Last Laugh
The term memento mori is used to describe phrases or symbols reminding one of death. In a nod to the history of associating this theme with horology, the British company Mr Jones placed those words on the hour and minute hand of a watch called The Accurate. The Last Laugh follows this watch’s success with a skull motif showing the hours and minutes in the skull’s teeth via disks. Using a Chinese-made automatic movement, the hour jumps when it changes rather than slowly turns.
