"Wszechświat to tylko ogromny zegar"

This article presents vision of the universe being constructed in analogy to a clock mechanism. The author discusses the concepts by Descartes, Robert Boyle, Isaac Newton, who envision the universe in perfect order, emulating a machine. Mechanistic view, illustrating the universe as cleverly constructed clock, was developed during the Age of Enlightenment. At that time attention of the European society was focused on machines. Defining the universe as a clock was one of the major metaphors to understand nature. Mechanics became the rule to understand the reality, while the assumptions of mechanical became the drive for the major scientific revolutions in XVII century. Many philosophers described the Creator as the Clockmaker. A clock mechanism and associated automatons became a very convincing analogy confirming the role of Reason in the Creator’s plans for the universe. Metaphors of the clock being a mechanism that governs the universe has survived as a sort of cults of time. One will encounter them in everyday life, in a modified or more complex form.