Museum

Zaman Museum (Time Museum, Tehran)

Tehran, Iran

Tamashagah Zaman (تماشاگه زمان): mechanical clocks, pocket watches and wristwatches, with demonstrations of earlier time-measuring methods in the garden of the Hossein Khodadad House.

The museum occupies a richly decorated house in Tehran's Zafaraniyeh district. Industrialist Hossein Khodadad bought and remodelled the property in the 1960s; it later became a museum devoted to time. Its collection includes clocks from the 17th to the 20th century, including European timepieces collected in Iran. Sources place the museum's opening in 1999–2000; this is not the construction date of the house.

Type: Museum
Location: Tehran, Iran
Founded: 1999–2000
Specialities: Mechanical clocks and watches · Early time-measuring demonstrations · Calendars and Iranian collecting
Official website: timemuseum.ir (opens another website in a new tab)
Map: OpenStreetMap (opens another website in a new tab)

Opening hours, admission and accessibility change; please check the official website before visiting.

Why it matters for horology

Zaman brings Iran into the international history of clock collecting. The clocks described in its collection include English, French, Swiss and German pieces, a reminder that an object's present location does not establish where it was made. The decorated house is part of the visit, but its plasterwork should not be mistaken for evidence about the dates of the clocks inside. Garden demonstrations introduce sundials and timekeepers using water, sand or combustion; these are explanations of operating principles, not proof that every example is an ancient original. Inside, mechanical clocks and portable watches show how timekeeping became both a practical instrument and an object of display. Calendars add another dimension: measuring a duration, naming a civil date and regulating a clock are related tasks, but not the same one.

Specialities

Mechanical clocks and watches
Early time-measuring demonstrations
Calendars and Iranian collecting

What to look for

Garden timekeepers: Compare the shadow of a sundial with devices that measure an interval through flowing water or burning material. Read labels to distinguish demonstrations and reconstructions from historic objects.
Mechanical clocks: Look for the difference between weights and springs as power sources, and between a pendulum and a balance as regulators. Ornamental cases may conceal comparatively familiar European mechanisms.
Watches and collecting: Pocket and wristwatches connect personal timekeeping with Iranian collectors and donors. Treat an owner's biography separately from the watch's maker, production date and later repairs.

Regional tradition

Persian timekeepingPersian astronomers and instrument makers produced outstanding astrolabes and celestial globes; Safavid and Qajar courts collected European clocks and watches.

From the catalogue: Persian timekeeping

61 records →

These records come from other collections and dealers, not from Zaman Museum (Time Museum, Tehran); they show the kind of objects this institution's field covers.