Memento mori is Latin for “remember, you must die.” It is a classification for a type of jewelry popular in the late sixteenth through the seventeenth centuries but still being produced today. It is not to be confused with mourning jewelry, which memorializes a specific individual and often includes a lock of the departed’s hair or a miniature portrait of the dead loved one, along with symbolic depictions including weeping willows, spent hourglasses, extinguished candles, or urns. Memento mori jewelry instead is meant to make the wearer appreciate their life and remind them their time on earth is limited; it’s often compared to another Latin phrase, carpe diem (seize the day). Rings, pendants, lockets, timepieces, and brooches are shaped like skulls or coffins or covered with tiny death motifs like bones. 

This skull form watch, known as a Hamlet skull, was designed by the Swiss watchmaker Paul Ditisheim. It is a great example of a later memento mori piece from the early 1900s. Today watches are worn primarily on the wrist, but this was not always the case. From the sixteenth century until the middle of the seventeenth, and in the last quarter of the eighteenth through the nineteenth centuries, watches were created in unique shapes to be hung around the neck, at the waist, or suspended from a brooch. These watches are known as form watches, and the dial is hidden inside and only revealed when opening the cover or, with this watch, the head of the skull. Engraved on the back at the base of the skull is the Latin phrase nosce te ipsum, which translates to “know thyself.” 

Memento mori objects are sometimes said to derive from the “dance of death.” One of the most famous depictions is the Danse Macabre frieze from 1463 in St. Mary’s Church in Lübeck, Germany. (The original was lost in a 1942 World War II bombing.) It depicts a vivid mural of life-sized cadavers cavorting with people from every class, so viewers felt present in the chain of vitality and death. The dance revealed that no matter a person’s status, their life could be short due to contagious diseases or accidents. 

In his private journal Meditations, stoic philosopher and Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius wrote, “You could leave life right now. Let that determine what you do and say and think.” Other scholars say memento mori pieces come from ancient Rome’s tradition of holding a “triumphus.” This was a gala parade to honor a triumphant general who had just returned from the battlefield. The victorious general would enter Rome riding in a four-horse chariot accompanied by a man of the lower class, whose sole duty was to whisper into the ears of the commander every once in a while, “Remember, you have to die.”

It is only fitting to think of this sentiment this time of year. Life is short, and every second counts, so make the most of your time on earth.