With the birth of mechanical watches, around the thirteenth century, it was established the habit of splitting time in 60 smaller parts, all equal, each of which was called in Latin “pars minuta prima” which means “first small part” then cut short ‘minutes’, and these in turn were divided into 60 shares still other smaller, each of which was called, in Latin, secunda pars minuta (second small part), then cut short’ second ‘.

The choice of the number 60 is traced back to Sumerian, which had divided the circle in 360 equal parts, each of which later was called degree, from a Latin word meaning “step”.
60 and 360 numbers were regarded as “magical” granted by the gods , because easily divisible in so many different ways without leaving the rest

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