Dalí has isolated the central image of his best-known painting and given it the same title. It is a simple figure: a limp watch draped over the branch of a dead tree. Dalinean time is not rigid; it is one with space…fluid. The unexpected softness of the watch also represents the psychological fact that the speed of time, while precise in scientific use, is widely variable in human perception. When we are involved in pleasant activities or in work that absorbs all our attention, 'time flies', but when we are mired in boredom or discomfort, it drags. The limp watch no longer 'keeps' time; it does not measure its passage. Thus, the speed of our time depends only on us.

Descharnes References: Dalí: The Hard and the Soft, Sculptures & Objects. Eccart, 2004. pg. 246 ref. 632