Dog watch of Ship's Bell clocks) website explanation it says that ..."the Evening Watch is periodically divided into two watches. These are called Dog Watches because they "dog" the watch schedule for all divisions ahead by one watch period". It can be surmised that this may mean an action similar to the "feed dogs" on a sewing machine, although obviously the use of the term predates the use in the sewing machine. Dog watch Dog watch, in marine or naval terminology, is a watch, a period of work duty or a work shift, between 16:00 and 20:00 (4 pm and 8 pm).
Fire Watch (short story) time. The story won both a Hugo Award for Best Novelette and a Nebula Award for Best Novelette. "Fire Watch" (1982) was included in Willis' short-story collections "Fire Watch" (1984) and "The Best of Connie Willis: Award-Winning Stories" (2013). The idea of a time-traveling history department at Oxford University, introduced in this novelette, was also used in her later novels "Doomsday Book" (1992), "To Say Nothing of the Dog" (1997), and "Blackout/All Clear" (2010), as was the character of Professor James Dunworthy. Although Willis' writing of "Fire Watch" predates the production of "Doomsday Book" by about a decade, Kivrin Engle,