An 18th-century Indian observatory built giant masonry instruments — one tells time to about two seconds.
Jai Singh II's Jantar Mantar observatories (from 1724) include the Samrāṭ Yantra, a ~27m masonry sundial.
— Jantar Mantar, Jaipur (from 1724; UNESCO)
Precision astronomical instrumentation.
A genuine, defensible parallel.
The Jantar Mantar at Jaipur is a set of monumental, naked-eye instruments built in stone and marble to measure time, declinations and celestial positions. The giant Samrāṭ Yantra sundial casts a shadow that moves visibly — about a millimetre a second — and can be read to roughly two seconds of time, extraordinary for an instrument with no moving parts or lenses.
This is documented, verifiable engineering (a UNESCO World Heritage site). The honest context: it's 18th-century, post-dates the telescope (which Jai Singh knew of but favoured large fixed instruments for precision), and drew on Islamic, Hindu and European astronomy. As a feat of precision through sheer scale, it's genuinely impressive.