 Using a chronometer to aid navigation simply saved lives and ships—the insurance industry, self-interest, and common sense did the rest in making the device a universal tool of maritime trade.Harrison died on 24 March 1776 at the age of eighty-two, just shy of his eighty-third birthday.He was buried in the graveyard of St John's Church, Hampstead, in north London, along with his second wife Elizabeth and later their son William.