A pendulum should be a more accurate way of measuring gravity. You'll still need a ruler and a timing device, but you won't need to be as precise on the timing. To avoid modern technology use a pocket watch with a torsion pendulum, or your own resting heart rate. Changes in fundamental constants will screw this up though. If mass changes then the torsion pendulum will be off, and any such change might be quite exciting (or fatal) so will mess with your resting heart rate.