Three makers at least produced highly reliable clocks which are now much sought after
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The majority of clocks on sale during the early part of the century had foreign movements, though many had english made cases. This was because the British had been slow to adopt mass production and American and German companies, who had, were heavily undercutting the prices of British movements. Some makers survived by taking advantage of the public's interest in skeleton clocks. | ||||
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There was no domestic clock production during the firt world war as the makers were all on war work.
Between the wars competition was even more keen but some UK makers survived by aiming at a better quality market.
Up until this time the majority of clocks on sale were spring or weight driven, and the cases were rather large and cumbersome.
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Synchronous clocks were developed by HE Warren in the USA in 1918 but were of little practical importance in the UK until 1927 when the National Grid was established and provided a source of power with a constant frequency. The use of electricity caught the public imagination and mains synchronous clocks were very popular in the thirties but their popularity waned in the war when electricity supplies were disrupted. | ||||
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I have omitted mention of electric battery driven clocks.
These had been considered for many years but the practical difficulties were immense and early clocks tended to be unreliable. The designs of these early electric clocks were many and varied. Three makers at least produced highly reliable clocks which are now much sought after
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By 1939 some small battery clocks had been developed, Junghans and Kienzle being two noted makers. They were even more portable, but costly clocks, and were not in common use before the war.
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During WW2, from 1939 to 1945 in the UK, production of domestic clocks
virtually ceased as there were no materials available and the factories
were busy making fuses and timers for war purposes. The picture shows a battery clock movement adapted as the time controller for a sea mine.
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After the war, as domestic clock production got under way again, the prewar models were again offered, but new ideas had crept in and smaller clocks were in demand. Spring wound, synchronous and battery clocks were all on offer. Around this date the concept of centre-fixing appeared. I have not been able to determine an exact date, nor who thought up this brilliant idea, but it is simply that the movement is held in the case by a single hollow screw bolt with the hand arbors passing through the centre. This meant the any type of movement could be fitted to virtually any case. this, coupled with the ability the ability to make smaller movements (a skill probably developed during the war), meant that most clocks no longer needed a large enclosure. |
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In fact the casework was simplified to the point that the cases consisted of a small panel to carry the dial (wood, plastic, natural stone and metals were all used). The panel was wall hung or supported by small feet with the movement centre-fixed behind the panel in a small plastic enclosure. Another advantage to manufacturers was that a single case style could be used for synchronous, clockwork or battery movements. |
| Battery clocks became popular as they were now small and neat, did not require winding up and could be easily moved around as they did not need to be plugged into the mains. Some models drove the escapement directly, others used an electromagnet to periodically rewind a conventional spring drive. Kienzle is a good example of the latter type.. |
| In 1959, Leon Hatot, founder of the ATO company, showed how a transistor could be used to replace the physical contact system. This was a huge advance and manufacturers hastened to bring out new models incorporating transistors. |
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The next upheaval in this turbulent century of horological history was the
development of crystal controlled clocks. These used a quartz crystal as
the timekeeping element and were much more accurate than other clock types.
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| The century had not yet ended though, and in about 1985 small quartz clocks became available with the additional feature that they were able to receive radio time signals and so maintained almost perfect time. |