antique clocks

Linnaeus

Please, I would like to know what is the oldest known clock. Of course there were other methods of telling time before modern-type timepieces were invented...clepsydras, sundials, hourglasses and the like...but genuine mechanical clocks really facilitated matters. When and where was the very first clock invented? And the first watch?

Wibbs

The first mechanical escapement clocks were developed in China around 500AD if I recall correctly. They were an advancement of the earlier water driven clocks and still used water as a driving force. This type of clock found it's way or was developed in Europe by around the 9th-10th century by the religious authorities. Many of them used water too as one annal notes that a fire broke out in a church in England(IIRC) where they "used water from the clock" to put it out. Soon after the next European innovation was the use of weights rather than water to drive the clocks. Their ecclesiastical origins are reflected in the name. The word "clock" comes from the Irish word for "bell", as they were used to time the ringing of church bells and since in that period the Irish monastic system had been exported throughout Europe the name stuck.

The first watches came a few centuries later. Here's the first known mid 16th century representation of one.

Though they had been around since the 15th century. They usually came in the form of large egg shaped devices to be worn around the neck. Though they were extremely expensive(hence yer man above is showing his off) they were notoriously inaccurate and as you can see from the painting only had one hand, the hour. Most clocks of the period were also only one handed. Higher accuracy and minute and finally seconds hands came much later.

The first wristwatch is thought to have been made for Queen Elizabeth the first of England as a birthday present. The idea didn't catch on. The next mention of one is in the early 19th century, made by Breguet(I think) again for a woman. By the mid 19th century women are regularly wearing small pocket watches in special leather wrist straps but it was seen as a woman's fashion.

The male wristwatch only starts to be produced in the late 1880's in small numbers. This was driven by military needs as the pocketwatch was too cumbersome in combat. In the civilian world they were still seen as "women's watches", though some sportsmen wore them. The first officially made and advertised by a company men's wristwatch was by Omega in 1908. World War One drove production up hugely and finally got rid of the "only for women" idea. Though it took until the mid 1920's for the sale of wristwatches to overtake the sale of pocket. Here's two examples of early "wristlets" from that period(1911/1016).

Linnaeus

Good to see you on this board too, Wibbs. Thanks for these interesting details and for the wonderful pictures. I had never thought that clock-making goes back so many centuries. Do some of the early Chinese water clocks still exist in museums? Were they heavy, bulky objects? Above all, did they keep time accurately?

When I was a little girl, my family had a grandfather's clock in the living room. I was soothed by its peaceful ticking and by its soft, solemn ringing out the hours. When was this type of clock invented? I imagine that it does not pre-date the 18th century...

The unfortunate King Louis XVI of France, who lost his head in the Revolution, liked nothing better than to make and repair watches. He was exceptionally skilled at this, and was said to have remarked that he lamented having been born the son of a prince and not of a watchmaker.

Wibbs

I think the grandfather/longcase clock was invented in the late 17th century but became more commonplace in the 18th. They could be made to be extremely accurate too. John Harrison examples among others can run at high end quartz rates. Before quartz and atomic clocks came along chronometer grade pendulum clocks were the most accurate clocks of all. Here's an example of a replica of one of John Harrisons pendulum clocks at the end of running for 100 days.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kOVEfddEAHY

there would be very few quartz watches capable of that accuracy.

As for Chinese water type clocks, from what i recall they were bulky items. Large room sized up to small house sized. The early European ones were likely as large as they apparently held enough water to fight a large fire. None of the European ones survive as far as I'm aware. There are examples of Chinese ones, but they kept the technology going for longer than in Europe. They didn't have the explosion in timekeeping technology that happened in Europe later on.

Linnaeus

I appreciate that you've sent me this information, Wibbs. It's fascinating to think how much clocks have changed over a long period of time. Also really great to know is the origin of the word "clock". I never knew that it comes from Gaelic!

Do you have photos of very early grandfather's clocks? Some of them, made for aristocratic households, must have been exceptionally elegant and costly.

Linnaeus

I've just found this in Wikipedia: a bit of grandfather's clock lore.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Longcase_clock