100 Years

of

Domestic Electric Clocks

An Exhibition organised by

The Electrical Horology Group

to commemorate their 25th year

on the occasion of

The Antiquarian Horological Society's

Annual General Meeting
held on

Saturday 13th May 1995

at Baden-Powell House, Queens Gate, London

 INTRODUCTION

The Electrical Horology Group held its inaugural meeting on 9 October 1970 and in its
25th year the suggestion was made that it organise a small exhibition in support of the
Society's 1995 Annual General Meeting. The theme "100 years of Domestic Electric
Clocks" was chosen to best fit this occasion.

The exhibition has been arranged to cover the ten decades from 1900. The domestic
electric clock can, of course, be traced back another sixty years to the first ever successful
electric clocks made by Alexander Bain in the 1840s.

One or two clocks made in each decade are displayed which show the general
development of domestic electric clocks over this 100 year period. Additional separate
bare movements are included where appropriate to help those who wish to examine items
a little closer. With the non-specialist viewer in mind the exhibits have been chosen for
either popularity, attractiveness or technical advance and in-depth technical descriptions
have been avoided as far as possible.

No examples could be found for the 1940s. The war time period, with manufacturers
struggling back to normal afterwards, delayed most domestic developments. It may be
mentioned that in 1948 the transistor was invented which revolutionised electrical
horology from the mid 1950s. Also the magnetic escapement was developed in the same
year and was successfully used in electric clocks during the 1960s and 1970s.

No electric clock of significance has yet appeared on the market for the 1990s and
consequently the radio controlled wristwatch holds the honour for this decade so far.

The Committee of the Electrical Horology Group hope that all Society members will find
the exhibition of interest and perhaps it will bring a greater awareness of the importance
of electric clocks within the history of horology.

A Mitchell, Hon. Secretary

Electrical Horology Group
 1900

SCOTT
Designed by Herbert Scott of Bradford.
Made by Ever Ready Electric Specialities.
Uses a modified Hipp mechanism. One of the first successful uses of this principle made in this country.
The pendulum is impulsed by the electromagnet in the base. An impulse is given when required and is
determined by the pendulum closing mechanical contacts when its amplitude has fallen sufficiently.

1910

EUREKA
Made by the Eureka Clock Co. London.
The first balance wheel electric clock.
The balance wheel oscillations are electromagnetically maintained by an impulse given when mechanical
contacts are closed by the balance on every clockwise swing.

1920

BULLE
Made in France
A very successful domestic electric clock.
About one third of a million clocks were produced between 1920 and 1940. Clocks were marketed in this
country by the British Horo-Electric Co. of London.
Uses the same principle that Alexander Bain devised eighty years earlier.

ELECTRICALLY WOUND CLOCK

Made to the design of Schild & Co. of Switzerland
A lever escapement is driven by a small mainspring electromagnetically rewound about every five minutes.
This basic design was re-invented several times in the 1950s and 1960s giving it an outstandingly
successful lifespan of nearly fifty years.

THE SCHILD MOVEMENT

The armature of an electromagnet kicks round an arm with weighted ends to wind a small mainspring
driving a conventional lever escapement, the arm slowly returns with the going of the clock and closes
contacts for the next wind.

1930

SYNCLOCK
Synchronous Motor Clock
Made by Everett Edgcumbe & Co.
The first domestic synchronous motor clock made in this country using a motor invented by H E Warren of
USA.
Plugged directly into the domestic a.c. electricity supply, timekeeping is dependent on the stability of the
supply frequency.
The synchronous motor clock became the most popular clock of the 1930s and 1940s.
THE WARREN MOTOR
A self starting synchronous motor running at 3000 rev/min. with an oil bath gearbox to give an output of
1 rev/min.
Everett Edgcumbe were licensed to manufacture the Warren Motor.
Several other British firms developed their own simplified motors during the 1930s.

OREL-MICRO
Made by Orel-Micro Electric Ltd. of Switzerland
The smallest electric balance wheel movement up to this time (1936).
A remarkable miniaturisation. 'The Shape of Things to Come'

THE STERLING MOVEMENT

Made by J Hess of Switzerland
An almost identical movement to the Orel-Micro. Compare size with previous electric clocks.
A bar attached to the balance staff is given an impulse as it swings over the pole of an electromagnet which
is switched on at the appropriate instant by a contact closed by the balance.

1950

ELECTRICALLY WOUND CLOCK

Made by Kienzle of Germany
This is a redesign of the Schild movement of the 1930s.
It pioneered the re-introduction of a reliable battery clock after they fell from favour with the success of the
synchronous motor clock.
The Kienzle had a 2-3 year battery life, and was exceptionally reliable with outstanding accuracy.

KIENZLE CALIBRE 606 MOVEMENT

The armature of an electromagnet kicks round a flywheel every 2-3 minutes to wind a small mainspring
contained within the flywheel on early models. The spring drives a conventional lever escapement. The
short interval between winding enables almost constant torque to be applied to the escapement.
Literally millions have been sold of this highly successful design.

HETTICH
Made in Germany
Combines two important technical developments:
1. The floating balance developed in the mid 1950s was a major new development in mechanical
horology. This is used in conjunction with a pin pallet escapement.
2. Gravity arm drive.
Resurrection of the Hope-Jones 'Synchronome Switch' invented in 1895. The driving power is
obtained by a weighted arm falling under the influence of gravity. The arm is reset by an
electromagnet.

KUNDO
Made by Kieninger & Oberglill of Germany
One of the first transistorised pendulum electric clocks marketed in this country.
The transistor can be used as an electrical switch and the switching operation is performed electronically
i.e. no moving contacts as with a conventional electrical switch.
This solved the switching problem that had plagued the electrical horologist for over 100 years.
 1960

SECTRONIC
Made by Smiths Industries Ltd.
Balance wheel controlled with transistor switch.
Smiths utilised the more complicated construction of moving coils with fixed magnet. This required
electrical connections, insulated from one another, to coils attached to the moving balance wheel.
This was a more expensive method than the moving magnet with fixed coils used by the continental
makers.

MK 1 SECTRONIC MOVEMENT
The balance wheel acts as a motor and carries two coils with the electrical connections made via the three
balance springs. The coils pass between the poles of a permanent magnet fixed to the frame and give the
balance an impulse. The balance drives a pin pallet type escapement.

SELTICON (SECTICON)
Made by Universal Escapement Co. of Switzerland

A high accuracy domestic electric clock with claimed performance of *1 second per day.

SELTICON MOVEMENT
A transistorised motor runs continuously to wind or 'arm' a remontoire spring at half second intervals to
drive the escape wheel of a modified chronometer escapement without any intermediate train.

TUNING FORK CLOCK

Produced by Smiths Industries Ltd.
Movement made by Jeco of Japan
Uses a tuning fork as the time measuring element.
All tuning fork clocks in the world use a magnetic escapement developed by I-lorstmann Clifford Magnetics
of Bath.
Six firms world-wide were licensed to manufacture them.
The Japan Electric Clock Co. (JECO) exploited this principle more that any other firm and claimed to be
the first in the world to market a production tuning fork clock.

TUNING FORK MOVEMENT

The tuning fork is maintained in oscillation electromagnetically, controlled by a transistor switch. Its
oscillation is constant and is determined by the material and its physical size. The fork drives a magnetic
escapement.
In the magnetic escapement there is no mechanical contact between the oscillator and the escape wheel.
A magnetic coupling is used and the driving power is reduced quite substantially.

1970

STAIGER
Made in Germany
Believed to be the first mass produced domestic quartz crystal clock.
A quartz crystal can oscillate millions of times a second. This frequency is divided down electronically to a
more usable level, for example, one oscillation per second. This can then operate a stepping motor to drive
the hands.
STAIGER CALIBRE CQ2000 MOVEMENT
Uses a 16KHz quartz crystal contained in a massive size can. The electronic circuit contains 9 transistors,
2 integrated circuits and 15 resistors, all individually mounted along the base of the movement.
A moving coil transducer is used to convert the electronic pulses into mechanical movement to turn the
hands in one second steps.

QUARTZMATIC
Made by Seth Thomas Division
of General Time Corporation
An early quartz crystal clock with a continuously running synchronous motor driving the seconds hand.
This principle was not favoured by many firms and the step-by-step seconds hand was more popular.
A quartz crystal frequency of 262,144 Hz is divided down to 64Hz to drive a tiny synchronous motor
10mm diameter and 2mm thick.

1980

JUNGHANS RC2
Radio Controlled Clock
The ultimate accuracy, atomic time for domestic use.
Incorporates a quartz crystal clock and radio receiver.
The quartz crystal clock has a very small losing rate and is corrected when the error is outside tolerance
(-60ms) by the Rugby MSF radio time signal received on the hour.
The time is automatically adjusted for BST and GMT in spring and autumn.

1990

JUNGHANS MEGA 1
Radio Controlled Wristwatch
Atomic time on the wrist.
Quartz crystal controlled wristwatch with a digital display and incorporating a radio receiver.
Corrected to atomic time by the DCF77 Mainflingen radio time signal transmitted from Germany.

*************** *

The Chairman and Committee of the Electrical Horology Group wish to thank Arthur Mitchell for the
organisation of this exhibition, Jim and Anne Cowsill for the artwork and the following members for kindly
loaning exhibits:
Eric Atkinson Malcolm Barratt Doug Bateman
Jim Cowsill Geoffrey Goodship John Howell
Bob Miles Arthur Mitchell Tim Voore