The collection at The Clockworks includes over 100 examples of electrical clocks and associated technologies from across Europe, spanning c.1840 up to the 1970s. The objects in the collection chart the development of electrical and precision horology, and the concept of synchronised, or ‘universal’ time.

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Networked time

Arnold & Lewis, Regulator, TCW1001.
Close up of escapement on mechanical component of Antel turret clock
Johan Antel, turret clock, TCW 2000.
Close up of clock hands coming up to the figure 12
Standard Time Company, Synchronised English dial clock, TCW 2003.

The collection includes clocks produced for time distribution and synchronisation in houses, hospitals, factories and city-centres, from London and Paris to Brno and Russia.

Precision timekeeping

In contrast to ‘everyday’ clocks, astronomical regulators are precision instruments intended for laboratories or observatories. The Clockworks has major examples by makers including Matthias Hipp, John Godman, W. H. Shortt, and Feodosii Fedchenko, and the firms of L. Leroy, Etalon, Brillié, and Zenith.

Image of a regulator clock in a glass tank
Tank clock made by Sigmund Riefler, c.1905, TCW1043
Astronomical tank regulator by L. Leroy and Company
Astronomical tank regulator made by L. Leroy & Cie., 1930, TCW1026
Soviet tank clock made by Feodosii Fedchenko
Soviet tank clock made by Feodosii Fedchenko, TCW1012

Designers and innovators

The development of synchronised time in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries was partly due to the efforts of pioneering electric clock companies, and their designers and engineers. At The Clockworks, the English firms of Synchronome and Gent are particularly well represented by a range of timekeepers that chart their periods of experimentation, as well as their innovations.

Key in the keyhole of a Gent Pulsynetic clock
Gent C7 ‘See Saw’ regulator, TCW1020
Dial on a clock made by the Silent Electric Clock Company, with the maker's name in italic script.
Clock by the Silent Electric Clock Company, TCW1046
Image shows a Synchronome Electric regulator in an 'architectural' case with a pedimented top
Synchronome wall-mounted regulator, 1920s, TCW1055

Though The Clockworks primarily focuses on horology, the collection also includes significant examples of related networked technologies, including fire alarms and electric telegraphs.

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