Ship’s clock, 1927-30

This is a subsidiary dial with an insertion movement: it does not ‘tell the time’, but receives time signals from a separate controlling clock elsewhere. It is badged ‘OCTO’ and was almost certainly installed on a ship: Mercer released their marine products under this brand name from 1927 until the early 1930s, when a dispute with the Swiss watchmaking company of the same name forced them to drop it from their marketing. The clock’s decorative silver casing and ornate hands may indicate it was intended for a prominent public location. Having been well established for many years as marine chronometer makers, Mercer moved easily into the market for electrical time distribution on ocean liners, which expanded rapidly in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.