Watchismo Times

You Dirty Dirty Horologist - Hardcore Erotic Automaton Pocket Watches 1800s-Today

Published: September 24, 2009 | 03:42

Antiquorum has offered a wide array of antique erotic automaton pocket dating from past three centuries. If you haven't seen these before, you might be shocked at how graphic these animated depictions were for the time. For additional examples, see my previous post on the subject here--> "Debbie Does Switzerland - Victorian Porn"

"Outside the Abbey Walls" (above)

Outside the Abbey Walls Swiss, No. 1339. Made circa 1910. Fine and amusing, large, 18K pink gold and enamel, hunting-cased, keyless minute-repeating pocket watch with chronograph and painted on enamel concealed erotic automaton.

C. Four-body, “bassine et filet”, engine-turned covers with polished borders, the front cover with a black champleve enamel monogram, polished band, gold hinged cuvette with painted on enamel erotic scene depicting two monks enjoying local hospitality in the woods. D. White enamel, radial Roman numerals, outer minute track and Arabic five minute numerals, outermost fifths of a second divisions, subsidiary seconds. Gold stone-set hands. M. 49 mm (21'''), rhodium plated, fausses cotes decoration, 21 jewels, straight-line lever escapement, cut-bimetallic compensation balance with blued steel Breguet balance spring, index regulator, repeating on gongs activated by a slide in the band. Diam. 61 mm.

Detail of "Outside the Abbey Walls"

Auctioned for 25,000 Swiss Francs

Close-up of Automaton Erotic Scene at 6 o'clock

And of course, the tradition continues to this day, watchmakers create these erotic scenes on the "backsides" of the watches allowing only the wearer to know what carnal mechanics are occurring "under his dial"

N° 01, "Sailing Dream" by Antoine Preziuso

"Sailing Dream" No. 01 of a limited edition series of 30 examples. Made in 1997. Very fine and rare, tonneau shaped, center seconds, water-resistant, 18K yellow gold gentleman's wristwatch with 42-hour autonomy and three color gold erotic automaton scene with an 18K yellow gold Antoine Peziuso buckle. Accompanied by a luxury fitted box.

C. Two-body, massive, polished, transparent case back secured by 8 screws, sapphire crystal. D. Satiné silver with painted radial Roman numerals, outer minute/seconds divisions; on the other side: a multicolor gold erotic scene animated by means of a mechanism hidden in the band and motioned by the winding-crown. Blued steel "feuille" hands. M. Cal. Based ETA 2801, rhodium-plated, "fausses côtes" decoration, 17 jewels, monometallic balance, shock absorber, self-compensating flat balance spring. The erotic automata and the engraved background are in 18K yellow, pink and white gold. Dial, case and movement signed. Dim. 34 x 41 mm. Thickness 10 mm.

Close-up of "Sailing Dream"

Sold in 2007 for 15,600 Swiss Francs

And if you thought this was a perverted subculture of watchmakers, think again, the most respected watchmaker of all time, Abraham Louis Bréguet, watchmaker to Louis XVI and Queen, Marie-Antoinette also produced their own erotica-horologica, like this past auction below, by the way, it sold for 1,500,000 Swiss Francs (about a million dollars at the time in 1990):

Swiss, bearing the signature Breguet A Paris, circa 1825. Fine 18 ct. pink gold quarter-repeating watch with erotic automaton.And here is one upcoming auction for a simple pocket watch with a little hidden door revealing the happy couple. It will be held October 3rd in Geneva Switzerland and the entire catalog can be seen here--> Antiquorum Auction Link

via Antiquorum

Be Sure to Read All My Related Erotic Watch Posts at The Watchismo Times;
Debbie Does Switzerland - Victorian Porn
Sexy 1890 Daguerreotype Photo Pocket Watch
Time to F%&K - 1970s Erotic Watches

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BONNNGG! Big Ben's 150th Anniversary - Alex Doak Goes Inside for The Watchismo Times

Published: July 19, 2009 | 22:17

The Watchismo Times contributor Alex Doak scales Big Ben for a right royal ear bashing

“Truly impressed – and I’m a watch geek, so that’s saying something”

In retrospect, that was probably rather a sarcastic thing to write in the Palace of Westminster’s visitor book, but I was genuinely bowled over by my experience last Sunday, despite the early hour and my late night before. From scaling all 334 steps of the Great Clock Tower and watching Dent’s mighty movement whirring away with its governor fans click-clacking overhead; to peering out of those world-famous clock faces across a sprawling, sunkissed London town, before standing mere inches from Big Ben and its four melodic counterparts as they bonged-out 10 o’clock – this was tantamount to the Hajj for this watch anorak. Desperate to immerse ourselves fully in the Big Ben experience, my mate Pete and I even spurned the offer of ear plugs, bearing the full force of that 13.7-tonne bronze bell at point-blank range (audible for four and a half miles) and bathing in the deep, subsonic resonance of the iron infrastructure for minutes after the tenth bong had faded. Not even the strains of YMCA, pounding out from the finish line of a 10km fun run on Westminster Bridge below could detract from this most reverent of horological experiences.

Although any UK resident can write to his or her MP and request a guided tour of Big Ben (smug pedants be gone, by the way – it’s now officially acceptable to refer to the whole clock by the big bell’s popular nickname) mine was actually one of several being held this summer in celebration of Big Ben’s 150th anniversary. In an age when the most obscure of milestones are hyped beyond comprehension (40 years since the Moon landing? Why 40?) it’s amazing so little has been made of Big Ben’s one and a half centuries – especially when you consider what an icon this clock actually is. No clichéd Hollywood establishing montage of London would be complete without a policeman / vicar / Hugh Grant cycling past the Clock Tower; Radio 4’s hourly news broadcasts would surely lack all gravitas without its opening salvo of bongs; London’s skyline would merely be anodyne without SW1’s tower (paired with EC1’s St Paul’s dome of course).

Once through the airport-style security gates and duly reminded with an air of forboding that this tour was not for the physically infirm or claustrophobic, we commenced our ascent of the Tower – a phallic masterpiece positively bulging with history.

The view from the bottom of the 334 steps. Deep breath…

The view from the top. Well worth the slog

Denison and Dent’s Clock

It all began with a terrible fire, which destroyed most of the Palace of Westminster in 1834. Out of the 97 designs submitted for the new Palace, master Gothic architect Sir Charles Barry’s was successful and construction of the Clock Tower began in September 1843. Barry was no clockmaker though, and he sought advice from the Queen’s Clockmaker and good buddy, Benjamin Lewis Vuillamy.

Other respected clockmakers, such as the marine chronometer pioneer Edward John Dent, wanted the chance to be involved though, and disputes quickly broke out (this was to set the tone for the entire project – by completion, the chief contractors for the Tower had been reduced to corresponding via letters in The Times). In 1846 therefore, a competition was held to decide who should build the clock. Astronomer Royal, Sir George Airy – who had awarded Dent’s first commission in 1814 to build the Admiralty’s Standard Astronomical Clock – was appointed referee and set out unprecedented standards for the clock to meet.

These included:

· the first stroke of each hour to be accurate to within one second

· the clock’s performance to be telegraphed twice a day to Greenwich Observatory

Airy’s demanding standards led to delays that lasted seven years. Most master clockmakers of the day complained that such a level of accuracy was impossible for a clock of its size – at 4.2m and 2.7m, and 100kg and 300kg, the minute and hour hands are particularly susceptible to the elements, acting as windmills on all four clock faces, feeding unwanted energy from the rain and wind back into the delicate movement. The best that could be hoped for, they said, was three minutes a day.

Airy appointed Edmund Beckett Denison – barrister, MP and gifted amateur horologist –to design the clock, then in February 1852, Dent was appointed to build the clock to Denison’s own design, mostly because his quote of £1,800 was half that of Vulliamy’s, but also because Dent had made an impression the year before with a turret clock on display at London’s Great International Exhibition. It won the Council Medal for Horology and after the Exhibition it was erected at King’s Cross Station, where it remains (and where the revived Dent watch brand received its latest public clock commission, for the Eurostar terminal).

Dent died in 1853 and his stepson, Frederick, completed the clock in 1854 for a final bill of £2,500. Working along similar lines to a grandfather clock, it is regulated by a 2-second, 4.4m pendulum and powered by three stone weights totalling 2.5 tonnes, which are wound up on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.

If you watch Dent’s Big Ben clock movement long enough, you’ll eventually figure out how it all works, so logically is everything laid out. Watchismo Times regulars probably won’t resist comparing its lateral array with Ruchonnet’s Cabestan

The “governor” fans above the movement use air resistance to regulate the rate with which the chiming mechanism unwinds

Crucially, Dent’s clock is accurate to within one second per day – just as Airy wanted – and as such Big Ben remains the largest and most accurate striking mechanical clock in the world.

Pre-decimal-currency pennies are still used by the Palace of Westminster’s three appointed clockmakers to regulate the clock mechanism: adding one penny causes the clock to gain two-fifths of a second in 24 hours.

The achievement of such accuracy was partly thanks to the British government’s perennial inability to get anything done on time (or budget). The Clock Tower’s construction was delayed for 5 years, and until its installation in 1859, Dent’s 5-tonne behemoth of a mechanism was kept at his factory on the Strand. In the meantime, Denison tinkered, most notably inventing the 'Double Three-legged Gravity Escapement' in the process (later known as the Grimthorpe Escapement when Denison was made Baron Grimthorpe in 1886). Since used in turret clocks all over the world, this revolutionary mechanism is key to Big Ben’s world-beating accuracy, ensuring the swing of the pendulum is unaffected by the weather’s influence on the hands. In an agonizingly simple but revolutionary manner, Denison’s gravity escapement isolates the pendulum from the going train. The energy from the going train alternately lifts two rocking gravity arms, which, when falling, give constant and independent impulses to the pendulum.

This Flash animation showing the inner workings of Big Ben, is brilliant --> Click here

No photography allowed up the Tower – but I managed to sneak in a clandestine snap (above) with my mobile in the space between the clock room and the clock faces. Each face is 7m in diameter and has 312 separate pieces of pot-opal glass panels framed by gun metal. Illumination of each dial is performed in a delightfully rudimentary manner by a bank of 28 oversized energy-efficient bulbs at 85W each. Lifetime of each bulb is 60,000 hours

The Bells! The Bells!

Denison also became involved in the design of the bells for the clock, in particular Big Ben. Until the Westminster clock tower, the largest bell ever cast in Britain was Great Peter in York Minster, weighing 10.3 tons. (Now, Big Ben is only superseded in Britain by Great Paul at St Paul’s Cathedral down the road.)

But Denison was adamant that his own design, method and alloy recipe would allow a larger bell to be created. Eventually, a 16-ton monster was cast at the Warner & Sons foundry in Stockton-on-Tees in August 1856. Too wide to be transported by rail, it arrived at the Port of London by sea, from where it was pulled across Westminster Bridge by 16 white horses.

The bell was hung in New Palace Yard. It was tested each day until 17 October 1857 when a 1.2m crack appeared. No-one would accept the blame. Theories included the composition of the bell’s metal or its dimensions. Warners blamed Denison for insisting on increasing the hammer’s weight from 355kg to 660kg.

Warners asked too high a price to break up and recast the bell so George Mears at the Whitechapel Foundry was appointed. The second bell was cast on 10 April 1858.

This bell was 2.5 tonnes lighter than the first. Its dimensions meant it was too large to fit up the Clock Tower’s shaft vertically so Big Ben was turned on its side and winched up. It took 30 hours to winch the bell to the belfry in October 1858. The four quarter bells, which chime on the quarter hour, were already in place.

Big Ben rang out on 11 July 1859 but its success was short-lived. In September 1859, the new bell also cracked and Big Ben was silent for four years. During this time, the hour was struck on the fourth quarter bell. The dispute went public and resulted in two libel cases against Denison, who was found to have befriended one of the technicians at the foundry, got him drunk and bullied him into giving false testimony that the fault had been due to poor workmanship and concealed filler. The cantankerous lawyer lost both cases and a close examination of Big Ben in 2002 found that there was no filler in the bell. As one contemporary of Denison put it: "Zealous but unpopular, self-accredited expert on clocks, locks, bells, buildings as well as many branches of law, Denison was one of those people who are almost impossible as colleagues, being perfectly convinced that they know more than anybody about everything - as unhappily they do."

In 1863, a solution was found to Big Ben’s silence by Sir George Airy, the Astronomer Royal:

· Big Ben was turned by a quarter turn so the hammer struck a different spot

· the hammer was replaced by a lighter version

· a small square was cut into the bell to prevent the crack from spreading

The total cost of making the clock and bells and installing them in the Clock Tower reached £22,000.

There are four quarter bells each weighing between 1 and 4 tonnes

The famous “Westminster chimes” – emulated on a smaller scale by Grande Sonnerie wristwatches – are struck by four quarter bells positioned around Big Ben tuned to G, F, E and B. Their tune is based on Handel’s Messiah, a phrase from the aria I Know that My Redeemer Liveth. They were set to verse and the words are inscribed on a plaque in Big Ben’s clock room:

All through this hour

Lord be my Guide

That by Thy Power

No foot shall slide

Why “Big Ben”?

Officially, the Clock Tower’s bell is called the Great Bell though it is better known by the name 'Big Ben'.

There are two theories for this name’s origin. These are that the Great Bell was:

· named after Sir Benjamin Hall, First Commissioner for Works 1855-1858, whose name is inscribed on the bell

· named after Ben Caunt, a champion heavyweight boxer of the 1850s

The first theory is thought to be the most likely.

Stop – Hammer Time!

Stoppages are rare, but the most notable are:

2007: the longest suspension of the hour strike (Big Ben) since 1990. Big Ben's famous 'bongs' were silent for seven weeks in 2007, allowing essential maintenance work on the clock mechanism to take place. From 11 August to 1 October, an electric system kept the clock moving, but Big Ben, the name for the Great Bell, and the quarter bells were quiet. This was the final phase of a programme of planned works to prepare for the Great Clock's 150th anniversary in 2009.

October 2005: The clock mechanism was also suspended for two days in to allow inspection of the brake shaft.

Over the years, the clock has been stopped accidentally on several occasions - by weather, workmen, breakages or birds. The most serious breakdown occurred during the night of 10 August 1976 when part of the chiming mechanism disintegrated through metal fatigue, causing the mechanism to literally explode under its own immense forces, dropping its weights to the base of the Tower with a noise that the policeman on duty initially reported as being an IRA bomb. The Great Clock was shut down for a total of 26 days over nine months - the longest break in operations since it was built - until it was fully repaired.

The Secret’s Out

But despite Big Ben’s remarkable, unflagging accuracy, one burning question remains: how is it checked? Mike McCann, who rejoices in the title of Keeper of the Great Clock, gives a slightly embarrassed laugh when he is asked. The answer is that he does what everyone else does: he rings up the speaking clock. He does so from the phone in the clock room at five to the hour precisely, starting a stopwatch on the third pip, and then goes up the belfry to see when the hammer on Big Ben strikes the hour. Simple, if not technologically sophisticated.

Sources:
www.bigben.parliament.uk
www.dentwatches.com
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/this-britain/bong-a-change-of-tune-at-westminster-481163.html
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article5425798.ece

Related "Alex Doak" Posts at The Watchismo Times;
UnBNBelievable - Confrérie Horlogère
Sarpaneva's Black Moon Rising
Plenty of Scratches but only one Dent

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Secret Message in Abraham Lincoln's Pocket Watch

Published: March 10, 2009 | 19:03

Hidden Message Found in Lincoln Pocket Watch

By Neely Tucker
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, March 10, 2009; 5:40 PM

For nearly 150 years, Abraham Lincoln's pocket watch has been rumored to carry a secret message, supposedly written by an Irish immigrant and watchmaker named Jonathan Dillon.

Dillon, working in a D.C. watch repair shop in 1861, told family members that he -- by incredible happenstance -- had been repairing Lincoln's watch when news came that Fort Sumter had been attacked in South Carolina. It was the opening salvo of what became the Civil War.

Dillon told his children (and, half a century later, a reporter for the New York Times) that he opened the watch's inner workings and scrawled his name, the date and a message for the ages: "The first gun is fired. Slavery is dead. Thank God we have a President who at least will try."

He then closed it up and sent it back to the White House. Lincoln never knew of the message. Dillon died in 1907.

The watch, meanwhile, was handed down and eventually given to the Smithsonian Institution in 1958. It didn't run anymore. No one had pried open the inner workings in ages. The old watchmaker's tale was just that.

And then Douglas Stiles, Dillon's great-great grandson, alerted Smithsonian officials to the family legend last month. He was a real-estate attorney in Waukegan, Ill., he explained. He'd heard the legend around the dinner table as a kid, but had just discovered a New York Times article from 1906, quoting Dillon as telling the story himself.

Truth? Lore?

This morning, in a small conference room on the first floor of Smithsonian's National Museum of American History, officials decided to find out. Expert watchmaker George Thomas used a series of delicate instruments -- tweezers, tiny pliers -- to pull apart Lincoln's timepiece. He put on a visor with a magnifying lens and talked as he worked. Some of the pins were nearly stuck, he explained. The hands of the watch were original with a case made in America and the workings from Liverpool. The Illinois rail-splitter had splurged: The watch, Thomas said, would be the equivalent to a timepiece costing "$5,000 or more" today.

And then he pried off the watch's face, pulled off the hands, and turned it over to see the brass underside of the movement.

The audience, watching on a monitor, gasped.

Split into three different sections to get around the tiny gears, was this razor-thin etching: "Jonathan Dillon April 13, 1861. Fort Sumter was attacked by the rebels on the above date. Thank God we have a government."

The old man's memory had not been exact. He had not forecast the end of slavery, or Lincoln's critical role in its demise.

But it was there, a little bit of history that had been resting on Lincoln's hip, unseen during those tumultuous days of war and rebellion, the Emancipation Proclamation and the rest, and then resting, unseen, for more than a century and a half.

Stiles was delighted. "That's Lincoln's watch," he said after putting it down, "and my ancestor wrote graffiti on it!"

via The Washington Post and The National Museum of American History

Related Posts at The Watchismo Times;
Mohatma Gandhi Wristwatch Auction
All Historical Watch Posts

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Ignatz Flying Pendulum Clocks of 1883 and 1965 - Powered by a Tetherball Escapement

Published: September 03, 2008 | 16:53

Watch the video above to see the unusual way this watch powers itself (or this->link)

The original flying pendulum clock (shown above) was invented, and patented, by Christian Clausen of Minneapolis, Minnesota in 1883. Clausen described it as "the craziest clock in the world" due to the motion of the tetherball style escapement with a ball and string. It was originally sold by the New Haven Clock Company (under the Jerome & Co. name) for about a year (1884-1885). It is reported that these clocks were sold to Jewelry stores to display in their windows to attract the attention of passing shoppers.

It got the name "Ignatz" from Dr. Rowell (a noted clock collector) in 1935. Dr. Rowell felt this clock had the personality of Ignatz, the mouse in the old Krazy Kat comic strip. The name stuck as it is still called this today. The original New Haven Flying Pendulum clocks are quite rare. This reproduction was manufactured by the Horolovar Company between 1965 and 1975. The movement was made in Germany and was cased at Horolovar in Bronxville, NY.

Shots of the Horolvar reproductions of 1965-1975
(some of these can be found online for around $200-300)

The tetherball escapement

Videos of other flying pendulum clocks (above; an Italian reproduction - below; a homemade wood clock)

Source: watchismo.blogspot.com

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Ancient Nerds - History of Computing & The Earliest Calculating Devices

Published: February 08, 2008 | 11:32

Neatorama.com has a fantastic overview of the history of computing with a special focus of early mechanical calculating devices-->LINK

Some examples from the feature;

Ancient Nerds - History of Computing & The Earliest Calculating Devices

The 2000 year old Antikythera Mechanism, the worlds oldest computing device (and 1000 years more advanced than comparable mechanisms). Only discovered 100 years ago in a shipwreck.

Wilhelm Schickard’s Calculating Clock (1632) that could add and subtract six-digit numbers (with a bell as an overflow alarm). This invention was used by his friend, astronomer Johannes Kepler, to calculate astronomical tables, which was a big leap for astronomy at the time. For this, Wilhelm Schickard was considered by some to be the "Father of Computer Age."

Blaise Pascal’s Pascaline (or Arithmetique) from 1645 - The basic mechanism of the Pascaline is a series of gears - when the first gear with ten teeth made one rotation (one to ten), it shifts a second gear until it rotated ten times (one hundred). The second gear shifted a third one (thousands) and so on. This mechanism is still in use today in car odometers, electricity meters and at the gas pumps.

German mathematician Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz' Stepped Reckoner of the 17th century was inspired by a steps-counting machine (pedometer) he saw to build his own calculator. Leibniz’s design used a special type of gear called the Stepped Drum or Leibniz wheel, a cylinder with nine bar-shaped teeth along its length.

Charles Babbage’s Difference Engine from 1822 was considered one of the first mechanical computers. Despite of its unwieldy design, his plan called for a basic architecture very similar to that of a modern computer.

During World War II, Nazi Germany used an electro-mechanical cipher machine called Enigma to encrypt and decrypt coded messages. It used rotors to substitute letters (for example, an "E" might be coded as "T"). The genius of the Enigma was that the machine used polyalphabetic cipher, where the rotation of the rotors allowed each subsequent letters to be encoded in a different manner. (For example, "EEE" might be become "TIF").

See the rest, including the dawn of digital computing here-->Link

via BoingBoing from Neatorama

See also;
All Watchmaking Posts
History of the First Digital Calculator Watches
1960s Juvenia Protractor Watch
Multi-Functional Watches
Slide Rule Wristwatches
Gadget Timepieces

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Watchismo's Timewarp - Max Büsser's 19th Century Steel & Gunmetal Pocket Watch Collection

Published: November 21, 2007 | 11:20

After many opportunities to address my proclivities in my Timewarp column in QP Magazine, I wanted to turn the loupe on people who never fail to impress me, to explore what makes them tick. First on my list was modern pioneer, Maximilian Büsser and his rare & unusual 19th century unsigned laminated iron, gunmetal and steel pocket watches.

Click here to read article-->LINK

Ian Skellern's amazing photos of the collection;

Green enamel Jumping Hour

Blackened steel with full triple calendar on back

Blackened seven day power reserve

St. Imiers 1100 year anniversary one-handed pocket watch

Article available in issue 27 of QP Magazine

And of course, Max has just unveiled his remarkable HM2 (Horological Machine No.2) here-->LINK

An interview with Max at PuristsPro-->link

Related posts;
All Horological Machine Stories
Previous Timewarps

"Wake up! Time to Die" - 19th Century Victorian Skeleton Automaton Alarm Clock - Haunted Horology #5

Published: October 31, 2007 | 02:09

Yup, I'm quoting Leon Kowalsky's parting words from the futuristic movie Blade Runner... I just saw the latest director's Final Cut at the Ziegfeld theater in Manhattan recently and must say, it was one of the best cinematic experiences of my life. If you get a chance to see it on a big screen during the current re-release, do it!

This antique 19th century alarm clock (circa 1840-1880) couldn't be further from the future and wish there were more information about its functions to share with y'all but alas, you must imagine the Steampunk-esque automaton mechanics for yourself. I will say the obvious; the skeleton is sitting on an alarm bell, the coffin-boat, complete with Chadburn Telegraph is the clock dial and there are two holes in the coffin that might have something (or someone) that pops out.

via Ingenious.org.uk

See all the posts from my Haunted Horology Week;
1610 Screaming Skull Clock
Mary Queen of Scots Skull Watch
Rock Crystal 1710 Skull Watch
Rolling Eyeball Skull Clocks
All Memento Mori Posts

LAST DAY to enter The Watchismo Times 1st anniversary vintage chronograph giveway!-->LINK

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120 Year Old Naked Ladies - 1890 Erotic Pocket Watch

Published: October 09, 2007 | 13:24

Oh yeah, naked ladies playing harps... That's hot. Or so it was circa 1890 according to this awesome gunmetal cased erotic pocket watch full of sexy daguerreotype photos of loose Victorian ladies. One disc under the dial reveals a variety of rotating topless gals while the disc on the back exposes some other full frontal centenarian hotties through a porthole...or rather, a peephole.

And I forgot, it also tells the time...

Petunia playing the Nippleharp

The Caseback Peephole

Via Bogoff ($1750 - & free shipping if you mention Watchismo!) -->Link

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Off With Your Hands! The First Digital Clocks

Published: September 20, 2007 | 10:38

A collection of rare historical timepieces is now on show at the premises of A. Lange & Söhne. Entitled “From Dresden to Glashütte – the roots of precision watchmaking in Saxony”, the exhibition features selected clocks and pocket watches from the “Mathematisch-Physikalischen Salon” collection.

These ingenious timepieces by prominent names like Seyffert, Schumann and Gutkaes, chronicle the history and evolution of the watchmaking industry in Glashütte. The highlight of the exhibition is undoubtedly a model of the “Five-Minute Clock” above by Hofuhrmacher Ludwig Teubner, one of the earliest versions of a digital display. The hours are Roman numerals and the minutes are five minute increment digits.

via Goldarths Review

According to A. Lange & Söhne, this was the original digital clock. Built for Dresden's Semper Opera in 1841 by Friedrich Gutkaes and Adolph Lange, and is conveniently legible from all seats in the house.

A. Lange & Söhne History-->Link

Be sure to enter The Watchismo Times 1st anniversary vintage chronograph giveway!-->LINK

Find other clocks here
Search for watches

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No Time For a 19th Century English Bicycle Wrist-Horn & 21st Century Wristcam

Published: September 03, 2007 | 01:13

Yes, I know, I'm off topic again, but when products are invented for the wrist, I just can't resist.

This antique Victorian (1880-1890) English bicycle horn predates most wristwatches and looks quite difficult to blow while riding the awkward 19th century Penny Farthing bicycles of the same time (shown below).

Yeah, take your hand off this thing
to blow your little horn buddy!

And since I'm feeling so un-timely today here is a modern wrist gadget by German product designer Tim Zurmoehle. Called "Watch!", a cool prototype digital wristcam.

I dig tubes...

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THE WATCHISMO TIMES WATCH BLOG A reliquary of obscure timepieces from bygone eras as well as the cutting-edge watch designs of today.

You Dirty Dirty Horologist - Hardcore Erotic Automaton Pocket Watches 1800s-Today

"Outside the Abbey Walls" (above)

Detail of "Outside the Abbey Walls"

BONNNGG! Big Ben's 150th Anniversary - Alex Doak Goes Inside for The Watchismo Times

Secret Message in Abraham Lincoln's Pocket Watch

Ignatz Flying Pendulum Clocks of 1883 and 1965 - Powered by a Tetherball Escapement

Ancient Nerds - History of Computing & The Earliest Calculating Devices

Watchismo's Timewarp - Max Büsser's 19th Century Steel & Gunmetal Pocket Watch Collection

"Wake up! Time to Die" - 19th Century Victorian Skeleton Automaton Alarm Clock - Haunted Horology #5

120 Year Old Naked Ladies - 1890 Erotic Pocket Watch

Off With Your Hands! The First Digital Clocks

No Time For a 19th Century English Bicycle Wrist-Horn & 21st Century Wristcam

Report "Watchismo Times"

Watchismo Times | category: 19th century

You Dirty Dirty Horologist - Hardcore Erotic Automaton Pocket Watches 1800s-Today

"Outside the Abbey Walls" (above)

Detail of "Outside the Abbey Walls"

"Chaudoir a Geneve"

Close-up of animated coupling at 6-o'clock

"Lit D’Amour Prouvarelle a"

Lot Estimates

BONNNGG! Big Ben's 150th Anniversary - Alex Doak Goes Inside for The Watchismo Times

Secret Message in Abraham Lincoln's Pocket Watch

Ignatz Flying Pendulum Clocks of 1883 and 1965 - Powered by a Tetherball Escapement

Ancient Nerds - History of Computing & The Earliest Calculating Devices

Watchismo's Timewarp - Max Büsser's 19th Century Steel & Gunmetal Pocket Watch Collection

"Wake up! Time to Die" - 19th Century Victorian Skeleton Automaton Alarm Clock - Haunted Horology #5

120 Year Old Naked Ladies - 1890 Erotic Pocket Watch

Off With Your Hands! The First Digital Clocks

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