Clock

About

Mechanical clocks first appeared in European church towers in the late 13th century, and for centuries their cases were the work of cabinetmakers, bronze founders and enamellers. Christiaan Huygens's pendulum clock (1656) brought a leap in accuracy and helped create the English longcase clock, while French makers housed movements in gilt-bronze mantel clocks crowded with figures. In 18th-century London James Cox made elaborate automaton clocks, many sent to China.

At sea, precision meant survival. Ferdinand Berthoud in France and Thomas Earnshaw in England built marine chronometers that let navigators find longitude. The 20th century turned the clock into a design statement: George Nelson's studio produced the spiky Ball Clock in the late 1940s, and Angelo Mangiarotti's Secticon clocks of the 1950s and 1960s used moulded plastic cases. Look at the dial, the case, and the movement, where a maker's name usually appears.