British horology

The Clockmakers' Company and the golden age

The Worshipful Company of Clockmakers received its charter in 1631. After Huygens's pendulum reached London in 1658, makers such as Ahasuerus Fromanteel, Thomas Tompion, Daniel Quare and George Graham made English clocks and watches the most accurate in Europe. The anchor escapement (c. 1670), rack striking (c. 1676), the repeating watch and the deadbeat escapement (c. 1715) were all developed in London.

Longitude and precision

The Longitude Act of 1714 rewarded a practical method of finding longitude at sea. John Harrison's marine timekeepers H1–H4 and the later simplified chronometers of John Arnold and Thomas Earnshaw made the marine chronometer a standard navigational instrument; Thomas Mudge's detached lever escapement (c. 1755) became the basis of the modern watch.

Lancashire, Coventry and decline

Movement-making was organised in south-west Lancashire around Prescot, while Coventry and Clerkenwell finished and cased watches. British makers favoured the fusee and high-quality hand work longer than competitors; American and Swiss factories undercut them from the 1870s, and by the mid-20th century few British watch factories survived.

Modern independents

George Daniels's co-axial escapement, made in series by Omega from 1999, and a revival of independent watchmaking have renewed British horology in the 21st century.

Timeline

1. c. 1386Salisbury Cathedral clock — among the oldest surviving mechanical clocks
2. c. 1670The anchor (recoil) escapement appears in England, attributed to Hooke or Clement — Anchor (recoil) escapement
3. 1675Spiral balance spring transforms watch accuracy — Balance spring (hairspring)
4. 1676Tompion's year-going clocks installed at the new Royal Observatory, Greenwich — Thomas Tompion
5. c. 1676Edward Barlow invents rack striking, allowing a clock to repeat the hour
6. 1687Daniel Quare is preferred over Barlow for the repeating watch — Daniel Quare
7. 1695Tompion, Booth and Houghton patent a form of cylinder escapement — Cylinder escapement
8. 1704Fatio de Duillier and the Debaufre brothers patent jewel bearings in London — Jewel bearings
9. 1714The Longitude Act offers a prize of up to £20,000 for finding longitude at sea
10. c. 1715George Graham's deadbeat escapement — Deadbeat escapement
11. 1720sGraham's mercury pendulum compensates for temperature — Mercury compensated pendulum
12. c. 1726John Harrison's gridiron pendulum and grasshopper escapement — Gridiron pendulum
13. 1735Harrison completes his first marine timekeeper, H1 — John Harrison
14. c. 1755Mudge's detached lever escapement — Detached lever escapement
15. 1759Harrison completes H4 — Harrison's H4 marine timekeeper
16. 1761–1762H4 is tested on a voyage to Jamaica — Harrison's H4 marine timekeeper
17. 1780–1783Arnold and Earnshaw perfect the spring detent chronometer escapement — Spring detent (chronometer) escapement
18. 1840–1841Alexander Bain patents an electric clock
19. 1844Adolphe Nicole's heart cam lets a chronograph hand return to zero — Chronograph
20. 1847British railways adopt Greenwich time ('railway time')
21. 1859The Great Clock of Westminster starts, with Denison's gravity escapement — Double three-legged gravity escapement
22. 1921The Shortt–Synchronome free-pendulum clock sets a new standard of mechanical precision — Free pendulum (Shortt-Synchronome)
23. 1923John Harwood patents a self-winding wristwatch — Self-winding (automatic) mechanism
24. 1955Essen and Parry operate the first practical caesium atomic clock at NPL — Caesium atomic standard