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Clocks · Atmos clock

Atmos Clock - Jaeger LeCoultre, 1953

DocumentedDocumented from the holding institution's catalogue record.
Maker / attribution
Unrecorded in source
Date
1953
Country of origin
Unrecorded in source
Object type
Atmos clock
Dimensions
22 cm (Length), 16 cm (Width), 22.5 cm (Height); 22 mm (Length), 16 mm (Width), 22.5 mm (Height)
Holding institution
Museums Victoria, Melbourne
Accession / object no.
ST 29854
Catalogue title (original)
Atmos Clock - Jaeger LeCoultre, 1953 (English)

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Record summary

Held and catalogued by Museums Victoria, Melbourne (object number ST 29854), this is an atmos clock, dated 1953. The Atlas places it in the Modern Mechanical Horology period (1945 – 1969) of its Clocks collection. Recorded dimensions: 22 cm (Length), 16 cm (Width), 22.5 cm (Height); 22 mm (Length), 16 mm (Width), 22.5 mm (Height). The record is illustrated with 5 photographs.

Assembled from the source record's structured fields. Dates and attributions are given as the source states them; where a field is missing the Atlas leaves it blank rather than estimating.

Catalogue description

Summary — Museums Victoria

Atmos clock, Jaeger LeCoultre, Switzerland, 1953. This clock is perpetually self-winding, powered by changes in atmospheric temperature. A mixture of gas and ethyl chloride in a sealed container expands and contracts with changes in temperature, thereby compressing and releasing a spiral spring that in turn winds the mainspring. A change of one degree will wind the clock for two days. A torsion pendulum completes only two oscillations per minute.

Physical description — Museums Victoria

See also Trade Literature. Contents from List of Parts Field: Trade Literature.

Inscriptions & marks

Stamped on top of movement: '60196'.

Provenance

Purchase

Historical context

Modern Mechanical Horology (1945 – 1969)

Tool watches for divers, pilots and astronauts; electric watches anticipate the electronic age.

Post-war clocks combined new materials and industrial design: plastic and metal cases, battery-powered transistor movements from the late 1950s, and design classics by George Nelson, Max Bill and others. The first caesium atomic clock (1955) moved the definition of time from astronomy to physics.

Read the period in the timelineMore clocks from this periodEarlier: Golden Age of Mechanical Watchmaking

Atlas type guide

Domestic clocks

A clock combines four systems: a source of power (falling weight, coiled spring, or later electricity), a gear train that divides time, an escapement and oscillator that regulate it (foliot, pendulum or balance), and an indicating system of dial and hands or a bell. Its history runs from the large iron weight-driven clocks of the late thirteenth century to Renaissance spring-driven table clocks, the pendulum revolution of 1656, the factory clocks of the nineteenth century and electric and quartz clocks of the twentieth.

Domestic clocks also reflect regional furniture and decorative traditions — English longcase and bracket clocks, French pendules, Viennese regulators, Black Forest and American shelf clocks — and therefore record changing tastes as much as technical progress.

What to look for

  • How the clock is powered: weights, spring barrel, fusee, electric coil.
  • The oscillator: foliot, short pendulum, long seconds pendulum or balance.
  • Whether it strikes: hour only (count wheel) or hours and quarters (rack striking).
  • The maker or retailer's name on dial and movement, and any factory trademarks.
  • Signs of alteration — replaced dials, converted escapements, 'married' cases.

Dating clues

  • Before 1656 clocks used foliots or balances; after, most domestic clocks have pendulums.
  • Anchor escapements spread after c. 1670; minute hands became common at the same time.
  • Factory production in America and Germany transformed prices after c. 1840.

General guidance written by the Atlas editors about this kind of object. It is not a statement about this particular piece; for that, rely on the source record above and on physical examination.

Read next:Verge escapementAnchor (recoil) escapementFoliot

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