BBC CA1/6A clock drive cabinet, 1977. Contains electronics to drive three clock loops from an internal high stability 5 MHz oscillator.

Record summary

Held and catalogued by Science Museum Group, London (object number 2012-5118/240), this is a clock drive cabinet by British Broadcasting Corporation, dated 1977. The Atlas places it in the Quartz Revolution period (1969 – 1990) of its Clocks collection. Recorded dimensions: overall: 340 mm x 245 mm x 230 mm, 6.5 kg. The record is illustrated with 1 photograph.

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

The source record does not include a narrative description. The structured fields above are reproduced from it.

Atlas type guide

Quartz, digital and designer clocks

Transistors, integrated circuits and quartz crystals brought precise timekeeping into every household after the 1960s. Quartz clocks divide the 32,768 Hz vibration of a tuning-fork crystal down to one pulse per second to drive a stepping motor or a digital display. Digital clocks with flip cards, nixie tubes, LEDs and LCDs, and clock radios became emblems of modern design.

Designers such as George Nelson, Max Bill, Dieter Rams and Richard Sapper treated the clock as a field for industrial design; manufacturers including Junghans, Kienzle, Braun, Seiko, Citizen and Sony produced landmark models now collected and held by design museums.

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.