Clocks · Bridge clock
Bridge clock by Waltham Watch Co
- Maker / attribution
- Waltham Watch Co (maker)
- Date
- c. 1932
- Historical period
- Golden Age of Mechanical Watchmaking (1900 – 1945)
- Country of origin
- United States
- Object type
- Bridge clock
- Materials / technique
- brass, steel, enamel, glass
- Dimensions
- H: 120 W: 110 D: 64 (mms)
- Holding institution
- Royal Museums Greenwich
- Accession / object no.
- ZBA4660
- Credit line
- National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London
- Catalogue title (original)
- Bridge clock (English)
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Record summary
Held and catalogued by Royal Museums Greenwich (object number ZBA4660), this is a bridge clock by Waltham Watch Co, made in United States, dated c. 1932. The Atlas places it in the Golden Age of Mechanical Watchmaking period (1900 – 1945) of its Clocks collection. Materials and techniques recorded by the source: brass, steel, enamel, glass. Recorded dimensions: H: 120 W: 110 D: 64 (mms). The record is illustrated with 3 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
Catalogue description — Royal Museums Greenwich
This clock was mounted on the Bridge of the D Class destroyer, HMS Defender (built 1932/33). Clocks of this type were intended to keep local time at sea, for the daily routines of the ship, and were not intended as navigational instruments for keeping GMT. On 11 July 1941 the ship was attacked by enemy aircraft while returning to Alexandria from Tobruk, and a bomb, exploding under the ship, broke her back. 5 hours later the ship finally sank, with no lives lost. the clock is said to have been dislodged by the blast and rescued before the ship sank. The clock was handed to Lt.Cdr (later Captain) G.L.Farnfield, commander of Defender at the time. The clock was presented to the museum by his son Captain R.H.Farnfield. 8-day ship's bridge clock in brass case by Waltham Watch Co, U.S.A., c.1932. Nickel keyless movement with twin going barrels and 6 wheel train, the 5th and escape wheels mounted under a separate sub plate. Jewelled club tooth lever escapement (7 jewels in total) with compensation balance and blued steel flat spiral balance spring with overcoil and regualtion on the balance cock. The backplate is engraved: "WALTHAN WATCH CO / 8 DAYS". 80mm diameter white enamel dial with arabic hour numerals and blued steel spade and poker hands.Subsidiary seconds dial below 12 and signed across lower centre: "WALTHAM WATCH CO. / U.S.A.". Polished, cast brass case, angled at about 30 degrees to face up. Brass bezel with flat bevelled glass over dial and winding crown projecting below at 6 o'clock. The case seats onto a cast brass wall plate which is screwed to the bulkhead and is locked in place with a key behind the winding crown.
Historical context
Golden Age of Mechanical Watchmaking (1900 – 1945)
The wristwatch displaces the pocket watch; waterproof cases, self-winding and grand complications.
Between 1900 and 1945 clocks were electrified: master-clock systems ran factories and offices, synchronous mains clocks entered homes, and the Shortt free-pendulum clock set new standards of accuracy before the first quartz clocks (1927). Art Deco design reshaped mantel and table clocks.
Read the period in the timelineMore clocks from this periodEarlier: Industrial Revolution
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.
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