Clocks · Digital clocks; clocks; phenolic
Brown phenolic electric digital clock with `TELE-VISION' on the face. Made by Penwood Numechron Co., U.S.A., c. 1930. Art Deco design.
- Maker / attribution
- Penwood Numechron Company (maker)
- Date
- 1925-1940
- Historical period
- Golden Age of Mechanical Watchmaking (1900 – 1945)
- Country of origin
- United States
- Place
- United States, Pennsylvania, Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh; Pennsylvania; United States
- Object type
- Digital clocks; clocks; phenolic
- Holding institution
- Science Museum Group, London
- Accession / object no.
- 1979-624/270
- Credit line
- Jesse, J
- Catalogue title (original)
- Digital clock with decorative phenolic plastic casing
Record summary
Held and catalogued by Science Museum Group, London (object number 1979-624/270), this is a digital clocks; clocks; phenolic by Penwood Numechron Company, made in United States, Pennsylvania, Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh; Pennsylvania; United States, dated 1925-1940. The Atlas places it in the Golden Age of Mechanical Watchmaking period (1900 – 1945) of its Clocks collection. The record is illustrated with 2 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
The source record does not include a narrative description. The structured fields above are reproduced from it.
Inscriptions & marks
; ; ; ; ;
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
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.
What to look for
- Battery compartments and quartz movement labels.
- Display technology: split-flap cards, LED, LCD, vacuum fluorescent.
- Designer names and model numbers on the base or back.
Dating clues
- Transistorised clocks: from the late 1950s.
- Consumer quartz clocks: from the early 1970s.
- Radio-controlled clocks: from the mid-1980s.
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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