Clocks · Wall clock
Cartier wall clock, circa 1910-1920
- Maker / attribution
- Cartier (brand / maker)
- Date
- c. 1910-1920
- Historical period
- Golden Age of Mechanical Watchmaking (1900 – 1945)
- Country of origin
- France
- Object type
- Wall clock
- Materials / technique
- silver
- Auction house
- Antiquorum auction archive, Geneva
- Lot
- Lot 358-10
- Credit line
- Auction lot record: LOT 10, Monaco Auction
- Catalogue title (original)
- CARTIER 8-DAY GOING ART-DECO WALLET-SHAPED TABLE-CLOCK; SILVER AND 18K YELLOW GOLD (English)
View the source record (auction lot) ↗ (opens another website in a new tab)Suggest a correction
Record summary
Catalogued by Antiquorum auction archive, Geneva (lot Lot 358-10), this is a wall clock by Cartier, made in France, dated c. 1910-1920. 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: silver. 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
Antiquorum catalogue description
Silver and 18K yellow gold, keyless-winding, wallet-shaped, 8-day going, Art-Deco table-clock.Silver colour guilloché (engine-turned) dial with suspended luminescent Roman numbers; yellow gold skeleton fancy hands.Movement 24’’’, rhodium-plated, going barrel, straight-line lever escapement, cut bimetallic compensated balance with gold poising screws and blued steel hairspring with terminal curve, polished steel index regulator, 3 adjustments, 15 jewels.
Lot specifications (Antiquorum)
Movement No.: 2 541; Case No.: 4 499 / 433 / 2 541; Material: silver and 18K yellow gold; Caliber: 24’’’, 8-day going, lever escapement, 15 jewels (signed European Watch and Clock Co., France); Dimensions: 65 x 43 x 15 mm. (approx. when close); Weight: 148.7 gr. (approx.); Signature: dial, case and movement
Inscriptions & marks
dial, case and movement
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
Regulators, wall and Vienna clocks
A regulator is a precision pendulum clock used as a time standard in observatories, workshops and railway offices. Typical features are a deadbeat or Graham escapement, a temperature-compensated pendulum (mercury jar, gridiron or later invar), maintaining power and a regulator dial that separates hours, minutes and seconds. George Graham's deadbeat escapement (c. 1715) and his mercury pendulum, together with Harrison's gridiron, set the pattern for two centuries.
Wall clocks span a much wider range: the elegant Viennese Laterndluhr and Dachluhr of the Biedermeier period, the Dutch stoelklok and staartklok, English 'dial' clocks used in schools, offices and railway stations, and mass-produced spring and weight wall clocks from Germany (Gustav Becker, Junghans, Kienzle) and America.
What to look for
- Deadbeat escapement and compensated pendulum (gridiron rods, mercury jar or wood rod).
- A regulator dial with a large central minute hand and separate hour and seconds dials.
- Vienna regulators: glazed cases, slender pendulum, small weights, enamel two-piece dials.
- German factory trademarks stamped on the backplate (e.g. Gustav Becker anchor and crown, Junghans star).
Dating clues
- Graham-type deadbeat regulators: from c. 1720.
- Viennese Laterndluhr: c. 1800–1850.
- German factory 'Vienna-style' regulators: c. 1870–1930; Gustav Becker serial numbers allow close dating.
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:Deadbeat escapementAnchor (recoil) escapementGrasshopper escapement
Related records
Clocks · 1863
Clock by Albert-Ernest Carrier-Belleuse, France, 1863
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
Clocks · c. 1980s
Cartier "art Deco", c. 1980s
Antiquorum auction archive, Geneva
Clocks · c. 2000s
Cartier Desk Clock with Alarm, c. 2000s
Antiquorum auction archive, Geneva
Clocks · c. 2000s
Cartier Lacquer Arched Desk Clock with Alarm, ref. W0100037, c. 2000s
Antiquorum auction archive, Geneva
Clocks · 1902–1912
Fery's selfwound clock, with subsidiary pendulum for making contact, by Prof. Charles Fery and C. Beaudouin, Paris, France, 1902–1912.
Science Museum Group, London
Clocks · 1915–1925
Type A 'Bulle' electric clock, no.6160, with glass shade, made in France but sold by British Horo-Electric Ltd., 109 Kingsway, London, WC, England, 1915–1925.
Science Museum Group, London
Clocks · c. 1921
Table clock by Compagnie Générale des Appareils Horo-Electriques, France, c. 1921
German Clock Museum
Clocks · 1930–1939
Clock by Societe Meridionale D'Industrie, France, 1930–1939
Science Museum Group, London