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Clock by Friedrich Mauthe, Germany, 1900–1999 (German Clock Museum Museu_ProvidedCHO_museum_digital_59469__technical_number_) — view 1 of 1
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Clocks · Clock

Clock by Friedrich Mauthe, Germany, 1900–1999 (German Clock Museum Museu_ProvidedCHO_museum_digital_59469__technical_number_)

DocumentedDocumented from the holding institution's catalogue record.
Maker / attribution
Friedrich Mauthe (creator)
Date
1900–1999
Historical period
Modern Mechanical Horology (1945 – 1969)
Country of origin
Germany
Place
Schwenningen
Object type
Clock
Holding institution
German Clock Museum
Accession / object no.
Museu_ProvidedCHO_museum_digital_59469__technical_number_
Catalogue title (original)
Uhrwerk, Modell, Mauthe, Schwenningen, 1930er Jahre (German)

View the source record ↗

Record summary

Held and catalogued by German Clock Museum (object number Museu_ProvidedCHO_museum_digital_59469__technical_number_), this is a clock by Friedrich Mauthe, made in Schwenningen, Germany, dated 1900–1999. The Atlas places it in the Modern Mechanical Horology period (1945 – 1969) of its Clocks collection. 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

Catalogue description from German Clock Museum (German)

Modell eines Elektrouhrwerks mit Motoraufzug, Mauthe, Schwenningen, 1930er Jahre. (Deutsches Uhrenmuseum Furtwangen)

Shown in the original language of the source catalogue. An editor-reviewed English translation has not yet been published; we do not publish machine translations as authoritative text.

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

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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