Clocks · Clock
Clock by J. H. Willis and Company, England, 1929-1935
- Maker / attribution
- J. H. Willis and Company (maker)
- Date
- 1929-1935
- Historical period
- Golden Age of Mechanical Watchmaking (1900 – 1945)
- Country of origin
- England
- Place
- Norwich, Norfolk, England, United Kingdom, Norwich
- Object type
- Clock
- Dimensions
- overall: 320 mm x 330 mm x 90 mm, 3.08kg
- Holding institution
- Science Museum Group, London
- Accession / object no.
- 1935-8
- Credit line
- From J. H. Willis and Company
- Catalogue title (original)
- Willis world clock, 1929-1935
Record summary
Held and catalogued by Science Museum Group, London (object number 1935-8), this is a clock by J. H. Willis and Company, made in Norwich, Norfolk, England, United Kingdom, Norwich, dated 1929-1935. The Atlas places it in the Golden Age of Mechanical Watchmaking period (1900 – 1945) of its Clocks collection. Recorded dimensions: overall: 320 mm x 330 mm x 90 mm, 3.08kg. 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
Science Museum Group description
Example of the Willis world clock, with winding key (for showing local time in any part of the world), patented by John Henry Willis in 1929, made by J. H. Willis and Co., Norwich, England, 1929-1935. This clock was designed to easily show the time across the globe. The central wheel was used to show the hour. Rather than a moving hand, the dial itself rotated. The dial was also divided by radial lines, which could be used to track the hour in another country: one found the country on the out dial, and traced the line connecting it to the inner dial. A second small dial was used to show the minutes of each hour (which remain the same in each time zone). Names in red were used to indicate those countries which changed their clocks for summertime. An asterisk was used to mark when a new day began in each zone.
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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