Clocks · Clock
Clock, quartz movement in brown perspex casing, DC1; Italian, 1971
- Maker / attribution
- Unrecorded in source
- Date
- 1971
- Historical period
- Quartz Revolution (1969 – 1990)
- Country of origin
- Italy
- Place
- Italy
- Object type
- Clock
- Materials / technique
- quartz, perspex
- Holding institution
- Victoria and Albert Museum, London
- Accession / object no.
- CIRC.190-1974
Record summary
Held and catalogued by Victoria and Albert Museum, London (object number CIRC.190-1974), this is a clock, made in Italy, dated 1971. The Atlas places it in the Quartz Revolution period (1969 – 1990) of its Clocks collection. Materials and techniques recorded by the source: quartz, perspex. 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
V&A — Physical description
Quartz movement in brown perspex casing with digital display
Historical context
Quartz Revolution (1969 – 1990)
Seiko's Astron begins mass quartz timekeeping; traditional industries contract sharply.
Quartz movements and digital displays made accurate clocks cheap and ubiquitous after the early 1970s. LED and LCD clocks, clock radios and radio-controlled clocks appeared, while traditional mechanical clockmaking contracted sharply in Germany, France and Britain.
Read the period in the timelineMore clocks from this periodEarlier: Modern Mechanical Horology
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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