Clocks · Clock
Exceptionally rare Prototype Quartz Chronometer produced by Sperry Gyroscope Limited, 1950s
- Maker / attribution
- Sperry Gyroscope Limited (maker)
- Date
- 1950s
- Historical period
- Modern Mechanical Horology (1945 – 1969)
- Country of origin
- Unrecorded in source
- Object type
- Clock
- Dimensions
- Height 12 in (30 cm)
- Auction house
- Gardiner Houlgate (auction house), Corsham
- Lot
- Sale 42, lot 1049
- Credit line
- Auction lot record: lot 1049, Fine Clocks & Related Items, Gardiner Houlgate (22nd October 2026)
- Catalogue title (original)
- Exceptionally rare Prototype Quartz Chronometer produced by Sperry Gyroscope Limited of Stonehouse, Gloucestershire, circa late 1950s, 4” silvered dial with elegant blued steel hands, presented on a c (English)
View the source record (auction lot) ↗ (opens another website in a new tab)Suggest a correction
Record summary
Catalogued by Gardiner Houlgate (auction house), Corsham (lot Sale 42, lot 1049), this is a clock by Sperry Gyroscope Limited, dated 1950s. The Atlas places it in the Modern Mechanical Horology period (1945 – 1969) of its Clocks collection. Recorded dimensions: Height 12 in (30 cm). The record is illustrated with 4 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
Lot description — Gardiner Houlgate
Exceptionally rare Prototype Quartz Chronometer produced by Sperry Gyroscope Limited of Stonehouse, Gloucestershire, circa late 1950s, 4” silvered dial with elegant blued steel hands, presented on a custom crafted wooden base with a protective plastic cover, 12" high, 16" wide, depth 9.5" ** This is one of only two known examples, both of which are featured in this auction ** An extraordinary, historical development prototype representing the dawn of solid state electronic timekeeping. Engineered by the legendary firm Sperry Gyroscope Co., this ultra high frequency 102.4 kHz quartz crystal chronometer utilises pioneering germanium transistor circuitry to provide the oscillator, frequency divider and clock driver functions are required to operate the 4” silvered dial with elegant blued steel hands. These hands are driven by a 2 Hz stepping motor, moving the centre second hand in half second steps ** From the David Read Collection
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
Marine chronometers
A marine chronometer is a precision timekeeper carried at sea to find longitude: the navigator compares local noon, observed with a sextant, with the time at a reference meridian kept by the chronometer. Each hour of difference corresponds to fifteen degrees of longitude. John Harrison proved the method in the 1760s; Pierre Le Roy, Ferdinand Berthoud, John Arnold and Thomas Earnshaw then developed the detent escapement and the compensation balance that made chronometers practical to manufacture.
By the nineteenth century London, Liverpool, Le Locle and Glashütte supplied navies and merchant fleets. A typical box chronometer has a spring-detent escapement, a fusee to equalise mainspring torque, a bimetallic compensation balance with a helical balance spring, and is mounted in gimbals inside a wooden box so that it stays level.
What to look for
- Gimbals and a three-tier wooden box with a glazed inner lid.
- A power-reserve ('up and down') indicator on the dial, usually showing 56 hours on two-day instruments.
- Spring-detent escapement and a cylindrical (helical) balance spring visible through the movement.
- Admiralty or navy marks (broad arrow), and rating certificates from observatories.
- The maker's number on the dial and movement; many makers' registers survive, allowing dating.
Dating clues
- Earnshaw-type spring-detent chronometers became standard after about 1800.
- Auxiliary compensation devices on the balance appear from the mid-nineteenth century.
- Quartz and radio time signals ended routine use of mechanical chronometers in the 1970s and 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.
Read next:Spring detent (chronometer) escapementFuseeBalance spring (hairspring)Detent escapement
Related records
Clocks · c. 1960
Clock, Germany, c. 1960 (no. 58196)
German Clock Museum
Clocks · 1930–1960
Ferranti electric mantel clock. (no. Y1996.10.820)
Science Museum Group, London
Clocks · 1931–1970
Clock and drum for recorder, 24 hours, English, 1931–1970.
Science Museum Group, London
Clocks · 1937; 1980
Clock by Bestone and Hammond, United States, 1937; 1980
Science Museum Group, London
Clocks · 1940–1967
Drum and clock, English, 1940-1947, MO W 5124/ 47/ 57.
Science Museum Group, London
Clocks · 1940–1950
Drum and clock. by Smith's English Clocks Ltd., London, for Air Ministry.
Science Museum Group, London
Clocks · c. 1946
Smiths Sectric synchronous motor electric wall clock with centre seconds hand, by Smiths English Clocks Ltd, England c. 1946
Science Museum Group, London
Clocks · c. 1947
Four studio slave clocks installed at BBC Broadcasting House made by Gents of Leicester.
Science Museum Group, London