Clocks · Alarm clock
Iron alarm clock, Central Europe, 16th century
- Maker / attribution
- Unrecorded in source
- Date
- 16th century
- Historical period
- Renaissance Horology (1400 – 1600)
- Country of origin
- Unrecorded in source
- Object type
- Alarm clock
- Holding institution
- German Clock Museum
- Accession / object no.
- 29725
- Catalogue title (original)
- Eisenuhr mit Wecker, Mitteleuropa, 16. Jahrhundert (German)
Editor's note
The museum dates this iron alarm clock to the 16th century ("16. Jahrhundert") and places it in Central Europe; the earlier Atlas title gave 1400–1499 and Germany by mistake.View the source record ↗ (opens another website in a new tab)Suggest a correction
Record summary
Held and catalogued by German Clock Museum (object number 29725), this is an alarm clock, dated 16th century. The Atlas places it in the Renaissance Horology period (1400 – 1600) 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)
Eisenuhr mit Wecker, Mitteleuropa, 16. Jahrhundert (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 An editor-reviewed English translation has not yet been published; we do not publish machine translations as authoritative text.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
Renaissance Horology (1400 – 1600)
Spring power makes clocks portable; Nuremberg and Augsburg produce the first watches; the Prague Orloj is built.
Spring power made the domestic clock portable. Augsburg and Nuremberg produced gilt-brass table clocks, often with astronomical dials and alarms; weight-driven Gothic wall clocks and English lantern clocks served households. Clocks of this period have foliot or balance-wheel control and usually only an hour hand.
Read the period in the timelineMore clocks from this periodEarlier: Medieval Period
Atlas type guide
Alarm clocks
Alarm work is among the oldest clock functions: monastic clocks woke monks for night prayers, and Renaissance table clocks often carried an alarm disc set by a pin. A separate spring or weight is released at the set time and drives a hammer against a bell. Some early alarms also lit a candle by striking a flint — the 'tinder pistol' alarm.
The cheap, mass-produced alarm clock arrived in the second half of the nineteenth century. American firms such as Seth Thomas and Westclox (the 'Big Ben' of 1910) and German makers such as Junghans and Kienzle made millions of drum-shaped alarms with pin-pallet escapements. Electric, quartz and digital alarm clocks followed in the twentieth century.
What to look for
- A separate alarm-setting dial or disc and an extra winding key.
- Twin bells on top (common after c. 1920) or a bell enclosed in the base.
- Pin-pallet escapements in inexpensive factory alarms.
- Trademarks and patent dates on dial or back.
Dating clues
- Renaissance alarm table clocks: sixteenth to seventeenth centuries.
- Drum alarm clocks: from the 1870s.
- Luminous dials with radium paint: c. 1910–1960.
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.
Related records
Clocks · Mid-15th century
Clock with iron movement in gilt brass case. Burgundian; mid-15th-century (with later restorations).
Victoria and Albert Museum, London
Clocks · 1400–1499
Lantern clock, Germany, 1400–1499
Science Museum Group, London
Clocks · 1500–1600
An astronomical clock in a gilt-bronze case, Venetian, sixteenth century.
Victoria and Albert Museum, London
Clocks · 1500–1599
Bracket clock by Anne Boleyn, England, 1500–1599
Archaeology Data Service
Clocks · 1500–1599
Clock by P. Plantart, Belgium, 1500–1599
Royal Institute for Cultural Heritage
Clocks · 1500–1599
Table clock by Valentin Rutenieg, Germany, 1500–1599
City Museum Berlin
Clocks · 1500–1599
Table clock, Karlsruhe, 1500–1599
Badisches Landesmuseum Karlsruhe
Clocks · 1501–1600
German 16th century iron chamber clock
Science Museum Group, London