Clocks · Clock
Jaeger Ados, circa 1930-1940s
- Maker / attribution
- Jaeger (brand / maker)
- Date
- circa 1930-1940s
- Historical period
- Golden Age of Mechanical Watchmaking (1900 – 1945)
- Country of origin
- Switzerland
- Object type
- Clock
- Materials / technique
- steel
- Auction house
- Antiquorum auction archive, Geneva
- Lot
- Lot 389-147
- Credit line
- Auction lot record: LOT 147
- Catalogue title (original)
- JAEGER, ADOS, TRAVEL ALARM CLOCK, BRASS AND STEEL
Record summary
Catalogued by Antiquorum auction archive, Geneva (lot Lot 389-147), this is a clock by Jaeger, made in Switzerland, dated circa 1930-1940s. The Atlas places it in the Golden Age of Mechanical Watchmaking period (1900 – 1945) of its Clocks collection. Materials and techniques recorded by the source: steel. The record is illustrated with 2 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
Antiquorum catalogue description
EUR 700 - 1,150 / CHF 650 - 1,050 / USD 800 - 1,300 / JPY 120,000 - 198,000 A fine, Art Deco, brass and steel, manual-winding, 2-day going, keyless-winding, travelling alarm-clock in salmon dial with luminous Arabic indexes.
Lot specifications (Antiquorum)
Caliber: 2", 2 days power reserve; Signature: dial, case and movement
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
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 · 1937-1938
Skeleton clock by Jaeger-LeCoultre, Switzerland, 1937-1938
Science Museum Group, London
Clocks · circa 1940's
Anonymous clock, circa 1940's
Antiquorum auction archive, Geneva
Clocks · 1890-1930
Clock with 8-inch impulse dial, by the Synchronome Company Limited, England, 1890-1930.
Science Museum Group, London
Clocks · c.1903-1904
Clock, pewter, made for Liberty& Co., England. 1903-4.
Victoria and Albert Museum, London
Clocks · 1900
Alarm clock by Union Clock Company, Germany, 1900
German Clock Museum
Clocks · 1900-1939
Clock by Cox-Walkers of Darlington, England, 1900-1939
Science Museum Group, London
Clocks · 1900
Clock by Josef Münzer, Germany, 1900
German Clock Museum
Clocks · 1900
Clock by Mathias Bäuerle, Germany, 1900
German Clock Museum