
Clocks · Clock
Lucite & Brass Kienzle Wall Clock Modern Art 1970s
- Maker / attribution
- Kienzle (maker)
- Date
- 1970s
- Historical period
- Quartz Revolution (1969 – 1990)
- Country of origin
- Germany
- Object type
- Clock
- Materials / technique
- brass, lucite
- Auction house
- LiveAuctioneers auction archive
- Lot
- Item 65447737
- Credit line
- Auction lot record: lot 64, Detroit Mid Century Modern Furniture & Art, Le Shoppe Auction House (2018), via LiveAuctioneers
- Catalogue title (original)
- Lucite & Brass Kienzle Wall Clock Modern Art 1970s (English)
View the source record (auction lot) ↗ (opens another website in a new tab)Suggest a correction
Record summary
Catalogued by LiveAuctioneers auction archive (lot Item 65447737), this is a clock by Kienzle, made in Germany, dated 1970s. The Atlas places it in the Quartz Revolution period (1969 – 1990) of its Clocks collection. Materials and techniques recorded by the source: brass, lucite. 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 — Le Shoppe Auction House
For your consideration is a small, circular, lucite wall clock with a brass face, circa the 1970s. Excellent. The dimensions are 12" (1') Dia x 2" D.
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
Regulators, wall and Vienna clocks
A regulator is a precision pendulum clock used as a time standard in observatories, workshops and railway offices. Typical features are a deadbeat or Graham escapement, a temperature-compensated pendulum (mercury jar, gridiron or later invar), maintaining power and a regulator dial that separates hours, minutes and seconds. George Graham's deadbeat escapement (c. 1715) and his mercury pendulum, together with Harrison's gridiron, set the pattern for two centuries.
Wall clocks span a much wider range: the elegant Viennese Laterndluhr and Dachluhr of the Biedermeier period, the Dutch stoelklok and staartklok, English 'dial' clocks used in schools, offices and railway stations, and mass-produced spring and weight wall clocks from Germany (Gustav Becker, Junghans, Kienzle) and America.
What to look for
- Deadbeat escapement and compensated pendulum (gridiron rods, mercury jar or wood rod).
- A regulator dial with a large central minute hand and separate hour and seconds dials.
- Vienna regulators: glazed cases, slender pendulum, small weights, enamel two-piece dials.
- German factory trademarks stamped on the backplate (e.g. Gustav Becker anchor and crown, Junghans star).
Dating clues
- Graham-type deadbeat regulators: from c. 1720.
- Viennese Laterndluhr: c. 1800–1850.
- German factory 'Vienna-style' regulators: c. 1870–1930; Gustav Becker serial numbers allow close dating.
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:Deadbeat escapementAnchor (recoil) escapementGrasshopper escapement
Related records
Clocks · 1920s
Alarm clock by Kienzle, 1920s
Työväenmuseo Werstas
Wristwatches · c. 1960s
Kienzle wristwatch, Germany Sport, circa 1960's
Antiquorum auction archive, Geneva
Clocks · c. 1890
Kienzle German Wall Regulator Clock, c. 1890
LiveAuctioneers auction archive
Clocks · 1960s
1960s Kienzle German Quartz World Time Clock
LiveAuctioneers auction archive
Clocks · 1960–1996
Electric clock by Efratom GmbH, Germany, 1960–1996
Science Museum Group, London
Clocks · 1969
Clock by VDO, Germany, 1969
German Clock Museum
Clocks · 1970
Alarm clock by Werner Staiger, Germany, 1970
German Clock Museum
Clocks · c. 1970
Alarm clock, Germany, c. 1970 (no. 59356)
German Clock Museum
