Clocks · Clock
Luxor Gilt Brass Desk Clock, c. 1950s–1960s
- Maker / attribution
- Luxor (maker)
- Date
- c. 1950s–1960s
- Historical period
- Modern Mechanical Horology (1945 – 1969)
- Country of origin
- Unrecorded in source
- Object type
- Clock
- Stock no.
- 39131771
- Credit line
- Dealer listing, Analog/Shift (39131771)
- Catalogue title (original)
- Luxor Gilt Brass Desk Clock (English)
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Record summary
Catalogued by Analog/Shift (dealer), New York (stock number 39131771), this is a clock by Luxor, dated c. 1950s–1960s. The Atlas places it in the Modern Mechanical Horology period (1945 – 1969) of its Clocks collection. The record is illustrated with 6 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
Dealer description — Analog/Shift
Mid-century desk clocks occupy a wonderful corner of design history — part instrument, part sculpture. During the 1950s and ’60s, Swiss makers applied the same attention to proportion and detail found in their wristwatches to objects meant to live on a desk, bookshelf, or bedside table. This Luxor table clock, dating to approximately the 1950s–1960s, captures that spirit perfectly. Housed in a warm gilt-brass case measuring roughly 5–6 inches across, the clock has a quietly architectural presence. The broad brushed bezel frames a clean silver-toned dial that balances applied 'baton' markers with 'Arabic' numerals at 12, 3, 6, and 9, giving the design that crisp mid-century clarity. The hands are particularly charming: slender, faceted hour and minute hands paired with a delicate seconds hand featuring a small square counterweight — a detail that feels lifted straight from contemporary wristwatch design of the period. The caseback is marked “3 Days 311,” indicating the clock’s Swiss mechanical movement with a three-day power reserve, a practical feature that reflects the quality engineering for which Luxor was known during the era. Compact, functional, and unmistakably mid-century, this Luxor desk clock quietly elevates the space around it. A small piece of Swiss design that proves good timekeeping belongs on the desk as much as it does on the wrist.
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
Domestic clocks
A clock combines four systems: a source of power (falling weight, coiled spring, or later electricity), a gear train that divides time, an escapement and oscillator that regulate it (foliot, pendulum or balance), and an indicating system of dial and hands or a bell. Its history runs from the large iron weight-driven clocks of the late thirteenth century to Renaissance spring-driven table clocks, the pendulum revolution of 1656, the factory clocks of the nineteenth century and electric and quartz clocks of the twentieth.
Domestic clocks also reflect regional furniture and decorative traditions — English longcase and bracket clocks, French pendules, Viennese regulators, Black Forest and American shelf clocks — and therefore record changing tastes as much as technical progress.
What to look for
- How the clock is powered: weights, spring barrel, fusee, electric coil.
- The oscillator: foliot, short pendulum, long seconds pendulum or balance.
- Whether it strikes: hour only (count wheel) or hours and quarters (rack striking).
- The maker or retailer's name on dial and movement, and any factory trademarks.
- Signs of alteration — replaced dials, converted escapements, 'married' cases.
Dating clues
- Before 1656 clocks used foliots or balances; after, most domestic clocks have pendulums.
- Anchor escapements spread after c. 1670; minute hands became common at the same time.
- Factory production in America and Germany transformed prices after c. 1840.
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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