Instruments · Marine chronometer
Marine chronometer by Dobbie Mcinnes, Glasgow, Liverpool & South Shields, c. 1913
- Maker / attribution
- Dobbie Mcinnes (maker)
- Date
- c. 1913
- Historical period
- Golden Age of Mechanical Watchmaking (1900 – 1945)
- Country of origin
- Scotland
- Place
- Glasgow, Liverpool & South Shields
- Object type
- Marine chronometer
- Stock no.
- SKU 259
- Credit line
- Dealer listing, Howard Walwyn (SKU 259)
- Catalogue title (original)
- DOBBIE MCINNES, N° 9513. AN 8-DAY MARINE CHRONOMETER (English)
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Record summary
Catalogued by Howard Walwyn Fine Antique Clocks (dealer), London (stock number SKU 259), this is a marine chronometer by Dobbie Mcinnes, made in Glasgow, Liverpool & South Shields, Scotland, dated c. 1913. The Atlas places it in the Golden Age of Mechanical Watchmaking period (1900 – 1945) of its Instruments collection. 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
Dealer description — Howard Walwyn
A fine brass-inlaid coromandel 8-day marine chronometer with Poole’s auxillary compensation. The three-tier brass line-inlaid and mounted case with two recessed handles and a rectangular brass plaque numbered 9513. The hinged lid has a glazed observation panel, the brass gimbals with locking lever, and brass bowl with bevelled brass bezel. The 4 ¾ inch silvered circular dial has original gold spade hands, 8-day power reserve and subsidiary seconds. The movement has chain fusee and maintaining power, stoned plates, bi-metallic compensated balance with additional compensation, a blued steel helical spring with diamond endstone, an Earnshaw-type spring detent escapement and original brass tipsy key. Height : 9 in (22.75 cm) Width : 8 ¼ in (21 cm) Depth : 8 ¼ in (21 cm) * The firm of Alexander Dobbie was established in 1841 and they were makers of nautical instruments in 57 Bothwell Street, Glasgow. Following Alexander’s death in 1881, the company was renamed Alexander Dobbie & Son and in 1902 became Dobbie McInnes Ltd. Tony Mercer’s Chronometer Makers of the World , London, 2004, lists Dobbie McInnes’ serial numbers with corresponding dates. Their output would date this to 1913/1914. The frame, subframe and bowl are each numbered 5332. HW5908 Signed / Inscribed DOBBIE McINNES Ltd GLASGOW LIVERPOOL & SOUTH SHIELDS
Historical context
Golden Age of Mechanical Watchmaking (1900 – 1945)
The wristwatch displaces the pocket watch; waterproof cases, self-winding and grand complications.
Timing instruments became electrical and specialised: industrial time recorders, sports timers and aviation instruments.
Read the period in the timelineMore instruments from this periodEarlier: Industrial Revolution
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.
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