Instruments · Marine chronometer
Marine chronometer by Swann Whiffin, London, c. 1865–1870
- Maker / attribution
- Swann Whiffin (maker)
- Date
- c. 1865–1870
- Historical period
- Industrial Revolution (1850 – 1900)
- Country of origin
- England
- Place
- London
- Object type
- Marine chronometer
- Dimensions
- Height 19 cm
- Stock no.
- SKU 400
- Credit line
- Dealer listing, Howard Walwyn (SKU 400)
- Catalogue title (original)
- SWANN WHIFFIN N° 352. A fine 2-day marine chronometer. (English)
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Record summary
Catalogued by Howard Walwyn Fine Antique Clocks (dealer), London (stock number SKU 400), this is a marine chronometer by Swann Whiffin, made in London, England, dated c. 1865–1870. The Atlas places it in the Industrial Revolution period (1850 – 1900) of its Instruments collection. Recorded dimensions: Height 19 cm. 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 2-day marine chronometer in its original patinated mahogany brass bound mahogany box. The high quality 56-hour chain fusee movement has spotted plates, an Earnshaw-type spring detent escapement, blued steel helical spring, and bimetallic balance with circular timing weights. It comes complete with a solid turned brass tipsy winding key which is almost certainly original. The 4 inch round silvered brass dial has Roman hour numerals and an outer double minute band. There is a subsidiary dial for up/down below XII and a subsidiary seconds above VI. The maker’s signature and address are inscribed across the middle between IX and III. It retains its original spade tipped blued steel hands. The beautifully patinated mahogany three tiered case has brass inset corners on each tier. To each side there is a raised brass carrying handle. The dial is numbered 352 in the centre Date : circa 1865 – 1870 Height : 7 ½ in (19 cm) Width : 7 in (18 cm) * Swann Whiffin is listed on page 831 of Brian Loomes’ Clockmakers of the World: 21 st Century Edition as working in London circa 1869. HW6173
Historical context
Industrial Revolution (1850 – 1900)
American interchangeable-parts manufacture; railroad time standards; Swiss and German factory systems.
Instruments spread into industry, science and sport: stopwatches, chronoscopes, metronomes, watchmen's clocks and time recorders.
Read the period in the timelineMore instruments from this periodEarlier: Precision & Scientific Horology
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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