Clocks · Recording clock
Recording Clock - W. Eppner, Switzerland, Late 19th Century
- Maker / attribution
- Wilhelm Eppner (Maker)
- Date
- c. 1890
- Historical period
- Industrial Revolution (1850 – 1900)
- Country of origin
- Switzerland
- Place
- Chaux de Fonds, Switzerland
- Object type
- Recording clock
- Dimensions
- 5.5 cm (Height), 8 cm (Outside Diameter)
- Holding institution
- Museums Victoria, Melbourne
- Accession / object no.
- ST 20749
- Catalogue title (original)
- Recording Clock - W. Eppner, Switzerland, Late 19th Century (English)
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Record summary
Held and catalogued by Museums Victoria, Melbourne (object number ST 20749), this is a recording clock by Wilhelm Eppner, made in Chaux de Fonds, Switzerland, dated c. 1890. The Atlas places it in the Industrial Revolution period (1850 – 1900) of its Clocks collection. Recorded dimensions: 5.5 cm (Height), 8 cm (Outside Diameter). The record is illustrated with 1 photograph.
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
Summary — Museums Victoria
Recording clock, portable, made by W. Eppner, Chaux-De-Fonds, Switzerland, late 19th century. The watchman carried the clock to places where the key was chained, and the key used to record the time of inspection on the clock.
Physical description — Museums Victoria
Consists of a brass cylinder with circular glass aperture. Dial has arabic numerals. Clock has 3 keys. 3 are handmade and the third is cast and of a later date. Spring wound.
Inscriptions & marks
Dial marked 'Eppner Revete S.G.D.G.' Outside case is stamped 'Lutz & Schulz, Buenos Ayres'.
Provenance
Loan & Subsequent Bequest from Mr John Askew, 25 Nov 1938
Historical context
Industrial Revolution (1850 – 1900)
American interchangeable-parts manufacture; railroad time standards; Swiss and German factory systems.
Factory production transformed the clock into an everyday object. American makers (Seth Thomas, Ansonia, Waterbury) and German factories (Junghans, Gustav Becker, Lenzkirch) sold millions of shelf, wall and alarm clocks worldwide; France produced standardised Paris movements and carriage clocks; electric time distribution began.
Read the period in the timelineMore clocks from this periodEarlier: Precision & Scientific Horology
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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