{"title":"Clocks","description":"Clocks and instruments from the great houses: dealer clocks, marine chronometers and desk pieces, researched as closely as any watch.","products":[{"product_id":"rolex-time-to-the-second-desk-clock-root-dial-c1985","title":"Rolex 'Time to the Second' Desk Clock, Root Dial, c.1985","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eA genuine Rolex showroom clock, made for the dealer's counter and never sold to the public. Every Rolex signature, the fluted bezel, root dial, Mercedes hands and cyclops date, shrunk onto the desk.\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFor decades the only way to see one of these was across a jeweller's counter. Rolex supplied desk clocks like this to its authorised dealers and to nobody else; they were equipment, not stock, and they did their work beside the watches they advertised. This is Reference 455, individually numbered 1212 on the caseband, made around 1985.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIt wears the house language at desk scale. The bezel carries Datejust fluting, the dial and its surround the warm root figuring of the wood dials Rolex fitted to its gold GMT-Masters, and over the date sits a cyclops lens, with applied luminous markers and Mercedes hands completing the set. The case is a heavy tapering drum of reeded gilt brass, and the dial, case and movement are all signed.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eBehind the face is a Swiss quartz calibre with a sweeping centre seconds hand and the date, and it runs. The gilt printing is crisp, the crystal clear over its cyclops, the plating bright with only minor handling marks, and it is set and regulated from the movement, as these were built to be: there is no crown.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eCounter clocks led working lives and rarely came through shop refits. A complete, running example with a clean wood dial has become an uncommon thing.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe dealer-clock story is told in the rooms below; the condition and the particulars are set out beneath them.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Rolex","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":54521281872211,"sku":"CI-0018","price":0.0,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1080\/3121\/3907\/files\/rolex-gilt-brass-curiosity-item-5_Hero_e41655d8-2505-4927-bc8c-0e13c4a9c95e.jpg?v=1786149218"},{"product_id":"imhof-revolving-weather-compendium-four-instruments-c-1955","title":"Imhof Revolving Weather Compendium, Four Instruments, c.1955","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eFour instruments in one revolving gilt cube: an Imhof desk compendium of about 1955 that turns from clock to barometer to thermometer to hygrometer, and runs eight days on a winding.\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eA desk object that answers four questions: the time, the pressure, the temperature and the damp. The cube turns on its pedestal, and each quarter-turn brings a different silvered face to the front, every one of them signed, trilingual and marked Swiss.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eImhof of La Chaux-de-Fonds made the finest desk clocks in Switzerland, and it did not cut corners here. Behind the clock face is the calibre 244, a jewelled lever movement of the kind the house fitted to its serious clocks, good for eight days at a winding, wound and set from the back through the lifting knob. The three weather instruments all respond as they should.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIn the hand it is a small piece of architecture in polished gilt brass: 79mm across the cube, 120mm to the top of the chrome finial, compact enough to sit beside an inkwell and heavy enough to stay put. The dials are clean on all four faces, the glasses unchipped, the swivel smooth, with only light spotting to the top plate to show its age.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eEvery face works, which on a seventy-year-old compendium is the whole game: the clock winds and runs, and the barometer, thermometer and hygrometer all read.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe compendium's story is told in the rooms below; the condition and the particulars are set out beneath them.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Imhof","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":54523078574419,"sku":"CI-0019","price":0.0,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1080\/3121\/3907\/files\/imhof-gilt-brass-with-chrome-ball-finial-curiosity-item-8.jpg?v=1786183734"},{"product_id":"square-gilt-brass-alarm-clock-signed-salmon-dial-c-1938-1945","title":"Square Gilt Brass Alarm Clock, Signed Salmon Dial, c.1938-1945","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eA Swiss desk alarm clock of the Art Deco years, square gilt brass with a salmon lacquer dial signed Roamer, keeping time and ringing as built.\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eA small square clock of the late 1930s or early 1940s, brass under gilt lacquer, low and stable on its original rubber feet, made by Roamer of La Chaux-de-Fonds to sit on a desk and get somebody up in the morning.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe dial is the reason to look twice. The lacquer is a copper-toned salmon that reads differently with every light in the room, signed Roamer with the Swiss Made stamp beneath, carrying Arabic numerals and the alarm-setting ring inside the chapter. The case around it is plain and architectural, straight-edged in the Deco manner, with the movement in a small drum behind.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIt is a mechanical clock in full working order. The back is open, so the running balance is on show; it winds by hand, keeps time, and the alarm rings when it is told to. The gilt lacquer lifts a little on the upper rear of the movement drum, and that is the entire list of faults.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eClocks of this grade were worked until they broke and then thrown away. This one was kept, and it still rings.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe clock's story is told in the rooms below; the condition and the particulars are set out beneath them.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Roamer","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":54523082080595,"sku":"CI-0020","price":0.0,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1080\/3121\/3907\/files\/roamer-brass-gilt-lacquered-curiosity-item-1.jpg?v=1786151901"},{"product_id":"a-lange-sohne-two-day-marine-chronometer-c-1943","title":"A. Lange \u0026 Söhne Two-Day Marine Chronometer, c.1943","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eA two-day marine chronometer by A. Lange \u0026amp; Söhne of Glashütte, made in 1943 and number-matched 5159 throughout. Spring detent escapement, chain-and-fusee, and a 56-hour up-and-down dial, running and complete in its mahogany box with the winding key.\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eA. Lange \u0026amp; Söhne built its reputation on precision, and the marine chronometer was the instrument where that precision mattered most. Before satellites, a ship far from land found its position by comparing local time against the exact time at a home meridian, and the chronometer was the machine that carried that reference time across oceans without losing it. This is one of them: a two-day chronometer made in Glashütte in 1943, gimbal-mounted in a gilt brass bowl and housed in a two-tier mahogany box with a glazed lid, as it would have been issued.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIt belongs to the standardized wartime series Lange began that year, and it is the 159th of that run. The instrument is unusually complete: the same series number appears on the movement, the dial, the dust ring and the bowl, and it keeps its original brass bowl rather than the bakelite fitted to most examples of the period, along with its winding key on the bracket inside the lid. It runs, winds and sets as it should.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe dial carries everything a navigator needed and nothing he did not: silvered, with clear black numerals, running seconds, and a 56-hour up-and-down indicator that showed how much of the two-day reserve remained. Beneath it lies the classic high chronometer specification of chain-and-fusee, \u003ca href=\"\/products\/spring-detent-chronometer-no-1000-c-1870\" style=\"color:inherit;text-decoration:underline;text-decoration-thickness:0.5px;text-underline-offset:3px\"\u003espring detent escapement\u003c\/a\u003e and a compensated balance.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe maker and the wartime series are set out in the rooms below; the condition and the particulars are listed beneath them.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"A. Lange \u0026 Söhne","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":54769149608275,"sku":"CI-0026","price":0.0,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1080\/3121\/3907\/files\/a-lange-sohne-gilt-brass-bowl-in-brass-gimbals-two-tier-mahogany-box-with-glazed-lid-curiosity-item-20_hero_7d93bd05-33a2-4090-941f-f0c8b730b6bd.jpg?v=1787938473"},{"product_id":"poljot-deck-watch-fitted-box-1992","title":"Deck Watch in its Fitted Mahogany Box, Made in USSR, 1992","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eA Poljot deck watch from the First Moscow Watch Factory, the marine instrument that carried chronometer time to where the sextant sights were taken. Complete in its fitted mahogany box, with a gilt movement modelled on Ulysse Nardin.\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eA deck watch made by the First Moscow Watch Factory, the Poljot marine instrument built to carry time from a ship's chronometer to the position where sextant sights were taken. The dial is signed ПОЛЕТ and Made in USSR, СДЕЛАНО В СССР, and the movement is stamped 1992, one of the last of the Soviet-marked examples.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe design follows Ulysse Nardin. The factory modelled both the case and the movement on the deck watches Ulysse Nardin built in the 1930s and 40s, and the 53303 calibre comes from that lineage. This is the later 22-jewel version, gilt with Geneva striping across the bridges, a gooseneck fine regulator and a plain monometallic balance, wound and set from the crown. The seconds run on a large sweep hand for reading against the chronometer.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe dial is white with black Arabic numerals, a railroad minute track and an outer scale in five-second steps, the layout of a working instrument rather than a dress watch. The case is chromed base metal, open faced, 63.95mm, with a ringed bow so it lifts from its box. The glazed back opens to the movement.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIt comes in its original fitted deck box: mahogany finished, brass swing clasps in the form of anchors, and a brass plaque reading 1st Moscow Watch Factory named after S.M. Kirov, Deck Watch, to specification TU 25-07.1510-83.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe watch winds, sets and runs. The dial is clean, no chips or hairlines. The case is clean with light handling marks. The box is complete. No papers.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe marks, the movement and the condition are set out below.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Poljot","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":55004688941395,"sku":"CI-0048","price":0.0,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1080\/3121\/3907\/files\/poljot-chromed-brass-curiosity-item-1_featured.jpg?v=1790072305"},{"product_id":"poljot-6mx-marine-chronometer-first-moscow-watch-factory-1993","title":"6MX Marine Chronometer in its Travelling Case, 1993","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eA complete Soviet marine chronometer by Poljot, the First Moscow Watch Factory, dated 1993 and running well. Spring detent escapement, fusee and chain, and the full travelling outfit: box, outer transit case, suede cover, winding key and factory papers.\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eA complete Soviet marine chronometer of the classical detent type, made at the First Moscow Watch Factory (1-МЧЗ) under the Poljot name, supplied with an original factory passport and rating certificate.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe instrument sits in a gilt brass bowl on gimbals, free to stay level as a ship rolls, under bevelled glass. The white dial carries bold Arabic numerals, a subsidiary seconds dial at six, and an up and down indicator at twelve reading from zero to fifty six, the going period in hours. It is wound by key, once a day, and the small hand on the up and down dial tells the keeper how much running is left before the next wind. Signed ПОЛЕТ and СДЕЛАНО В СССР across the dial.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eBehind the dial is the reason these instruments are held in the regard they are. The movement runs a spring detent escapement, the escapement of the true marine chronometer, driven through a fusee and chain that evens out the pull of the mainspring from full wind to empty. The balance is a Guillaume integral, the temperature compensating balance developed for precision timekeeping, and the detent is capped with a diamond endstone. This is the same architecture the great English and Swiss houses used, built in Moscow and kept in production long after most of the world had moved on.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe outfit includes an original Poljot marine chronometer passport and rating certificate, stamped by the Kirov factory quality department and dated 11 March 1993. The papers carry chronometer No. 19060, while this instrument's dial reads 17206, so the certificate is for a sister instrument of the same model rather than this exact unit. It still reads well: tested across five temperature periods, from four degrees to thirty six, and passed comfortably. The passport form reads АО, joint stock, the factory having just been privatised as the Soviet Union gave way to Russia, while the dial reads Made in USSR from earlier stock. A late Soviet instrument from the years the country changed hands.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIt comes as the full travelling outfit: the two tier wooden box with brass campaign corners and a folding handle, the winding key in its holder, an outer red transit case with a carrying strap, and the red suede cover that slips over the whole thing. The original passport and rating certificate are present. The outfit is complete in the way these rarely survive.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIt runs well. The woodwork shows honest wear and a single chip. A working navigational instrument, not an ornament, that you can still wind and set going.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Poljot","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":55004884369747,"sku":"CI-0046","price":0.0,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1080\/3121\/3907\/files\/poljot-first-moscow-watch-factory-nickel-base-metal-curiosity-item-7_featured.jpg?v=1790005806"},{"product_id":"cartier-octagonal-alarm-clock-tortoiseshell-lacquer-c-1980","title":"Cartier Octagonal Alarm Clock, Tortoiseshell Lacquer, c.1980","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eA Cartier Paris travel alarm clock of about 1980, reference 7507: octagonal, in brown tortoiseshell-effect lacquer over gilt brass, mechanical, with two sapphire cabochon crowns and a working alarm.\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eCartier made the 7507 as the octagonal member of its Must travel clocks: a flat eight-sided frame of brushed gilt brass, 75mm across the flats, with a stepped gilt bezel holding the glass and a round movement housing let into the back. This one is finished in the brown tortoiseshell-effect lacquer, a mottled, flame-figured coat over the gilt that reads as tortoiseshell at arm's length and as lacquer up close, edged inside and out by a fine line of exposed gilt. The reference was also made in black, cream and lapis lazuli, and with a blue border; the brown is the warmest of the set and the one that turns up least often.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe dial follows the house pattern: white ground, black Roman numerals that lengthen towards the centre, an inner railway minute track, CARTIER PARIS under twelve and SWISS MADE at six. The hour and minute hands are black leaf hands; the slender white hand is the alarm indicator, set on its own. The stepped bezel stands proud of the frame, so the glass sits well recessed and the lacquer carries the light.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe back is a round gilt housing engraved Cartier Paris in script, with two crowns at the lower edge, each capped with a blue sapphire cabochon: one winds the movement and sets the hands, the other sets the alarm. A slide marked stop silences the alarm, and a small regulator marked + and - gives fine adjustment without opening the case. A folding bail hinged on two lugs holds the clock at a reading angle on a desk or bedside table and folds flat for travel.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe movement is mechanical: a Swiss manual-wind alarm calibre with 15 jewels, built in the quartz years, when much of the Must range had already changed over. Cartier travel clocks that still have to be wound belong to the first decade of the line, and this is one of them. The marks, the movement and the condition are set out in the drawers below.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Cartier","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":55202779857235,"sku":"CI-0049","price":850.0,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1080\/3121\/3907\/files\/cartier-octagonal-travel-alarm-clock-c1980-1.jpg?v=1791141603"}],"url":"https:\/\/estatecollection.nl\/collections\/clocks.oembed","provider":"The Estate Collection","version":"1.0","type":"link"}