c2000 BC | Egyptians estimate time of day by the shadow cast by a stick stuck in the sand. |
1400 BC | Water clocks in use in the Mediterranean countries, the Middle East and India. |
800s | Candle clock thought to be in use |
1086 | Chinese emperor orders construction of astronomical clock by diplomat and scientist Su Sung.
Su Sung starts to build first clock with recognisable escapement. |
1094 | Su Sung's water clock is presented to the emperor. |
12th century AD | First weight-driven mechanical clocks constructed in Italy. |
1321-1325 | Richard Stoke builds clock with astronomical dial for Norwich Cathedral. |
1327-1336 | Richard of Wallingford (1292-1336), Abbott of St Albans, builds his clock and
publishes details. |
mid-1300s | Verge escapement appears. |
mid 1300s | Strikework appears. |
1348-64 | Clock built by Giovanni De Dondi. |
1320s | Strasbourgh clock is completed. |
late 1400s | Spring-driven clocks appear in Italy. |
1505 | First clock dial on turret clock at Magdalen College, Cambridge. |
early 1500s | Peter Henlein is producing watches in Nurnberg, Bavaria. |
1525 | Jacob Zech of Prague uses fusee, the first known use of this device in horology. |
1581 | Galileo Galilei (1564-1642) discovers isochronism of pendulums. |
1584 | German clockmaker Jost Burgi (1552-1632) invents cross-beat escapement |
c1600 | Remontoire invented |
c1600 | 'Chamber' or 'Gothic' clocks, the precursors of the lantern clock, appear in England |
1620 | Lantern clock, the first truly English clock, style fully developed. |
1641 | Vincenzo Galilei produces drawing for duplex clock escapement to a design given him by
his father Gallileo (1564-1642). |
1631 | Charles I grants Charter of Incorporation to London clockmakers petitioning to set up the Worshipful Company of Clockmakers. |
1656 | Dutch scientist Christiaan Huygens suggests method of applying pendulum to clockwork. |
1657 | Salomon Coster patents and builds first pendulum clock |
1666 | Great Fire of London |
1660s | Longcase (or grandfather) clock makes its first appearance in England |
c1665 | Robert Hooke proposes application of balance-spring to clockwork |
c1670 | Bracket clocks are introduced. |
c1670 | The long or 'Royal' pendulum is introduced along with the anchor escapement. |
1670 | Robert Hooke invents wheel-cutting machine. |
1671 | Earliest known pendulum clock built by William Clement. |
c1675 | Balance spring is applied to horology by the Dutch scientist Christian Huygens. |
c1675 to c1725 | Marquetry is popular in cabinetwork, for example in clock cases. |
1676 | Rack striking, invented by Edward Barlow, first used in a clock by Thomas Tompion. |
c1680 | Longcase or 'staande klok' appears in the Netherlands |
1682 | Abel Cottey of Crediton, Devon, emigrates to USA and starts making longcase clocks in Philadelphia. |
1695 | Thomas Tompion (1639-1713) patents the cylinder escapement. |
1704 | Jewelled bearings introduced by Facio de Duillier in Switzerland. |
c1710 | Dial arch introduced |
1714 | Britain's Board of Longitude offers a £20,000 prize for a clock which will keep accurate
time at sea. |
1722 | George Graham builds his first compensated pendulum, using the rise in the level mercury (with heat) in cylindrical
bob to compensate the the downward expansion of the pendulum rod. |
1725 | John Harrison invents grid-iron compensated pendulum. |
c1730 | First cuckoo clock makes its appearance in the Black Forest region of Germany. |
1728 | Harrison brothers, James and John, complete and test first prototype 'sea clock', H1. |
c1730 | George Graham (1673-1751) introduces the dead-beat escapement. |
1736 | Sea trials of the first Harrison sea clock, H1. |
1739 | John Harrison completes second sea clock, H2. |
c1750 | In one of the most bizarre stories of horology, a cargo of English clocks destined for Russia is washed up on shores of the Danish
island of Bornhlm, sparking an industry on the island making clocks in a similar style. |
1741 | Louis Amant invents the pin-wheel escapement. |
1741 | French clockmaker Abraham-Louis Breguet is born at Neuchatel, Switzerland (dies 1823). |
1749 | Frederic Japy, said to be the father of French horology, is born at Beaucout in the
Franche-Comte. Dies in 1812. |
mid 1700s | Silvered dial comes into use. |
1759 | The third Harrison sea clock, H3, built by John Harrison with the assistance of his son,
William, is ready for sea trials |
1761 | Fourth Harrison sea clock, H4, is successfully trialled at sea and Board of Longitude
makes an interim award of £2500 and demands another sea trial. |
1764 | H4 trialled again in voyage to Barbados, time correct to one minute over period of three
months. Board of Longitude awards Harrison a further £7500. |
c1770 | The use of marquetry in clock cases is revived during the Adam period |
1770 | White or painted dial longcase makes its appearance. |
1772 | Board of Longitude give Harrison the outstanding £10,000 after being receiving support
from King George III. |
1776 | John Harrison dies (March). |
1790 | Jaquet-Droz and Leschot of Geneva advertise first ladies wristwatch. |
1797 | British Parliament passes an Act which levies tax on all clocks and watches, an
occurence which gave its name (quite erroneously) to the 'Act of Parliament clock'. |
early 1800s | Carriage clock appears. |
1802 | Simon Willard (1753-1848) of Roxbury, Massachusetts, patents movement of banjo clock. |
1807 | Eli Terry (1772-1852) introduces mass-production techniques into clockmaking. |
1808 | John Schmidt, a Dutchman working in London, patents his 'mysterious circulator'. |
1819 | Gustav Becker is born at Oels in Silesia (dies 1885). |
1812 | Eli Terry invents the shelf clock. |
1823 | Erhard Jungans is born in Schramberg in the Black Forest region of Germany (dies 1870). |
c1825-1848 | Biedermeier period which influenced design of clock cases, particularly those
of Vienna regulators. |
c1828 | Simon Willard designs and builds accurate regulator. |
1829 | Aaron Dodd Crane devised torsion pendulum. |
1834 | Swiss inventor Matthias Hipp designs clock impulsed electromagnetically. |
1838 | Alexander Bain (1810-1877) designs first battery electric clock. |
1839 | Carl August Steinheil of Munich patents the first master-and-slave clock system. |
c1840 | American clockmakers apply ogee style to clocks. |
1841 | Bain is awarded first UK patent for electrical clock. |
1842 | Hipp builds his first electrical clock. |
1842 | First electromagnetically operated clock is built by Alexander Bain (1810-1877). |
1845 | Wagon-spring clock introduced by Joseph Ives (1782-1862) of Bristol, Connecticut |
1850s | Silas B Terry produces regulator movement. |
1850s | Airy asks Edmund Beckett Denison (1816-1905), later Lord Grimthorpe, to advise on construction of
the great clock of Westminster, 'Big Ben' |
1854 | Dennison incorporates his double three-legged gravity escapement,
the first gravity escapement, in the movement of the Westminster clock. |
1855 | John C Briggs of Concord, New Hampshire, patents his rotary clock. |
1858 | British Horological Institute is formed to protect Britain's horological industry |
1860s | Black Forest clockmakers adopt American methods and styles. |
1861 | Prince Albert dies, clocks of more sombre colours, such as the black 'marble' mantel
clock, make their apearance. |
mid-1870s | Angelus clock introduced by Angelus Clock Co of Philadelphia |
1878 | Ingersoll introduces the 'dollar watch'. |
1879 | Anton Harder, a German, produces the first 400-day, or 'anniversary', clock. |
1880 | First men's wristwatches produced for German military. |
1884 | Greenwich Meridian chosen as prime meridian of longitude. |
1889 | Munich inventor Sigmund Riefler designs 'free' pendulum. |
1891 | Riefler patents pendulum compensated for expansion/contraction
with heat by mercury in a hollow rod. |
1895 | Frank Hope Jones (1868-1950) and George Bennett Bowell patent the Synchronome, the first reliable
master-and-slave system. |
1895 | Invar, an allow with a very low coefficient of expansion, is invented by Charles Edouard
Guillaume, 1861-1938. |
1898 | First speaking clock patented in Switzerland by Casimir Sivan of Geneva |
1905 | First radio time signal broadcast from the Navy Yard at Boston, Massachusetts. |
1918 | American Henry E Warren patents the first synchronous electric clock. |
1920 | M T Favre-Bulle invents the electric clock which bears his name, the Bulle. |
1921 | First free-pendulum clock devised by William Hamilton Shortt (1882-1971), is installed
at Edinburgh Observatory. |
1929 | Dr Warren A Marrison develops quartz clock |
1936 | Speaking clock introduced on British telephone network. |
1943 | National Association of Watch and Clock Collectors is organised in Philadelphia |
1949 | First atomic clock built |
1957 | First battery-powered balance-wheel wristwatch introduced by Hamilton. |
1959 | Accutron introduce electric watch with balance-wheel replaced by tuning fork |
late 1960s | Quartz techology introduced to domestic clocks and watches. |
1960s | Floating balance introduced to reduce friction between the balance pivots and their
bushes. |
1976 | Great clock of Westminster, 'Big Ben', fails and breaks up inside the clock tower (5th
August) |