It all started on a holiday at my grandparents’, many years ago. Summer days, the freedom and curiosity of boundless exploration, without wasting that precious time from the big vacation on TV, the Internet or social media. Why? Because they didn’t exist at the time. It was better, it was worse… who knows? On one […]
The spring clock is a classic mechanical clock consisting of many cogwheels driven by the energy given by a spring. The spring, in turn, is energized by the manual twisting of the key which produces tension on the spring. The disadvantage of this mechanism is that every 7 days it must be turned. The movement […]
Schlenker-Kienzle In 1883 Jakob Kienzle married into the Schlenker family contributed to the expansion of the company. In 1899, 162,000 alarm clocks were made per year. The company name was changed to Schlenker & Kienzle. From 1894 the weight and cost of alarm clocks and wall clocks was significantly reduced by the introduction of the […]
Please note that this brief history focuses on the Smiths as house watchmakers. The parent society had enormous ramifications (summarized to some extent in the origins chapter), but this history is concerned only with watches. In 1931 Smith, then called S Smith and Sons (Car Accessories) Ltd., decided to enter the domestic and watch market […]
In 1860, the merchant Erhard Junghans, together with his brother Jakob Zeller-Tobler, founded an oil factory in Schramberg, which from an economic point of view was a failure. In 1861 Erhard Junghans founded with his brother Xaver Junghans in Schramberg – Gebrüder Junghans. After he returned from the United States of America he began manufacturing […]
Our modern system of using a base 60 time system, meaning a clock with 60 minute 60 second increments, dates back to 2,000 BC. Candles were also used to measure time or, among the Chinese, scented sticks, which were made in such a way that they burned for an exact time interval. When these burned […]
Tools for knowing time have existed since ancient times. Historical evidence tells us that the first to divide the day into smaller units were the Egyptians. Studying the movement of certain stars that were associated with various divinities, they divided the night into 12 parts. They later built the sundial around 3,500 BC, which was […]
Old watches are in high demand. They are also hundreds of years old. Old watches are expensive even if they are not in good condition. The oldest watch manufacturer is of course a Swiss brand. The company was founded by the watchmaker Humbertus Gallet, who received citizenship in Switzerland in 1466. Already in 1702, the […]
A pendulum clock is a clock that uses a pendulum, an oscillating weight, as a timekeeping element. From its invention in 1656 by Christiaan Huygens until the 1930s, the pendulum clock was the most accurate timekeeper in the world. Pendulum clocks had to be stationary and level (mounted perfectly straight) to work. Any movement or […]
In 1974, Mauthe was still struggling to survive: watch production had already stopped, even efforts to build its own quartz movement. Mauthe only made alarm mechanisms and the electromechanical mechanisms were bought from Junghans. The production of clock movements was apparently already stopped in 1974 and Mauthe bought clock movements from Hermle. We know that […]
Today is the tomorrow we feared yesterday.
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