A rare early Synchronome electrical master clock
Synchronome
The floorstanding oak case with glazed sides and hinged door and sliding doors to the base revealing small storage space for the cloth covered battery, fitted with a silvered Synchronome slave dial, the movement mounted to a painted cast iron plate with separate brass suspension over the two wheel movement with deadbeat escapement driven by a weighted arm re-cocked every thirty seconds by twin coils, the pendulum with small painted cylindrical bob and beat adjustment fixed to the rod 186cm (6ft1in) high.
The floorstanding oak case with glazed sides and hinged door and sliding doors to the base revealing small storage space for the cloth covered battery, fitted with a silvered Synchronome slave dial, the movement mounted to a painted cast iron plate with separate brass suspension over the two wheel movement with deadbeat escapement driven by a weighted arm re-cocked every thirty seconds by twin coils, the pendulum with small painted cylindrical bob and beat adjustment fixed to the rod 186cm (6ft1in) high.
Sold for
£8,400
inc. premium
Footnotes
- This model of movement is of the fist Synchronome type and would have been produced close to the turn of 20th century. The firm was headed by Frank Hope-Jones and continued trading until the 1950s.
Prior to the formation of the Synchronome Syndicate Ltd. Frank worked for his brother, Robert, as an electrical engineer at the family electrical organ works. It was after a trip to an exhibition of electrical horology with George Bennett Bowell, then an apprentice to the firm, they were fuelled with drive to improve upon the clocks seen and in 1895 they delivered a lecture to the British Horological institute detailing their 'Synchronome' electrically re-wound mechanical clock system. The partnership dissolved in 1897 and George Bennett Bowell went on to found the Silent Electric Clock Co.
Production ran from shortly before 1900 continuing up to circa 1905 when Frank Hope-Jones developed Ball's patent (partnered with Langman to make Gents of Leicester) to produce a pendulum, electronically impulsed via a roller and inclined plane attached to the rod. This mechanism mounted on a cast iron A-frame, became the standard Synchronome movement and was produced from circa 1909 until the company closed in the 1950s.
The short period in which this design was manufactured makes these clocks rare and highly sought after.
Category: Clocks and Watches / Clocks
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