Grouped & filterable
Clock Types Encyclopedia
Every clock type record uses the same structure — definition, movement and mechanism, typical makers, regions, identification, terminology, variations and collecting notes — so domestic, public and specialist clocks can be compared directly.
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Domestic · c. 1660 – presentLongcase (Grandfather) ClocksTall, freestanding weight-driven clocks with a long trunk enclosing the pendulum and weights, standardised in England after the introduction of the anchor escapement.4 recorded variations
Domestic · c. 1750 – presentMantel ClocksA broad category of small spring-driven clocks intended to sit on a mantelshelf or side table, spanning French pendules, American shelf clocks and later mass-produced work.4 recorded variations
Portable · c. 1800 – presentCarriage ClocksSmall portable spring-driven clocks in glazed brass cases with a carrying handle, regulated by a platform lever or platform balance escapement rather than a pendulum.5 recorded variations
Domestic · c. 1660 – c. 1900Bracket ClocksEnglish-tradition spring-driven domestic clocks, originally designed to sit on a wall bracket, typically case in ebonised or veneered wood with a carrying handle and glazed door.4 recorded variations
Domestic · c. 1600 – presentWall ClocksClocks designed to be mounted directly on a wall rather than standing or sitting on furniture, encompassing lantern, Vienna regulator, Comtoise, banjo and later factory-made forms.5 recorded variations
Public & tower · c. 1280s – presentTower ClocksLarge public timekeepers, usually installed in a church, civic or institutional tower, driving one or more external dials and often a striking or chiming bell mechanism.3 recorded variations
Public & tower · Medieval period – presentTurret ClocksTurret clock is an overlapping term for a tower or building-mounted public clock, not a distinct escapement or an exclusively nineteenth-century mechanism.4 recorded variations
Precision · c. 1350 – presentAstronomical ClocksClocks that display, in addition to time of day, astronomical information such as the position of the sun and moon, zodiacal signs, or calendrical data, ranging from great public installations to fine domestic examples.3 recorded variations
Precision · c. 1700 – c. 1950Regulator ClocksPrecision pendulum clocks built to keep the most accurate time practically achievable, used by clockmakers, observatories and institutions as a timekeeping standard rather than for domestic display.3 recorded variations
Precision · c. 1780 – c. 1920Vienna RegulatorsA refined Austrian and later German tradition of wall-mounted precision regulator clocks, characterised by light, elegant movements and cases combining accuracy with domestic display.4 recorded variations
Domestic · c. 1730s – presentCuckoo ClocksWeight-driven wall clocks, traditionally from the Black Forest region of Germany, that sound the hour (and often the half-hour) with a mechanical bird call imitating a cuckoo, usually accompanied by a moving carved bird.3 recorded variations
Domestic · c. 1600 – c. 1700Lantern ClocksEarly English brass-framed weight-driven wall clocks, originally regulated by a balance wheel and verge escapement and later commonly converted to pendulum regulation.3 recorded variations
Domestic · c. 1680 – c. 1910Comtoise Clocks (Pendulum Wall Clocks)Weight-driven French wall or shelf clocks originating in the Franche-Comté region, characterised by a distinctive visible pendulum bob (often brass and ornately shaped) and a repeating strike.3 recorded variations
Specialist · c. 1500 – presentSpring-Driven ClocksA mechanism category, rather than a single clock form, describing any clock powered by a coiled mainspring instead of a falling weight — enabling portability at the cost of a less constant driving force.2 recorded variations
Specialist · c. 1280s – presentWeight-Driven ClocksA mechanism category describing clocks powered by one or more falling weights acting through a cord, chain or rope, delivering an essentially constant driving force for as long as the weight has room to fall.2 recorded variations
Specialist · c. 1820 – presentSkeleton ClocksClocks with the front (and often rear) plates cut away and pierced so that the wheel train, escapement and striking work are visible, typically displayed under a glass dome.3 recorded variations
Specialist · c. 1600 – c. 1900Musical and Automaton ClocksClocks combining timekeeping with a musical mechanism (playing bells, organ pipes or a pinned barrel) and/or moving figures (automata) animated at the hour or on demand.3 recorded variations
Specialist · c. 1840s – presentMystery ClocksClocks designed so the drive to the hands (or a pendulum) is deliberately concealed, creating the visual illusion that a hand or pendulum moves without any connecting mechanism.2 recorded variations
Specialist · c. 1880 – presentAnniversary / 400-Day (Torsion) ClocksClocks regulated by a rotating torsion pendulum (typically a disc with three or four ornamental balls) suspended on a thin, twisting suspension spring, allowing an unusually long running time — nominally about 400 days — from one winding.4 recorded variations
Precision · c. 1760 – presentMarine ChronometersHigh-precision timekeepers, historically housed in a gimballed wooden box, developed to keep sufficiently accurate time at sea to determine longitude by comparison with a known reference meridian.3 recorded variations
Precision · c. 1850 – presentShip's Bell ClocksRobust shipboard clocks, distinct from marine chronometers, that strike the traditional nautical watch system of bells (up to eight strikes marking a four-hour watch) rather than a conventional hour count.2 recorded variations
Public & tower · c. 1840 – c. 1970Master/Slave Electric Clock SystemsSystems in which a single precision 'master' clock (often a pendulum regulator with electrical contacts) periodically transmits electrical impulses to synchronise multiple simpler 'slave' dials, widely used in railway stations, factories and institutions before radio and network time synchronisation.4 recorded variations
Specialist · c. 1840 – c. 1970Electric-Mechanical ClocksClocks using electricity to wind a mechanical energy store or sustain a mechanical oscillator; the winding source, regulator and hand drive must be identified separately.3 recorded variations
Domestic · c. 1750 – 19th century (the Act of Parliament name is a later tradition)Tavern (Act of Parliament) ClocksLarge wall-mounted dial clocks with a very short or absent trunk, hung in British inns and public rooms from the mid-eighteenth century; the story that they arose from the 1797 clock tax is a later tradition now treated as incorrect.5 recorded variations
Domestic · c. 1800 – presentBanjo Clocks (Patent Timepieces)American wall clocks with a distinctive banjo-shaped case — a round dial head, narrowing waist, and rectangular base — deriving from designs patented by Simon Willard in the early nineteenth century.3 recorded variations
Specialist · c. 1656 – presentPendulum ClocksA mechanism category describing any clock regulated by a swinging pendulum rather than a balance wheel or foliot, following Christiaan Huygens's 1656 application of the pendulum to clockwork, which brought a dramatic improvement in accuracy over earlier verge-and-foliot timekeepers.3 recorded variations
Specialist · c. 1500s – presentAutomaton ClocksClocks incorporating moving figures or scenes — striking jacks, processions, animated animals or tableaux — driven from the movement's power source in addition to its timekeeping function, distinct from clocks whose sole added feature is music.3 recorded variations
Specialist · c. 1600s – presentMusical ClocksClocks that play a tune, chime sequence or air on bells, a comb (as in a musical box mechanism), or organ-type pipes, at the hour or on demand, as distinct from automaton clocks whose principal feature is moving figures rather than sound.3 recorded variations
Domestic · c. 1815 – c. 1914American Shelf and Ogee ClocksMass-produced American domestic clocks intended to sit on a shelf or mantel, produced in vast quantities by Connecticut and other New England factories from the early nineteenth century, of which the ogee-cased form is the most familiar type.4 recorded variations
Domestic · c. 1650 – presentBlack Forest ClocksClocks produced in the Black Forest (Schwarzwald) region of southwest Germany, historically a major centre of rural clock manufacture and the origin of the cuckoo clock, ranging from simple wooden-movement wall clocks to elaborate carved cases.4 recorded variations
Domestic · c. 1710 – c. 1830 (with later revivals)Cartel ClocksOrnamental French wall clocks in decorative cases, including Rococo and later neoclassical forms; a matching mantel clock, garniture or console is not required by the category.3 recorded variations
Domestic · c. 1680 – c. 1900 (with later revivals)Boulle ClocksClocks (typically bracket, mantel or longcase) decorated with boulle marquetry — an inlay technique combining brass and tortoiseshell (or later imitative materials) named after the French cabinetmaker André-Charles Boulle — rather than a mechanically distinct type in its own right.3 recorded variations
Domestic · c. 1680 – c. 1850Bracket Alarm ClocksEnglish-tradition bracket clocks fitted with an alarm mechanism in addition to timekeeping (and often striking), allowing the owner to set a bell to sound at a chosen hour, continuing a domestic-clock alarm tradition that predates the wristwatch alarm by more than two centuries.2 recorded variations
Specialist · c. 1660s – c. 1800Night Clocks (Lantern-Lit Timepieces)Clocks designed to show the time in darkness without striking, typically by illuminating a pierced dial from behind with a lamp or candle, allowing the hour to be read at a glance by someone waking in the night without disturbing a household with a strike.2 recorded variations
Domestic · c. 1550 – c. 1650Tabernacle ClocksEarly German and Continental table clocks with an architectural, tower- or shrine-like gilt-brass case (resembling a small tabernacle or reliquary), among the earliest surviving forms of spring-driven domestic timepiece.2 recorded variations
Specialist · c. 1880s – presentPicture-Frame ClocksClocks whose dial is set within, or disguised as, a decorative picture or mirror frame, so the timepiece reads at a glance as a framed picture, print or looking-glass rather than an overt clock.3 recorded variations
Domestic · c. 1920s – presentGrandmother ClocksA smaller-scale, freestanding pendulum clock built on the same longcase principle as a grandfather clock but reduced in height (commonly under about 1.8 metres), a largely twentieth-century furniture-trade development rather than an antique form in its own right.3 recorded variations
Domestic · c. 1780s – 1870sJapanese Pillar Clocks (Shaku-dokei)A distinctively Japanese wall-mounted weight-driven clock (a form of wadokei, or 'Japanese clock'), housed in a tall narrow wooden pillar case and adapted to the traditional Japanese temporal-hour system, in which the length of an 'hour' varied with the season.3 recorded variations
Precision · c. 1920s – presentAtmos Clocks (Temperature-Wound Torsion Clocks)Jaeger-LeCoultre mechanical torsion clocks in which temperature-driven expansion and contraction in a sealed capsule winds a mainspring; ambient energy supplies the winding, not perpetual motion.3 recorded variations
Precision · c. 1850s – 1970sMarine Deck WatchesLarge, high-grade portable timekeepers carried on deck for comparing with a ship's fixed marine chronometer and for taking sights, combining chronometer-grade timekeeping with a compact, carriable form distinct from the gimballed box chronometer.3 recorded variations
Specialist · c. 1880s – early 1900sFlying-Pendulum (Ignatz) Novelty ClocksAn American novelty clock type in which timekeeping regulation is provided visually by a small ball whirling on a cord in place of an ordinary swinging pendulum, most closely associated with the trade name 'Ignatz'.2 recorded variations
Specialist · c. 1900 – presentWorld-Time ClocksClocks that display the current time in numerous cities or time zones simultaneously, typically by means of a rotating twenty-four-hour ring set against a fixed or rotating map or list of place names, developed after the international adoption of standardised time zones in the 1880s.3 recorded variations
Domestic · c. 1830s – 1900sOG (Ogee) Shelf ClocksAn American factory-produced shelf clock type named for its ogee-moulded case profile (a double-curved S-shaped moulding around the door), among the most commonly produced nineteenth-century Connecticut clock forms.3 recorded variations
Domestic · c. 1670s – 1800sWag-on-the-Wall ClocksAn unencased weight-and-pendulum clock movement hung directly on a wall or in a corner cupboard, with its weights and long pendulum left visibly exposed rather than enclosed in a trunk, a precursor and rural alternative to the fully cased longcase clock.3 recorded variations
Domestic · c. 1780s – 1800sBalloon ClocksA French and English mantel clock case form of the late eighteenth century, so named for its case silhouette resembling an inverted hot-air balloon, associated particularly with the Louis XVI and English Directoire-influenced periods.3 recorded variations
Domestic · c. 1745 – 1900sBornholm ClocksA Danish tradition of longcase clocks made on the Baltic island of Bornholm, developed after English movements salvaged from a wrecked ship reputedly gave local smiths their first close model for domestic clockmaking, and continuing as a distinct regional case and movement style into the nineteenth century.2 recorded variations
Domestic · c. 1790s – 1830sLyre ClocksA French mantel clock case form, chiefly of the Empire and Restoration periods, shaped as a classical lyre, with the pendulum bob typically visible swinging within the lyre's strings as part of the decorative composition.3 recorded variations
Domestic · c. 1920s – 1950sBulle Electric ClocksA French battery-powered domestic clock type, associated with the Bulle Clock company, using an electromagnetically impulsed pendulum rather than a mainspring or falling weight, distinct in principle from the master–slave electric clock systems used for synchronised public timekeeping.3 recorded variations
Specialist · Antiquity – c. 1300s (largely superseded by mechanical clocks)Water Clocks (Clepsydrae)Timekeeping devices measuring time by the regulated flow of water into or out of a vessel, among the oldest known timekeeping technologies and a direct ancestor, in function if not mechanism, of the mechanical clock.3 recorded variations
Domestic · 19th century and later documented examplesPortico ClocksClocks with a column-and-entablature architectural case; the portico form does not prescribe a particular movement or display mechanism.2 recorded variations
Domestic · c. 1815 – 1830Pillar and Scroll Shelf ClocksAmerican shelf clocks with slender pillars, a scrolled top and delicate feet, associated with early Connecticut production.2 recorded variations
Specialist · c. 1750 – 1850Organ ClocksClocks incorporating a small pipe organ that plays at set times.1 recorded variations
Domestic · c. 1690 – 1800Hooded Wall ClocksSmall wall-mounted clocks with a hood resembling that of a longcase, but with weights hanging exposed below.1 recorded variations
Domestic · c. 1750 – 1900Dutch Staartklok and Friesland ClocksDutch wall clocks with a painted dial, a short tail housing the pendulum and richly decorated case work.1 recorded variations
Specialist · c. 1600 – 1873Japanese WadokeiJapanese clocks built for the pre-Meiji system of seasonally variable hours.1 recorded variations
Specialist · c. 1760 – 1900Chinese Market ClocksElaborately decorated clocks and automata made for the Chinese market, largely in England and Switzerland.1 recorded variations
Precision · c. 1690 – 1850Equation ClocksClocks showing the difference between solar and mean time, or displaying both.1 recorded variations
Precision · c. 1680 – presentYear-Going ClocksClocks running for a year or more on a single winding.1 recorded variations
Precision · c. 1920 – 1950Free-Pendulum Precision ClocksClocks in which the timekeeping pendulum is left almost undisturbed while a second clock performs the work.1 recorded variations
Precision · c. 1930 – presentQuartz Precision and Standard ClocksClocks regulated by the vibration of a quartz crystal rather than a pendulum or balance.1 recorded variations
Precision · c. 1955 – presentAtomic Time StandardsTimekeeping standards using an atomic transition frequency as the reference.1 recorded variations
Specialist · c. 1700 – 1950Watchman's and Tell-Tale ClocksClocks that record whether a night watchman made his rounds.1 recorded variations
Specialist · c. 1880 – 1980Time Recorders and Factory ClocksClocks that print or punch the time on a card to record working hours.2 recorded variations
Portable · c. 1800 – presentShip's Clocks and Deck TimepiecesRobust clocks for use at sea, distinct from the boxed marine chronometer.2 recorded variations
Domestic · c. 1550 – 1650Renaissance Table ClocksEarly portable horizontal clocks, typically drum-shaped or square, intended to sit on a table and be viewed from above.1 recorded variations
Specialist · c. 1600 – 1700Crucifix ClocksReligious clocks in the form of a crucifix, where the time is typically shown on a rotating globe at the top.1 recorded variations
Specialist · c. 1808 – presentRolling Ball (Congreve) ClocksClocks in the Congreve tradition whose train release is timed by a ball crossing a zigzag runway on a pivoted table.3 recorded variations
Specialist · c. 1650 – 1800Falling Ball ClocksClocks that descend slowly along a chain or rack, using their own weight as the power source.1 recorded variations
Specialist · c. 1400 – 1600Monastic (Gothic) ClocksEarly iron-framed wall clocks used in monasteries and domestic settings before the widespread use of brass.1 recorded variations
Domestic · c. 1870 – 1940Schoolhouse ClocksAmerican wall clocks with a round dial and a short 'drop' case, commonly found in schools and offices.1 recorded variations
Precision · c. 1860 – 1920Store Regulator ClocksLarge, impressive American wall clocks intended for shops and public spaces, often advertising accuracy.1 recorded variations
Domestic · c. 1904 – 1920Digital Mechanical (Plato) ClocksClocks displaying the time on flipping numbered plates rather than hands and a dial.1 recorded variations
Domestic · c. 1600 – 1850Early Domestic Alarm ClocksClocks primarily intended to sound an alarm at a preset time, often small and wall-mounted.1 recorded variations
Portable · c. 1900 – 19608-Day Folding Travel ClocksFolding clocks in leather cases, designed for travelers, often with a long duration.1 recorded variations
Domestic · c. 1920 – presentDesk (Library) ClocksSmall, high-quality clocks intended for a desk, often featuring modern or Art Deco design.1 recorded variations
Specialist · c. 1900 – presentYacht Wheel ClocksClocks housed in a case shaped like a ship's steering wheel.1 recorded variations
Precision · c. 1900 – 1950Hacking Clocks (Precision)Precision clocks or watches with a mechanism to stop the seconds hand for synchronization.1 recorded variations
Precision · c. 1750 – presentSidereal ClocksClocks regulated to keep sidereal time (based on the earth's rotation relative to fixed stars), used in observatories.1 recorded variations
Precision · c. 1750 – 1900Constant Force RegulatorsRegulators featuring a remontoire to ensure a constant force reaches the escapement.1 recorded variations
Domestic · c. 1800 – 1830Empire ClocksFrench mantel clocks from the Napoleonic era, typically in gilt bronze with classical or allegorical figures.1 recorded variations
Domestic · c. 1730 – 1770Rococo ClocksClocks featuring the ornate, asymmetrical, and naturalistic designs of the Rococo period.1 recorded variations
Domestic · c. 1890 – 1910Art Nouveau ClocksClocks featuring the flowing, organic lines and floral motifs of the Art Nouveau movement.1 recorded variations
Domestic · c. 1920 – 1940Art Deco ClocksClocks reflecting the geometric, streamlined, and luxurious style of the Art Deco period.1 recorded variations
Specialist · c. 1870 – 1910Industrial (Novelty) ClocksClocks with cases modeled after industrial machines like steam engines, lighthouses, or pistons.1 recorded variations
Specialist · c. 1750 – presentPerpetual Calendar ClocksClocks that automatically account for the varying lengths of months and leap years.1 recorded variations
Specialist · c. 1600 – presentPlanetarium ClocksClocks featuring a mechanical model of the solar system (a planetarium) driven by the movement.1 recorded variations
Specialist · c. 1700 – presentOrrery ClocksClocks specifically featuring an orrery—a mechanical model showing the positions and motions of planets and moons.1 recorded variations
Domestic · c. 1750 – 1930Pendule de Paris (Drum Movements)The standard round French movement used in thousands of different mantel clock cases.1 recorded variations
Domestic · c. 1770 – 1810Neoclassical ClocksClocks reflecting the 'return to order' of the neoclassical movement, inspired by Greek and Roman art.1 recorded variations
Domestic · c. 1850 – 1900Cavalier (Figural) ClocksVictorian-era clocks featuring a large figure, often a knight or historical character, beside a small clock drum.1 recorded variations
Precision · c. 1800 – 1850Great Wheel Skeleton ClocksSkeleton clocks featuring an exceptionally large main wheel, often intended to run for a month or longer.1 recorded variations
Domestic · c. 1820 – 1830Lighthouse ClocksAmerican shelf clocks shaped like a lighthouse, featuring a glass dome at the top.1 recorded variations
Specialist · c. 1880 – 1910Mystery Figure ClocksClocks where a figure holds a pendulum that swings without any visible connection to a movement.1 recorded variations