Pocket watches · Complication
Alarm Pocket Watches
Partially verifiedWatches fitted with a striking mechanism triggered automatically at a pre-set time rather than on demand, sounding a bell or gong.
Mechanism
A trip lever releases the alarm train when the hour hand (or a marker disc) reaches the pre-set position, running until the alarm spring is exhausted or the mechanism is stopped.
Typical characteristics
- Separate alarm-setting disc or hand on the dial
- Dedicated alarm barrel and train
- Often a louder single hammer and bell than a repeater's gongs
Identification characteristics
- Extra hand or rotating disc for alarm setting
- Separate winding square or crown for the alarm train
Collector significance
A functional complication whose practical importance declined as household and pocket clocks with alarms became common, but which remains a specialist collecting category.
Known variations
- Bell alarm
- Gong alarm
- Travel alarm derivative forms
Photographs
Photographs are illustrative examples of the type, not necessarily the exact object described. Verify details against the source file page.
Sources & references
- General horological surveys; specific attribution of early examples is often disputed.
Where sources disagree, the disagreement is stated rather than resolved silently.