Spring Time --- Return of The Mechanical Wristwatch

According to a recent BBC business news item there has been something of a resurgence of interest in wristwatches with mechanical movements, this in turn has increased the need for more craftsmen (and women) equipped with the unique time honoured skills required for precision watch and clock making. The increased need for specialist craftsman to service mechanical watch movements has also come about as a result of increased ownership of high value prestige time pieces by Rolex and Breitling etc , a legacy of more economically buoyant times. The maintenance of these exquisite and highly intricate watches requires considerable skill as some, especially those with chronograph and chime movements, involve levels of mechanical intricacy that are close to the limit of human dexterity.

The British School of watchmaking based in Manchester is now a rapidly growing institution that provides a comprehensive training in the full range of watchmaking crafts and skills, obviously considerable dexterity and patience is a prerequisite for any budding watchmaker and it is necessary for students to be able to work at the micron scale --- eventually. The schools training program starts at the big end so to speak, ‘big’ here means fractions of a millimetre but even at this scale the level of dexterity and concentration required is beyond many of us.

For more info have a look at the WOSTEP website and / or listen to the BBC in Business piece below.

The British School of Watchmaking

Comitti on Face Book

Comitti Clocks on FaceBook

Comitti clocks are now on Face Book, please have a look at our page and become a fan --- if you can.

The Gastown Steam Clock

I just found this on youtube and thought it was a little quirky, the clock movement is steam powered and a series of steam whistles take the place of more conventional chimes. These clocks are very rare though there are other examples across the world. All were designed by the Canadian horologist Raymond Saunders.

Comitti Longcase Clock Face

The comitti flickr site has been a little dormant for the last few months but hopefully we will be able to upload some new images quite soon. This photo shows an artist hand painting the faceplate of a longcase clock. It is an age old tradition to decorate the face surround of longcase or grandfather clocks and the method is more specifically known as Japanning. Illustrations depicting an idea of time passing were very common with day to night motifs being particularly popular. The idea of time and the temporal cycle of life also ties in with patterns of celestial activity and the celestial connection with time was another common theme in clock face decoration. Anthropomorphic sun and moon iconography featured strongly and some clocks had beautiful sun – moon ‘flags’ that passed through cutouts in the face as the time passed from day to night and vice versa.
Our painter is illustrating this face with a nautical theme which is a little more novel but not uncommon in clocks specifically intended for nautical institutions. Many old clocks intended for industrial or company use had their faces hand painted with logos or other relevant details and many of these are exceptionally collectible. Large numbers of specialist and ornately decorated clocks were manufactured for the railways and shipboard use with major lines.

Comitti Clocks and Crafts on YouTube

Starting our YouTube with a simple video, (well a still with sound track) of the Georgian break arch clock in chinoiserie. We hope to include more material in the coming weeks and some of this may give an insight into our range of crafts and manufacturing processes. Many of the crafts employed by Comitti are now exceptionally rare and highly specialised, often requiring considerable artistic talent and skill. Chinoiserie along with marquetry and ornate cabinet making are significant crafts at Comitti. We also employ the skills of highly creative metal workers who’s abilities are not only essential to the manufacture of traditional clock movements but also our range of specialty clocks with all moving parts on display, essentially constituting an artistic statement in mechanical form.

Grasshopper Clock by Comitti

Comitti may be well known for their extensive experience in the production of more tradition clock designs and mechanisms but did you know that they also make a range of unique specialty clocks? The Grasshopper clock is a particularly interesting example, this exquisite clock is rhodium plated and based on a reciprocating mass concept employed in the first marine chronometers designed by John Harrison (1693 - 1776). It is a very reliable and robust design as befitting shipboard chronometers and more immune to changing orientation than a single pendulum clock.

For more details the Comitti Grasshopper Clock

Georgian Basket Top Clock --- Comitti London.

Georgian Basket Top Clock

This is a new blog for all those interested in horology or clocks, clock making and especially the collection of antique or reproduction clocks. We have a particular interest in Comitti Clocks of London, a very well established clockmaker that continues to produce the most exquisite longcase (grandfather) clocks, mantle, shelf and wall clocks, many of which follow design patterns that are more than 250 years old. Comitti is committed to sourcing and retaining a wide range of associated skills in marquetry, chinoiserie, carpentry and cabinet making and the most skilled craftspeople in these fields have contributed significantly to the ageless or rather ‘timeless’ production quality of the Comitti range of clocks.

Over the coming weeks we will publish a range of stories, links and articles which you may find interesting or useful. These will include news items or other interesting articles from Comitti themselves.