Why We Love Comitti Clocks

Comitti has had many delighted customers over the years and we thought we would include a few of the testimonials written for us by customers who
have had so much pleasure from their Comitti purchases.

Many of our correspondents describe how their clocks have provided a source of enchantment and interest. The comforting presence of a grandfather or grandmother clock is a theme that comes up fairly often too.

"Our Kensington gradfather clock arrived last week. It is absolutely beautiful! The mahogany pillars with brass caps I had requested are exactly how I wished them to be! He is now a British/Texan Clock. Very special indeed! We will always treasure him!
To you and everyone there, all our thanks! When we go by London we will come visit you."
Ana Morcate, Texas, USA

"It is very seldom that I write to a company thanking them for their service, but you compel me to act. My Trafalgar mahogany grandfather clock is absolutely perfect. I am over the moon. I only have praise for the person who installed it, very proficient and dedicated.
Ever since 1950 I always wanted a grandfather clock and now I have one.
Thank you very much for this splendid product."
Mr Salter, Surrey, UK

"This is to acknowledge the return of my clock.
Your service is very much appreciated and it is very pleasant to find a company that still believes in good customer service and I would have no hesitation, in the future, of recoomending your clocks."
R Cowx, Kent, UK

"I telephoned recently regarding a replacement key for a mantel clock. This has now been received and I would like to thank you very much for your kind attention and assistance in this matter.
It is reassuring to receive service such as this, which is most certainly a welcome change."
G West, Surrey, UK

"Just wanted you all to know how much I enjoy my grandfather clock which arrived today. It is the Admiral Nelson grandfather clock and is beautiful."
Joan Quigley, Massachusetts, USA

"We just wanted to convey our delight with our beautiful grandmother clock which was delivered and set up yesterday. I have always wanted to own a grandmother clock and it is everything I hoped it would be-and much more! It looks magnificent in its position in our hallway-in fact it looks as if it has been made especially for that particular space-and I just want to keep looking at it and listening to the chime! The skill of the craftsmen who made it is evident and I would be grateful if you could pass on our thanks and appreciation to them."
Mrs Tyson, Berkshire, UK


Just a handful of the many encouraging testimonials that we have received recently. Comitti are grateful for your feedback as we are a small and dedicated company and it is always interesting to know what our customers feel, and of course, we are always delighted to hear stories about how much pleasure our lovingly hand crafted clocks have brought into peoples lives.

British Railway Clocks

Great Western Railway Clock c1870

Here is an interesting site dedicated to antique British railway clocks. Some of the designs have strong similarities to the Comitti Victorian Wall Clock and others. Railway clocks are particularly popular with collectors and thematic designers not to mention railway enthusiasts and heritage railway organisations. You can see that many of the clocks employ a particularly robust design with very interesting and often quite stout hands to complement heavy and bold face markings; these also include 24 hour scales. The site has clocks from all of the major pre-nationalisation companies along with early British Railways designs.




The Comitti Victorian Wall Clock

Comitti Congreve Clock

This is an animation of the Comitti Congreve clock, another popular and well known specialty model from the makers of the equally notable Grasshopper.

The clock is based on a design by William Congreve c1808, a very popular concept clock with a curiosity value revered by collectors through the ages. The solid brass ball rolls along specially constructed guide channels on a tilted plate where it then triggers an escapement which in turn tilts the plate in the opposite direction sending the ball back to the other end of the channel and again triggering the escapement thus reversing the process once more.

The function of the clock manifests an engaging delineation of the passing of time as a physical process of momentum. The Victorians were particularly keen on machines or mechanical devices that employed novel systems or appeared to describe, measure, or define the magical, divine or simple processes of time and nature, this was a time when the barometer, music boxes and all manner of automata became popular household novelty items.

The Congreve clock actually pre-dates the Victorian era by more than 20 years and many of the innovations that came to be synonymous with the industrial age though it is a highly advanced piece of mechanical engineering. The cycle and regulation of the clock is determined by very complex calculations which take into account the mass, diameter and velocity of the rolling ball and part of this is a function of the angle of the sloping plate, the length of the guide track and radius of the bends in it. The passage of the ball from one end of the track to the other takes approximately 15 seconds. The essential appearance of the clock gives an impression that it is somehow in a state of perpetual motion with only gravity and the potential energy of the ball as a driving force but this can not be possible as another form of energy is required to lift the plate and the ball at each end of its travel. The main driving force for this clock is a large wound coil spring and this provides the lifting energy for the plate which is then transferred to the ball that in turn operates the escapement mechanism.

please visit the Comitti website for more information on the Congreve clock and other traditional grandfather clocks, table top and wall clocks.

The Comitti Grasshopper Clock --- Animated!

Here is an impressive piece of work created by our new graphics junior, it shows an overview of the movement action of Comitti’s famous Grasshopper clock. This is based on a photo that has been used on both the Comitti site and some of our printed literature designed by the folks at the Gate.


The original form of this clock (an 18th Century design by John Harrison) can be seen at the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, London. The animation demonstrates the movement of the double pendulums which were cleverly designed to counteract perturbations that can arise from changing orientation of the clock itself as would happen on board a ship. Our designer has applied the same animation technique to other specialty clocks by Comitti and we will feature those here in the coming days.

European Union Ban On Mercury Barometers

The Sheraton Stick Barometer by Comitti of London.

Many people may already know that Comitti is one of a very small number of companies in the UK that manufacture traditional barometers. In fact, you could count these companies on the fingers on one hand. Barometer making has been a significant craft in Britain for nearly 350 years and ties in with that perennial British obsession --- the weather! This in turn has its roots in traditions arising from our status as an island based nation of seafarers. Barometers were first manufactured for maritime use and employed in both land based and sea going contexts, they gave seafarers a huge advantage as a knowledge of likely and impending weather conditions was so vital in the age of sailing ships.

Now after nearly 350 years the survival of the British craft of barometer making is once again facing a serious threat thanks to ongoing EU legislation on the use of mercury in non-medical instrumentation.

Traditional barometers rely on mercury which is used in the measuring tubes for both temperature and atmospheric pressure. The more sophisticated and scientifically orientated barometers may also contain a wet bulb hygrometer for measuring relative humidity; this is another component that makes use of a small amount of mercury. but later aneroid types with a dial dispaly also use small amounts of mercury for the high accuracy thermometer component. The aneroid barometer will be most familiar to the majority of people. We will keep all interested parties informed through our website, this blog and also the Comitti Face Book page.

Comitti Grasshopper Clock in Chinoiserie

Comitti Grasshopper Clock in Chinoiserie

Comitti have just released a new version of the well know Grasshopper chronometer clock. This highly crafted and intricate time piece now comes with a base finished in Chinoiserie, a style of finish that invokes the feel of ancient Chinese decorations. Chinoiserie is in fact, a uniquely European style that is more a caricature of the traditional Chinese style, a romantic interpretation that appears to meld the oriental with a well established fondness for chintz in 18th century Europe. The Chinoiserie range is very popular and Comitti also make a wide range of table top (bell top) clocks replicating Georgian clock designs in Chinoiserie.