On Thursday evening, I attended a meeting of the Clock Group from the Harlow area of University of the Third Age.
Local Clock and Watches expert David Penney was there from the Antique Watch Store, who proceeded to show everyone a number of his watches.
One of the most amazing, was an antique French revolutionary pocket watch, which has two time zones - conventional GMT time and 'decimal' time, as the leaders of the Revolution had attempted to change the time of day into ten hours.
He also showed us a Smith wristwatch, which was produced in England up until the Second World War. Our country used to have a proud tradition of watch making but lost out to the Swiss, party because of the invention of machinery, which the industry failed to adopt, partly because watch-makers switched to make war machinery for the war effort.
I have spoken before in the House of Commons about the decline of British Horology and you can read more Here:
http://roberthalfon.blogspot.co.uk/2011/07/history-of-watch-and-clock-making-in-uk.html?m=1
At present there are only a few British watch makers and they produce individual watches costing many thousands of pounds. Windmill watches, painstakingly handmade in Essex, are more affordable - beautiful and unique - but have Swiss automatic movements (http://www.jandtwindmills.com/).
Sadly, most watchmaking has moved to the Far East, where the components are made cheaply, whilst luxury mechanical watches still have their main home in Switzerland.
It was a good evening with the clock group. To see the intricate hand-made mechanics of pocket watched produced hundreds of years ago is something very special - especially to hear the ticking noises and watch the rotation of the springs and wheels.
The attached photos are just a small illustration of what I saw and of the watches some members had. The clock in the picture is an antique which formerly was housed in the the Savoy Hotel.
