Blog
Marine Chronometers
Today, with satellite navigation systems, finding your position at sea and keeping to a route have become more straight forward but in the past sailors relied upon marine chronometers, precision timepieces, to determine longitude and therefore their exact location.
The Equation of Time
Across the world, for convenience, we have adopted what is referred to as mean time and think of a day as being twenty four hours in length. This is how most mechanical clocks are set up to measure time. However, technically, a day is the duration between one solar noon, the time when the sun is at the highest point in the sky, to the next, this is solar time.
Antique clock repairs, servicing and restoration.
Antique clock repairs and servicing are essential to to maintain good timekeeping and extend the life of your clock. We recommend clocks are serviced every 8 -10 years. It is easy to forget that clocks are machines, working 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Over a year your clock will have ticked over 31 million times, 31,536,000 to be precise and it is fair to say that fine antique clocks have only lasted this long because they have been regularly serviced by their previous owners.
Thomas Mudge & William Dutton selling exhibition and catalogue.
Tobias Birch Fine Antique Clock Dealers are doing something different this year with their stand at the BADA Fair in March. It will, for a week, from 20 March t0 26th March, be the home to a selling exhibition of over 20 clocks and watches made by the famous 18th century partnership of Thomas Mudge and William Dutton.
Living with Antique Clocks
Not only useful, we all need to know the time, antique clocks are beautiful items to own and bring life to the spaces and places they occupy. There is something soothing and reassuring about the gentle, rhythmic tick of a longcase clock in the hall or mantel clock on a fireplace. Our lives may at times feel frantic and rushed but time passes as it always has and I love hearing the soft sound of our longcase clock ticking in the hall as I move about the house.
Collecting Antique Clocks
Prized and valued today as they were when first commissioned and made, fine antique clocks represent a sound financial investment and will be a pleasure to own and incorporate into your daily life. Clocks by the best and most highly regarded makers are highly valued. There have over recent years been dramatic price increases in clocks by leading makers such as Thomas Tompion and Joseph Knibb but you do not have to spend hundreds or tens of thousands of pounds to acquire a good quality clock.