Manufacture
iFunky provides a captivating tour of the newly re-opened Clocks & Watches gallery at the British Museum in London. This initial installment offers a chronological overview of horological history, from AD 1300 to the present, highlighting the museum's impressive collection and the gallery's layout.
An evening at the British Museum - Part I
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Following the re-opening of the Clocks & Watches gallery at the British Museum, London I had the idea to give you a quick overview of these two rooms.
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The Great Court
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Situated in the upper level of the museum in the rooms 38 and 39 called also The Sir Harry and Lady Djanogly Gallery
The gallery is ordered chronologically from AD 1300 to present. But I would say that the “present” part  is truncated as on the wristwatch board you will read something like that: “At present watches are mainly quartz based due to timekeeping reasons …”  O_o
IMO the interest of the gallery is more the opportunity to get a global overview of the watchmaking’s history over the year: a History of Time (I think the expression is from Frances Spiegel)
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But it seems that another room will open soon and this beautiful clock is a good teaser!
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Please excuse the poor quality of the pictures as I didn’t ask for a special evening and I had to deal with glasses’ reflection and people on the background!
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An evening at the British Museum - Part III This boat is probably (IMO) the most interesting piece of the gallery, so many details, so many automatons ... but probably the only one not working! Marine Chronometers: The "Present" area is relatively poor ... JLC, Omega .... I hope you enjoyed this quick tour of the gallery! Yves
. . . do you remember any details about pocket watch #68? Cordially, Art
Thank you very much for this post. How long has this exhibit been at the Museum? I must've missed it. Really interesting pieces there. The NAWCC museum in Pennsylvania has some neat pieces as well but also falls short in the "modern" section - perhaps most of us are still wearing them!
Art, #68 - what appears to be a twin barrel watch? I have a friend who works for the Museum. I'll see if she can indulge us and find out.
I am working on the review of the Clockmaker's Museum which worth a closer look with the H1 marine chronometer, etc ....!
The museum but saddly these rooms are closed even for the "late".... Anyway I've been able to gather some info but not details one: the pocket watch #68 appears to be from Sir John Bennett it's a "simple" Grande & Petite sonnerie with only a single mainspring, blue hands and white emanel dial ....
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