Zoom
Vienna, first half of the 19th century
- Case
- ebonized and polished fruit wood
- Dial
- silver-plated regulator dial with large chapter ring for seconds and subsidiary dial for minutes and hours
- Movement
- cylinder escapement, visible balance wheel with ruby bearing and fine adjustment
- Height
- 8½ in
So-called regulator dials were a special form of time display and were mostly used on precision clocks. They were mainly found on wall and longcase regulators that were used by clockmakers to finely regulate other clocks – hence the name regulator.
The focus of regulator dials is usually on the minute. The hours and seconds are subordinate and are located in small sub-dials on the lower levels of the motion work so that they do not obscure the minute hand. In the case of this rare Viennese table clock, however, the large display belongs to the seconds alone – the hours and minutes are displayed on a small sub-dial. The requirements for this unusual timepiece were therefore different. Clocks like these may have originally been located in observatories and physical institutes where observations were made to the second. It could also have been used in a doctor’s surgery to measure the pulse.
Another eye-catching feature of the unusual silver-plated dial is the visible balance wheel with ruby bearing. The balance wheel rotates back and forth and, together with the balance spring attached to it, forms an oscillating system that acts (in combination with the cylinder escapement) as the timekeeping element and thus generates the ticking and subsequently the hand movement of the clock. This centerpiece of the movement is showcased accordingly in this timepiece. The segmental arch-shaped opening with setting pin is the fine adjustment of the movement.