Watches / [by] Cecil Clutton and George Daniels.

By: Contributor(s): Material type: TextTextSeries: Studio bookPublisher: New York : Viking Press, 1965Edition: [1st edition]Description: xvi, 159 pages : illustrations (some color) ; 31 cmContent type:
  • text
  • still image
Media type:
  • unmediated
Carrier type:
  • volume
Subject(s): Genre/Form: Summary: No major book on watches has been published since G. H. Baillie's great work in 1929, now long out of print; and nearly ten years have passed since the publication of the seventh edition of Old Clocks and Watches and Their Makers of which Cecil Clutton was a co-author, which is a general work, equally divided between clocks and watches. There has been a greatly increased interest in watches in the last decade (ample evidence of this is afforded by the sales-rooms), and this has led to the need for a really exhaustive work on the subject such as this one. The historical section of the book gives equal importance to the decorative and mechanical aspects of watches, presented in a way which will apeal to a wide range of readers; and it covers their whole history from the mid-sixteenth to the mid-twentieth century. But whereas the previous generatoin of collectors was most interested in decorative verge watches, the trend today is towards the precision watch, especially of the 1780-1830 period. While the earlier periods have by no means been neglected, it is in the later ones that the reader will find most that is likely to be new to him. For the growing class of technical-minded collectors, the technical section of the book seeks to give an insight into the minds of the great makers of the past in a way that perhaps has never been attempted before, by its critical approach to the varoius escapements. The 597 illustrations have been planned to cover all the important and many less important types of watch, and are about equally divided between their exteriors and interiors. The reader may be surprised not to find more line-drawings of escapements, but the authors decided on the bold step of replacing these by large-scale photographs of the escapements, separately mounted, which they believe will give a better idea of the mechanism. This authentic and comprehensive book is addressed primarily to the serious student, but it will also delight the ordinarily interested reader or collector.
Holdings
Item type Current library Call number Status Date due Barcode
Books Books Jost Bürgi Library Reading Room NK7489 .C58 1965 (Browse shelf(Opens below)) Available 31560000058889
Books Books Jost Bürgi Library Reading Room NK7489 .C58 1965 (Browse shelf(Opens below)) Available 31560000081956
Browsing Jost Bürgi Library shelves, Shelving location: Reading Room Close shelf browser (Hides shelf browser)
NK7489 .C48 1999 Designers of time / NK7489 .C54 2009 Masters of contemporary watchmaking / NK7489 .C54 2009 Masters of contemporary watchmaking / NK7489 .C58 1965 Watches / NK7489 .C58 1965 Watches / NK7489 .C85 2010 How the watch was worn : a fashion for 500 years / NK7489 .C87 1971 Early watches /

No major book on watches has been published since G. H. Baillie's great work in 1929, now long out of print; and nearly ten years have passed since the publication of the seventh edition of Old Clocks and Watches and Their Makers of which Cecil Clutton was a co-author, which is a general work, equally divided between clocks and watches. There has been a greatly increased interest in watches in the last decade (ample evidence of this is afforded by the sales-rooms), and this has led to the need for a really exhaustive work on the subject such as this one. The historical section of the book gives equal importance to the decorative and mechanical aspects of watches, presented in a way which will apeal to a wide range of readers; and it covers their whole history from the mid-sixteenth to the mid-twentieth century. But whereas the previous generatoin of collectors was most interested in decorative verge watches, the trend today is towards the precision watch, especially of the 1780-1830 period. While the earlier periods have by no means been neglected, it is in the later ones that the reader will find most that is likely to be new to him. For the growing class of technical-minded collectors, the technical section of the book seeks to give an insight into the minds of the great makers of the past in a way that perhaps has never been attempted before, by its critical approach to the varoius escapements. The 597 illustrations have been planned to cover all the important and many less important types of watch, and are about equally divided between their exteriors and interiors. The reader may be surprised not to find more line-drawings of escapements, but the authors decided on the bold step of replacing these by large-scale photographs of the escapements, separately mounted, which they believe will give a better idea of the mechanism. This authentic and comprehensive book is addressed primarily to the serious student, but it will also delight the ordinarily interested reader or collector.

31560000058889 475

History of the technology and aesthetics of watches

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