A Tale of Two Clocks
A tale of two clocks
The term “Vienna Regulator” brings to many people’s minds a long, narrow wall clock, particularly those with fancy carved tops and columns on the doors made by that great clockmaker Gustav Becker. Why, some even had horsies on top! Dana Blackwell (1) once observed “Today ‘Vienna Regulator’ has become more of a generic term for any long narrow wall clock..”.
In my collecting and, later, selling of Vienna Regulators from Austria, and “Vienna style” regulators from the German factories, I have come to appreciate the variety of styles and heritage associated with these clocks. Vienna Regulators and the Vienna-style regulators are first and foremost “Regulators”, with implied accuracy from being weight driven, and from the use of Graham dead beat escapements. The wide variety of case designs reflect the furniture styles prevalent where and when they were made. Today we can find an amazing and disparate assortment, everything from the rectilinear simplicity of an early 1800s Viennese laturndluhren to the ornate exuberance of the later Altdeutsche period, or the smooth, flowing lines of the Serpentine cases. In addition to these variations in cases we also find fundamental differences between the hand-made Viennese and the German factory-made mechanisms – perhaps as different from each other as a hand-made Aston Martin and a production line Ford Taurus
It is hard to believe that all lumped into the genre of Vienna Regulators!
One of my recent shipments of clocks from Austria contained two rather special examples of what are commonly-called “Vienna Regulators”. While both are floor-standing clocks (Bodenstanduhren in German), and both run for longer than a week (making them long duration clocks), they differ in one very interesting, and important way: One is Austrian, hence a “Vienna Regulator”, the other is German, made in the Viennese-style by Gustav Becker.
This article focuses on their similarities, as well as their differences, and hopefully provides a simplistic understanding of the social and economic realities behind their development. Since the Austrians began making Vienna Regulator roughly a half century before the German factories began making Vienna-style regulators, lets first look into the origins of the Austrian Vienna Regulators.
If you would like to see more pictures of these two clocks please follow these links:
The Becker clock - http://snclocks.smugmug.com/Fantastic-Clock-Mechanisms/VR-639-2-Month-Duration
The Salfer clock - http://snclocks.smugmug.com/Fantastic-Clock-Mechanisms/VR-641-2-month-3-Weight
Figure 1a - Floor Standing Regulator by Johann Salfer, Wien
It’s all the Kaisers fault
If we go back in time to the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, the focus for many clock makers in central Europe was to provide impressive clocks and watches for clerical and aristocratic patrons of the arts. And, while many complex pieces, including complicated astronomical clocks, were produced, style, appearance, and extravagance were often more important than accuracy. Most clocks were spring driven, and ran for less than 3 days. (2)
It is in this environment that we see the impact of politics and the desire to increase the production of clocks having a profound impact on Viennese clock making skills.
In 1781, an insurrection occurred in the city state of Geneva. Geneva was ruled by an alliance that included France and the states of Zurich and Berne.(3) The majority of Geneva’s population of 24,000 wanted their independence. The French and Swiss armies quickly surrounded the city and laid siege. After prolonged negotiations, the rebellious citizens were allowed to leave with all their belongings. Some settled in Brussels and others near Lake Constance which was then part of Austria (3).
Enter the Austrian Kaiser – Franz Joseph II. . He wanted increased foreign trade and believed this could be achieved by establishing Vienna as a center for watchmaking and clockmaking. The Kaiser recognized early on, however, that he first needed to increase the skills of the Viennese craftsmen in order to increase the quality and volume of clocks being made in Vienna. To accomplish this he drew on the skilled clock and watchmakers who had settled in the “Geneva” colony in Constance. (2, 6, 8, 10) His goal was to found watch and clock manufacturing centers in Vienna. In 1789, the “Kaiserlich Koniglich Privilegierte Genfer Uhrenfabrik” (Imperial Royal-Privileged Geneva Clock Factory) was founded.(2) With the arrival of competent Swiss and French trained craftsmen in Vienna, and with governmental support (the “Royal-Privileged” part of the name), the scene was set for developing and strengthening a European clock and watch making center. Apprentices were trained in making watches, springs, dials, verges, files, and drive chains, in short, all the elements that go into making watches, which is what the Uhrenfabrik mainly produced.(10)
The Kaiser, by improving the quality and increasing the quantity of clocks made in Vienna, hoped to generate increased foreign trade. (2)
The Kaier’s dream was never realized. The Viennese watch and clockmakers were too conservative to accept the Swiss methods of production and the expected economic success never came. As a result, the Kaiselich Honiglich Privilegierte Genfer Uhrenfabrik was dissolved in 1800 (2, 8). While the dream, and the hoped for economic success was not realized, the concept of division of labor – the production of dials, springs, hands, in short the components of a clock or watch, as well as the skills necessary to make a Swiss watch, had been introduced to Viennese clock makers (10).
While the combination of Swiss skills and more rational methods of production resulted in an increased supply of less expensive clocks, it also provided the Viennese clock makers with the skills to make the exquisite, long duration mechanisms for which they are now famous. The Viennese spurned factories, but used skills learned from watchmakers to make fantastic clocks!
My work on Viennese mechanisms has shown me the impact of the skills the Viennese gained from the Geneva-colony watch-makers. Master clockmakers handed down their skills to apprentices, who in turn handed down to their apprentices, resulting in Viennese clocks from as late as 1910 with mechanisms of the same exceptional, watch-like quality as those produced in the early years of the 1800s. In particular, the Viennese focus on highly polished pinion gears, mirror-like pallets and burnished pivots exemplified their continued focus on producing beautiful mechanisms – that ran on minimal weight.
While this article discusses Vienna-made Vienna Regulators, there are numerous clocks from other cities that were influenced by the Habsburg empire (Prague, Graz, Linz, and Budapest come to mind) that reflect the same attention to detail and very fine workmanship found in Viennese clocks. These clocks, which I generally refer to as provincial Vienna regulators, often exhibit novel details not typically found in a Viennese piece, but still follow the general form found in Viennese mechanisms.
