Introducing Clocktime Digital Museum – Watch Affinity
Clocktime is the brainchild of Dr. John C Taylor OBE FREng, who is a world-renowned inventor and horologist. In fact, there is a high likelihood that you have benefited from using his most famous invention within the last few hours in your own home: amongst his 400+ patents, is the bi-metallic controller which is used to switch off kettles when they reach boiling point!
Over his incredible career, he created many inventions that are still used today, and in 2011 was appointed as a Fellow to the Royal Academy of Engineering, as well as receiving an OBE in the New Year Honours for his services to business and horology.
He also counts himself as a recipient of the Harrison Medal from the Worshipful Company of Clockmakers for excellence in horology.
You might wonder what the link is between kettle controls and horology… well, Dr. Taylor views the clock as mankind’s most important invention, and so has a particular affinity for watchmaking and clockmaking, given they have such a unique place spanning both artistry and engineering. Over the course of 30 years, Dr. Taylor has amassed an incredible collection of early British watches and clocks, and other scientific instruments.
And of course, as an inventor and lover of all things horological, it’s perhaps unsurprising that he invented a special “Chronophage” clock, but more on that later…
Dr. Taylor is also a very generous philanthropist, having made multiple donations to support engineers in the UK, ensuring that budding engineers have the resources available to reach their potential. It is through this spirit of philanthropy that Clocktime has been launched – Dr. Taylor’s way of sharing this collection and passion with the world, creating an online resource which is accessible to everyone for years to come.
Clocktime Digital Museum
The digital museum can be visited at Clocktime.co.uk, and I highly recommend setting some time aside to explore it properly. You’ll find a huge number of exhibits and an absolute wealth of horological information and history – the amount of content available is really quite astonishing, and you can tell it has been a real labour of love to bring Clocktime to life.
The online exhibits are split out into important watches and clocks, and people. At the time of writing, these include 24 clock exhibits, 5 watches, and nearly 60 people including the likes of Christiaan Huygens, Thomas Tompion, Thomas Mudge and John Harrison. There are also more than 50 videos across the exhibits, with Dr. Taylor himself talking about the pieces on show, including their design, the movements inside, the people who made them, and the historic context from which they emerged.
Creating all of this took Dr. Taylor and his team eight years to complete.
One of my favourite details on the site is that whenever a page loads with the watches or clocks, the thumbnails of the pieces come to life, and actually advance as they do in real life to show the local time of where you are accessing the museum from! This means you get to see the hands and complications in action, and of course any that catch your eye you can immediately check out the exhibit and learn more about it.
I think this is a novel way of showing the exhibits online, and a clever way of bringing them to life in place of otherwise still photographs.
In terms of learning about horological history, there is also a timeline page, which details 99 key moments, events and inventions spanning the period from 3500BC right up until Greenwich Meridian Time was adopted worldwide in 1884. Of course, each of these key milestones has its own exhibit article, too, should you wish to learn more about it.
The team have done a wonderful job in creating Clocktime, and I would encourage anybody keen to learn more about horology to take a look.
