Smiths Pocket Watches

The following are two British made Smiths pocket watches. I'd guess they were made in the 1960s.

The spring in the silver watch is broken, so I've spent this evening trying to buy a similar non-working watch on eBay for spare parts... unfortunately with no luck, yet...

Two Smiths pocket watches, and an English penny to show the size of the watches.

Broken watch spring :(

Purley Cross Roundabout Clocks

Purley Cross roundabout is a set of complex traffic circles/roundabouts on the A23 in the London Borough of Croydon. All rules of the road seem to cease when entering Purley Cross roundabout, you need eyes in the back of your head....

Despite the hazards of the roundabout I noticed three clocks:

• A large clock on the tower of the HBOS building (now owned by Lloyds). This is on the north side of the roundabout.
• A Gillett & Johnston clock on the roundabout
• A clock on the tower of Tesco 'extra' supermarket - south of the roundabout.
  

Clock on the HBOS building (now Lloyds Bank) - on the east side of the roundabout. I thought the contrast of building architectures was interesting.

Gillett & Johnston clock on the roundabout

Tesco 'extra' supermarket - south of the roundabout

Tesco Clock Tower

Location: maps.google.com

Update: There are another 2 clocks just north on the roundabout: here's some information about them: Purley Clocks. Thanks to pauljeacock for mentioning the clock above the estate agency.

British Museum

I went to the British Museum today for a quick visit to see the new 'The Sir Harry and Lady Djanogly Gallery' for watches and clocks. The oldest clock in the collection was made in the 15th centuary and is spring driven. The newest clock on display is radio controlled.

Some of the newer watches on display are a 1970s 'Accutron', 1974 'Polara' light emitting diode watch, 1976 George Daniels gold pocket watch, 1980s Omega 'Mega Quartz constellation', 1970s mechanical Hamilton chronograph, 1980s plastic Swatch and a 2007 Casio Waveceptor radio controlled watch.

Here are some photos I took in the museum:

Gothic wall clocks - 1500s

Travelling clock designed by Mudge c1768 - this is a very complicated clock

English clocks 1660 to 1800

In 1831 this Earnshaw chronometer was issued to Beagle for Charles Darwin and Captain Robert Fritzroy's voyage of discovery to the South Pacific

Table clocks - The left clock was was made c1450 but has been modified several times over the years. This is the oldest clock in the British Museum. The clock to the right is a model of the left clock showing what the original mechanism would have looked like.

John Arnold and Sons Chronometer

Atmos clock c1955 - never needs to be manually wound - it winds itself using changing atmospheric pressures. This clock was made by Jaeger-LeCoultre.

Reigate Clocks

I drove through Reigate in Surrey this morning and got a bit distracted by the beautiful architecture and surprisingly large number of public clocks. Reigate is an old English historic market town and it's character has been very well preserved. I spotted the following clocks:

• Clock on top of the Old Town hall in the High Street
• Wall clock outside a Jeweler on the High Street, this was an interesting clock because it's a Smith's clock
• A Rotary street clock on a traffic Island
• A clock on the bell tower of St Mary's Church - when I got there I heard the bells striking for 8am
• Another church clock on St Mark's Parish Church bell tower
• Two clocks on the tower of Reigate Hill House - 28 Reigate Hill

Photos below:

The Old Town Hall - a board on the building has the text: 'This building erected in 1708 & used for nearly two centauries as a market house & town hall, was in 1922 purchased & presented to the corporation by Mr Randan Vogan for the benefit of the inhabitants.'

Another view of the Old Town hall, at 7:35am

A clock was added to the Old Town Hall in 1811

Reigate High Street - Old Town Hall is in centre. A Smith's clock hangs on a wall to the right.

A Smith's Clock hangs over the 'Blue Lime' Diamond Store - The writing on the clock face is: 'Smiths English Clock Systems London'

Rotary Clock on a traffic island in Reigate

The Rotary Club of Reigate - since 1929

AD 2004

St Mary's Reigate - 7:58am

St Mark's Parish Church

St Mark's Parish Church Clock, 8:30am

Reigate Hill - Railway crossing in Reigate

Reigate Hill Clock, at 8:35am

Location on Google Maps: http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=reigate,+surrey&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=51.04407,89.648437&ie=UTF8&ll=51.211185,-0.109863&spn=0.636624,1.400757&z=10

Radio Controlled Alarm Clock

After listening to Atomic Elmer’s Podcasts about atomic timekeeping I decided it was time for a new radio controlled projection alarm clock. I wanted to get an Oregon Scientific clock (as Elmer suggests) but the model I wanted was out of stock at Argos, so I bought a Science Museum projection clock.

4:33PM and the temperature is 19.5 degrees Celsius

The clock sets it self to the correct time every hour using the MSF radio signal broadcast from Anthorn Radio Station in Cumbria, UK. The time signal that is broadcasted is provided by the National Physical Laboratory (NPL) who use atomic clocks to determine the exact time.

The clock projects the time very clearly onto the ceiling. I was actually amazed at how large and clearly the time is displayed. There is a choice of four colours to display the time in – I’ve chosen red, the other colours are a little fuzzy and a bit bright.

4:36PM - 7/2 Saturday

Here’s a list of features of the clock (quoted off the back of the box):

• Automatically set/update time
• Red, green, lilac or blue projection options
• Focus switch between one set colour or random colour change as desired
• LCD display showing time, date and temperature

Requires: 2xAA batteries (included) or 6v AC adaptor (included)