Post by CHIP on Jul 17, 2007 8:48:17 GMT -6
Credit: Ben
While the visual sites can't match the caliber of Al's amazing trip, here is a review of the National Watch and Clock Museum and thought folks might like to see a very nice watch museum/collection a little closer to home for us in the US....
I’d been wanting to head out to the National Watch and Clock Museum for some time and see what was there. The NWACM is in Columbia, Pennsylvania: about 90 miles west of Philadelphia between Lancaster and York, PA. As you may or may not know, Lancaster County is home to a very large Amish community ( www.800padutch.com/amish.shtml ). Lancaster County is full of beautiful farms; little towns (with great double entendre names like Blue Ball, Intercourse, Bird in Hand) with neat shops and plenty of Amish roadside stands where they sell great fruits, vegetables, pickles and some of the best baked goods you’ve ever eaten. A neat place to spend a day.
Here's a quickie snap of a farm scenes, and if you look closely in the second photo you’ll see a great “concept” vehicle being tested to aid in the fight against global warming! Could have been a Ferrari as there was a prancing pony!
So, last weekend my little brother and I decided to ride out to the NWACM and check it out. The first impression riding into town is, “What the hell is a NATIONAL museum doing in Columbia, PA?” There’s not much there to be honest. It’s a small town. That’s it. It made far more sense later when I discovered that when Hamilton made watches in the US their factory was in Lancaster, PA right up the road.
The museum building is really very nice and far larger than I was expecting it to be. There’s a clock tower and another very interesting clock on a pole outside the building.
As expected, the museum takes you through the history of horology and the development of clocks from hour glasses, to grandfather and case clock to watches. And I have to say that I was very impressed with the quantity and quality of the items on display. Everyone associates timekeeping with the Swiss, and rightly so, but I think that I was most amazed at the rich heritage of clock making in the United States.
Here is but a sampling of the displays:
This is an iron, with inlaid silver, monstrance table clock made by N. Bouquet (France) in 1660. The spring-driven movement displayed the time, month and day of the lunar calendar.
Here's a trio of grandfather clocks from the late 18th and early 19th century. The craftsmanship of these clocks - the movements and case work - was just stunning.
Here is but one display wall of case clocks.
In the middle of a large display area was a fabulous French (E. Farcot) pendulum clock that was originally displayed at the 1876 Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia. This was really stunning.
There was a display of 19th century Japanese clocks - know as Shaku-Dokei. The Japanese philosophy and method for telling time om the 19th century, and earlier, is quite fascinating and you can read some more about it here:
www.jcwa.or.jp/eng/historyindustry/history01.html
The pocket watch display was very nice and you could probably have spent a couple of hours just examining all of them. Most were displayed so that you could see both the face in front and the movement in the back.
They had some pretty early pocket watches and I was particularly fascinated with the 1758 model made by Thomas Mudge. It seems that the prevailing style was to have the watch enclosed in either a full or half-hunter case. Some were very plain and others had amazing cases.
Here is an absolutely gorgeous 1910 Patek Phillippe gold pocket watch.
Probably the most stunning pocket watch they had on display, for me, was this quarter-repeater (gold case with silver face sporting engine-turned decoration) made by Abraham Louis Breguet in 1814 especially for Caroline Bonaparte Murat - Napoleon’s sister. I have always liked the styling of Breguet timepieces - and his horological contributions are probably second to none - and to see one made by Breguet himself was a treat.
As you moved through the museum displays you come to a recreation of a 19th century watch and clock store. It was very cool and there was not only a large display of clocks and watches but a collection of fobs, straps and chains. Neat to see.
Finally you come to the wristwatches. There was a large display and collection of Hamilton watches and company memorabilia. I wondered if Hamilton wasn’t, in fact, one of the museum’s main sponsors or benefactors as you could even buy Hamilton watches in the gift shop.
For you Rolex fans out there, here’s an Oyster from 1945.
I’ve always really liked the Hamilton Ventura, as well as their other models in the “Electric” line, and they had a number of them on display. [Note to self: put one of these on wanted list.] This particular model was given out to General Electric employees as bonus gifts.
All in all, I have to say that it was a very nice museum and I plan to go back and spend more time there. I often get sensory overload in museums when there’s so much to see and read. Oh...one of the cool things is that while not every clock was running, the ones that were had the correct time. The Farcot pendulum clock was right on!
Here’s the URL of their web site and I would recommend taking their virtual tour. You’ll see lots of what they have on display.
www.nawcc.org/museum/museum.htm
But if you’re ever in Lancaster County the museum is worth checking out. Oh...and see some of the Amish. They’re an interesting people and they make the best corn fritters and shoe-fly pie on the face of the earth.
-Ben
While the visual sites can't match the caliber of Al's amazing trip, here is a review of the National Watch and Clock Museum and thought folks might like to see a very nice watch museum/collection a little closer to home for us in the US....
I’d been wanting to head out to the National Watch and Clock Museum for some time and see what was there. The NWACM is in Columbia, Pennsylvania: about 90 miles west of Philadelphia between Lancaster and York, PA. As you may or may not know, Lancaster County is home to a very large Amish community ( www.800padutch.com/amish.shtml ). Lancaster County is full of beautiful farms; little towns (with great double entendre names like Blue Ball, Intercourse, Bird in Hand) with neat shops and plenty of Amish roadside stands where they sell great fruits, vegetables, pickles and some of the best baked goods you’ve ever eaten. A neat place to spend a day.
Here's a quickie snap of a farm scenes, and if you look closely in the second photo you’ll see a great “concept” vehicle being tested to aid in the fight against global warming! Could have been a Ferrari as there was a prancing pony!
So, last weekend my little brother and I decided to ride out to the NWACM and check it out. The first impression riding into town is, “What the hell is a NATIONAL museum doing in Columbia, PA?” There’s not much there to be honest. It’s a small town. That’s it. It made far more sense later when I discovered that when Hamilton made watches in the US their factory was in Lancaster, PA right up the road.
The museum building is really very nice and far larger than I was expecting it to be. There’s a clock tower and another very interesting clock on a pole outside the building.
As expected, the museum takes you through the history of horology and the development of clocks from hour glasses, to grandfather and case clock to watches. And I have to say that I was very impressed with the quantity and quality of the items on display. Everyone associates timekeeping with the Swiss, and rightly so, but I think that I was most amazed at the rich heritage of clock making in the United States.
Here is but a sampling of the displays:
This is an iron, with inlaid silver, monstrance table clock made by N. Bouquet (France) in 1660. The spring-driven movement displayed the time, month and day of the lunar calendar.
Here's a trio of grandfather clocks from the late 18th and early 19th century. The craftsmanship of these clocks - the movements and case work - was just stunning.
Here is but one display wall of case clocks.
In the middle of a large display area was a fabulous French (E. Farcot) pendulum clock that was originally displayed at the 1876 Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia. This was really stunning.
There was a display of 19th century Japanese clocks - know as Shaku-Dokei. The Japanese philosophy and method for telling time om the 19th century, and earlier, is quite fascinating and you can read some more about it here:
www.jcwa.or.jp/eng/historyindustry/history01.html
The pocket watch display was very nice and you could probably have spent a couple of hours just examining all of them. Most were displayed so that you could see both the face in front and the movement in the back.
They had some pretty early pocket watches and I was particularly fascinated with the 1758 model made by Thomas Mudge. It seems that the prevailing style was to have the watch enclosed in either a full or half-hunter case. Some were very plain and others had amazing cases.
Here is an absolutely gorgeous 1910 Patek Phillippe gold pocket watch.
Probably the most stunning pocket watch they had on display, for me, was this quarter-repeater (gold case with silver face sporting engine-turned decoration) made by Abraham Louis Breguet in 1814 especially for Caroline Bonaparte Murat - Napoleon’s sister. I have always liked the styling of Breguet timepieces - and his horological contributions are probably second to none - and to see one made by Breguet himself was a treat.
As you moved through the museum displays you come to a recreation of a 19th century watch and clock store. It was very cool and there was not only a large display of clocks and watches but a collection of fobs, straps and chains. Neat to see.
Finally you come to the wristwatches. There was a large display and collection of Hamilton watches and company memorabilia. I wondered if Hamilton wasn’t, in fact, one of the museum’s main sponsors or benefactors as you could even buy Hamilton watches in the gift shop.
For you Rolex fans out there, here’s an Oyster from 1945.
I’ve always really liked the Hamilton Ventura, as well as their other models in the “Electric” line, and they had a number of them on display. [Note to self: put one of these on wanted list.] This particular model was given out to General Electric employees as bonus gifts.
All in all, I have to say that it was a very nice museum and I plan to go back and spend more time there. I often get sensory overload in museums when there’s so much to see and read. Oh...one of the cool things is that while not every clock was running, the ones that were had the correct time. The Farcot pendulum clock was right on!
Here’s the URL of their web site and I would recommend taking their virtual tour. You’ll see lots of what they have on display.
www.nawcc.org/museum/museum.htm
But if you’re ever in Lancaster County the museum is worth checking out. Oh...and see some of the Amish. They’re an interesting people and they make the best corn fritters and shoe-fly pie on the face of the earth.
-Ben