Comitti of London is a British company which designs and manufactures handcrafted timepieces.
Comitti of London was founded in 1845 by Onorato Comitti, an Italian precision instrument maker who moved to England, [1] and started a business designing and manufacturing barometers. [2]
Onorato Comitti opened his first workshop in 1850 alongside other specialist makers in Clerkenwell, London. He produced a number of recording instruments, including mercury and aneroid barometers. Comitti attempted to copyright the text on the face of one of his newly designed barometers, but was turned down, and the resulting court case is used as an example in books about copyright law. [3] [4]
During the late Victorian period that company expanded its line to include clocks, [5] receiving the Diploma of Honour for the company’s workmanship in 1888.
In 1903 the company's premises were destroyed by fire. [6]
For Queen Elizabeth II’s Diamond Jubilee, Comitti created an architectural floor clock with an English regulator movement, [7] now in Buckingham Palace. [8] [9]
At 2015 Comitti remains a family-owned business, run by the fifth generation. It continues to manufacture traditional luxury timepieces. [10] [11] Some of the company's older designs have become collector's items. [12]
The hobby of collecting includes seeking, locating, acquiring, organizing, cataloging, displaying, storing, and maintaining items that are of interest to an individual collector. Collections differ in a wide variety of respects, most obviously in the nature and scope of the objects contained, but also in purpose, presentation, and so forth. The range of possible subjects for a collection is practically unlimited, and collectors have realised a vast number of these possibilities in practice, although some are much more popular than others.
A barometer is a scientific instrument that is used to measure air pressure in a certain environment. Pressure tendency can forecast short term changes in the weather. Many measurements of air pressure are used within surface weather analysis to help find surface troughs, pressure systems and frontal boundaries.
Celluloids are a class of materials produced by mixing nitrocellulose and camphor, often with added dyes and other agents. Once much more common for its use as photographic film before the advent of safer methods, celluloid's common contemporary uses are for manufacturing table tennis balls, musical instruments, combs, office equipment, fountain pen bodies, and guitar picks.
A clockmaker is an artisan who makes and/or repairs clocks. Since almost all clocks are now factory-made, most modern clockmakers only repair clocks. Modern clockmakers may be employed by jewellers, antique shops, and places devoted strictly to repairing clocks and watches. Clockmakers must be able to read blueprints and instructions for numerous types of clocks and time pieces that vary from antique clocks to modern time pieces in order to fix and make clocks or watches. The trade requires fine motor coordination as clockmakers must frequently work on devices with small gears and fine machinery.
Waring & Gillow was a noted firm of English furniture manufacturers and antique dealers formed in 1897 by the merger of Gillows of Lancaster and London and Waring of Liverpool.
Charles Frodsham was a distinguished English horologist, establishing the firm of Charles Frodsham & Co, which remains in existence as the longest continuously trading firm of chronometer manufacturers in the world. In January 2018, the firm launched a new chronometer wristwatch, after sixteen years in development. It is the first watch to use the George Daniels double-impulse escapement.
Although an antique tool might be said to be one that is more than a hundred years old, the term is often used to describe any old tool of quality that might be deemed collectable.
A lighthouse clock is a type of mantel clock manufactured in the U.S. from 1818 through 1830s by the American clockmaker Simon Willard, having the dial and works exposed beneath a glass dome on a tapered, cylindrical body.
A skeleton clock is any clock or wristwatch, though typically mechanical in nature, in which the parts that usually conceal the inner workings of the mechanism have been removed or significantly modified so as to display these inner parts.
Manufacture Jaeger-LeCoultre SA, or simply Jaeger-LeCoultre, is a Swiss luxury watch and clock manufacturer founded by Antoine LeCoultre in 1833 and is based in Le Sentier, Switzerland. Since 2000, the company has been a fully owned subsidiary of the Swiss luxury group Richemont.
A marine chronometer is a precision timepiece that is carried on a ship and employed in the determination of the ship's position by celestial navigation. It is used to determine longitude by comparing Greenwich Mean Time (GMT), and the time at the current location found from observations of celestial bodies. When first developed in the 18th century, it was a major technical achievement, as accurate knowledge of the time over a long sea voyage was vital for effective navigation, lacking electronic or communications aids. The first true chronometer was the life work of one man, John Harrison, spanning 31 years of persistent experimentation and testing that revolutionized naval navigation.
Gallet (ˈgæl.eɪ) is a historic Swiss manufacturer of high-end timepieces for professional, military, sports, racing, and aviation use. Gallet is the world's oldest clock making house with history dating back to Humbertus Gallet, a clock maker who became a citizen of Geneva in 1466. The Gallet & Cie name was officially registered by Julien Gallet (1806–1849) in 1826, who moved the family business from Geneva to La Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland. Prior to this date, operations commenced under the name of each of the Gallet family patriarchs.
Benjamin Vulliamy, was a British clockmaker responsible for building the Regulator Clock, which, between 1780 and 1884, was the main timekeeper of the King's Observatory Kew and the official regulator of time in London. In 1773 Vulliamy had received a Royal Appointment as the King's Clockmaker.
A French Empire-style mantel clock is a type of elaborately decorated mantel clock that was made in France during the Napoleonic Empire (1804–1814/15). Timekeepers manufacturing during the Bourbon Restoration (1814/1815–1830) are also included within this art movement as they share similar subjects, decorative elements, shapes, and style.
James W. Van Inwagen Jr. was an American businessman and a member of the Tiffany family. He played college football for the University of Michigan from 1888 to 1891 and was captain of the 1891 Michigan Wolverines football team. After graduating from Michigan, he operated the Tiffany Enameled Brick Company in Illinois with his father, James Van Inwagen Sr. He later moved to New York where he served as the president of the Tiffany Electric Manufacturing Company, the maker of Tiffany Never-Wind Clocks.
Mühle-Glashütte GmbH nautische Instrumente und Feinmechanik is a German maker of nautical instruments, ship's timepieces and wristwatches, based in Glashütte, Saxony, founded in 1994, and refounded in 2007 following bankruptcy.
Joseph Windmills (c1640-1724), was an eminent London watch- and clockmaker who, with his son Thomas, produced outstanding timepieces between 1671 and 1737.
Pierre Frey SA is a French interior design company founded in 1935 by designer Pierre Frey. The family-owned company designs and manufactures traditional French fabrics, wallpapers, carpets, rugs and furniture.
Thomas Fattorini Ltd is a manufacturing jeweller and designer-maker of awards, trophies, ceremonial swords, civic insignia, medals and name badges. The company is located on three sites in Manchester, Birmingham and London with their head office in Skipton, North Yorkshire.
The Negress head clock is a type of French Empire mantel clock depicting the head of a black woman flanked by sculptured putti. It is considered among the eccentricities of French horology and had drawn attention during the late eighteenth century. Five examples are noted in prominent collections.