Edward John Dent (1790–1853) discovered his passion for horology from his cousin, Richard Rippon, himself a master watchmaker. Dent established his own company in 1814, and developed a reputation as a builder of accurate chronometers. One of his chronometers won the First Premium Award in the 1829 Greenwich Trials. The Royal Navy equipped themselves with Dent's chronometers.
Two decades later, David Livingstone purchased Dent chronometer no. 1800 for his African explorations, and in 1890, the explorer Henry Morton Stanley was moved to write to Dent that "the Chronometers supplied by you, and which were taken across Africa in my last Expedition, proved a very great service to me and were in every way thoroughly satisfactory and reliable".[5]
Standard clocks
Dent constructed the first Standard Astronomical Clock for the Admiralty in 1814, and went on to supply Standard Clocks throughout the 19th century to Switzerland, Italy, Spain, Belgium, Russia, USA and Japan.
In 1871, Dent was given the honour of making the Standard Clock at the Royal Observatory, Greenwich. In 1924 the BBC’s new Greenwich Time Signal was originated from the Royal Observatory using regulator Dent no. 2016, which sent electrical impulses for the six time “pips”. The clock was later corrected by a Shortt master clock.[6][7]
Public clocks
Dent exhibited a turret clock at the Great Exhibition of 1851 and received a Council Medal; a Dent clock was subsequently installed at King's Cross railway station.[8][9]
It was also Dent who built the mechanism for the 1907 clock placed on a clock tower upon Jaffa Gate in Jerusalem.[10] It was showing both the European and the local ''alaturka'' time[de], on two faces each.[11] The clock tower was demolished for aesthetic reasons in 1922 (although some believe it was rather meant as a measure to push forward the Westernisation of Palestine, starting with timekeeping)[11] and the clock installed that same year in a new, modern nearby clock tower, which was itself demolished in 1934.[12]
Leading horologists like Edward John Dent were keen to compete for the honour of making this most important of clocks. Therefore, in 1846, the Commissioner decided to open it to limited competition.[13]
On 25 February 1852 the contract for constructing Big Ben's clock was awarded to Dent by Sir George Airy, the Astronomer Royal. For the sum of £1,800 (equivalent to £247,000in 2023),[14] Edward John Dent was to construct the clock according to Edmund Beckett Denison's design. Edward John Dent died in 1853 and it was left to his son, Frederick Dent, to complete the job.
Modern revival
Dent clock, St Pancras station
After a period of dormancy in the late 20th century, Dent London was revived and is now operated under the legal entity E. J. Dent & Co. Ltd, based in London, United Kingdom.[15]
In 2007, as part of the restoration of St Pancras International for High Speed 1, Dent was commissioned to produce a new platform clock for the south end of the Barlow trainshed. The dial measures about 18 feet (5.5m) and was built with metal plate, gilded mouldings and Welsh-slate hour markers; the movement uses synchronous power with GPS back-up and automatic summer/winter correction.[16][17] Contemporary coverage noted that fragments of the Victorian dial—rescued and reassembled by railwayman Roland Hoggard after the original was shattered during removal—were used as a reference for the new clock.[18][19] The renewed station, including the clock, was officially opened by Queen Elizabeth II on 6 November 2007.[20]
Intellectual property
Dent instituted its triangular trade mark in 1876 to combat imitation products; period pieces often bear “DENT” within a triangle device.[21][22][23]
By the Victorian era Dent held British Royal Warrants as chronometer, clock and watch makers to the Crown; E. Dent & Co. and M. F. Dent appear on official lists of warrant-holding tradesmen issued by the Lord Chamberlain in the 1880s.[25][26] Period objects also carry the inscription “(Chronometer/Watch)maker to the Queen,” confirming royal patronage under Queen Victoria.[27][28][29]
Outside Britain, Dent advertised and inscribed appointments “to the Emperor of Russia,” and auction-catalogue descriptions record this wording on Dent pieces dated 1875–76.[30] A Science Museum Group entry also notes a **Royal Warrant from Emperor Meiji of Japan in 1880**.[31]
Note: Albert Edward was styled *Prince of Wales* from early **1842**, not 1841.[32]
Collecting and notable sales
In June 2020, a highly complicated Dent pocket watch (the “Ultra Complication”, no. 32573, c.1904) sold for US$832,240 (CHF 800,000) in Sotheby’s online *Masterworks of Time* sale; Sotheby’s stated this was then a world auction record for a watch sold in an online sale and a record for a pocket watch sold online.[33][34][35]
Museum examples
Examples of Dent watches and chronometers are held by UK national museums, including the Science Museum Group and the British Museum.[36][37]
References
↑ Mercer, Vaudrey (1977). The Life and Letters of Edward John Dent, Chronometer Maker, and some account of his Successors. Antiquarian Horological Society. ISBN0901180165.
↑ McKay, Chris (2010). Big Ben: The Great Clock and the Bells at the Palace of Westminster. Oxford University Press. ISBN9780199585694.
↑ Mercer, Vaudrey (1977). The Life and Letters of Edward John Dent, Chronometer Maker and some account of his Successors, p.31, The Antiquarian Horological Society. ISBN0-901180-16-5.
↑ Mercer, Vaudrey (1977). The Life and Letters of Edward John Dent, Chronometer Maker and some account of his Successors, p.540, The Antiquarian Horological Society. ISBN0-901180-16-5.
1 2 Matlow, David (18 February 2024). "Treasure Trove goes back in time, to an obscure system of Ottoman timekeeping". The Canadian Jewish News. Toronto. Retrieved 26 March 2024. ...on two sides showed the time in the European style and on the other two sides showed the time in the alaturka system. The British said that the clock tower was destroyed for aesthetic reasons, although some suggest it was done in order to impose the European time system and modernize Palestine.
↑ The Palestine Post, 27 September 1934, p. 6 (via National Library of Israel, Tel Aviv University: JPress – collection of historical Jewish press)
↑ "E Dent and Company — company profile and timeline". Science Museum Group Collection. Retrieved 26 August 2025. 1876 - the Dent trademark, the triangle, was instituted in an attempt to combat inferior products.
↑ Mercer, Vaudrey (1977). The Life and Letters of Edward John Dent, Chronometer Maker, and some account of his Successors. Antiquarian Horological Society. ISBN0901180165.
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