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french industrial Clocks

The world of Nineteenth-Century French Industrial clocks spans several subjects. The earliest industrial clocks were those based on beam engines, steam hammers, ship’s sterns, and light-houses. At the forefront of French Industrial Clocks was the Paris-based clockmaker Andre Roman Guilmet. Guilmet specialized in producing Industrial Clocks, often featuring automatons designed to mimic industrial machinery, such as steam engines or lighthouses. Jules Verne, the French novelist born 1828-1905, inspired millions with his science fiction and fiction. His influences are brought to life within the French Industrial Clock. His novel “Around the World in Eighty Days” inspired the Hot Air Baloon clock and the Steam Train with smoke stack and cowcatcher below. The Guilmet Battleship Clock and Captain Nemo’s Nautilus Submarine were inspired directly by “Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas.”

The connections to the Industrial period and Jules Verne propel these automaton works of art far beyond mere timepieces.