Lot 70

Ecole de Cluses

Ecole Nationale d'Horlogerie

A rare motor rewound 1 second pendulum clock, made at the Ecole Nationale d'Horlogerie Cluses Haute-Savoie

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It appears that the school made no commercial clocks, and the Ecole de Cluses clocks are all "apprentice pieces" made by the students or made by staff.
This rare type of clock is a motor rewound 1 second pendulum clock, a mechanical clock rewound by an electric motor of the "OK" type found in O’Keenan clocks. These seem to have been made over a long period in smaller numbers as known clocks are dated between 1924 and 1944. A clock "rewound by a magneto" is described in the Cluses exhibit at the Universal Exhibition of 1900 in the Journal Suisse d’Horologie of 12 June 1900 but its type is unclear. These motor rewound clocks do not carry student’s name plaques, some have a name on the dial, others nothing.
Early clocks have a mahogany case, curved front glass, skeleton dial and a pendulum bob with a points at each side and a horsehoe magnet curved over the bob and extending down each side of the coil.
A number of other clocks with various complications are known and can be seen in the le Musée de l’Horlogerie et du Décolletage de Cluses including those made by Charles Poncet himself.

The École d'Horlogerie de Cluses was founded in 1848 to stimulate industry in the Haute Savoie region. Initially the course seems to have concentrated on watch and clock making and, unusually for its time, admitted female as well as male students.
The key figure from the viewpoint of electric clocks was (Jean) Charles Poncet, son of a watchmaker born in 1868. He trained at the school from 1883 to 1886 and was appointed a teacher in 1892 and subsequently director of the school from 1905 until 1934.
He was responsible for a very futuristic curriculum. At a time when most traditional clockmakers expressed no interest in electric clocks, the students at the Cluses school studied all aspects of electrical clocks in their 2nd and 3rd years, and also learnt about electric lights, telegraphy, telephones and other electrical devices. By 1900 there were 140 students in total including students from many European countries and even North and South America, taking a course lasting 3 years. Cluses and the surrounding area became a major clockmaking centre with over 40 clock and component manufacturers, particularly expert in making screws and lathe cutting.
Charles Poncet designed the "Pendule à galette" a clock named after its wafer thin coil. The coil impulses a half second pendulum with a magnet passing the coil closely on each side. It is unclear whether all students made a "Pendule à galette" during their course.
The school of clockmaking closed and became a school, the Lycée Technique d'État Charles Poncet, in 1960 and eventually closed in 1989.
Quelle: www.wp.clockdoc.org