B.C. 300
Toothed wheels for transmission of power
attributed to Archimedes.

A.D. 330
Sand glasses known to be in use.

885
Alfred the great used candles as "clocks."

1360
The first mechanical clock was constructed in France.

1368
Clockmaking in England started.

1386
England's earliers known public clock was installed at Salisbury Cathedral. It had no hands but it indicated time by striking the hours.

1490
Mainspring invented by Peter Hele, or Henlein,
a locksmith of Nuremburg. About this time the small
domestic, or table clock made its appearance.

1510
The first watch was made at about this time.

1525
Jacob the Czech created the fusee.

1530
Screws made their appearance.

1541
An astronomical clock was fixed in one of
the towers of Hampton Court Palace.

1581
Galileo, Italian Astronomer and Physicist, and college professor born in Piza, Italy discovered the properties of the pendulum. Galileo was a twenty-year-old college student when on a visit to the city's cathedral, he watched a suspended lamp swinging back and forth. Timing it with the beat of his pulse, he discovered that a long swing moves faster than a short swing. Because of this quality, long and short swings take the same amount of time to make a complete cycle.

1587
Watchmaking industry commenced in Geneva.

1610
Glasses as protection for watch dial and hand introduced.

1635
Enamel dials invented by Paul Viet of Blois, France.

1640
Germans began making Black Forest clocks.

1650
Christiaan Huygens, a Dutch Physicist, made
The first American tower clock was completed in Boston.

1657
Christiaan Huygens, a Dutch Physicist, made
the first pendulum controlled clock.

1660
The balance or hairspring came into use.

1666
The recoil anchor excapement, possibly invented
by Dr. Robert Hooke between 1666 and 1667.

1671
Pendulum suspension spring introduced by
William Clement. The first known clock with
anchor excapement made by William Clement.

1675
Royal Observatory at Greenwich founded. Edward Booth
( Later Rev. Edward Barlow ) invented the
Rack Striking Mechanism for clocks.

1676
The concentric minute hand, with motion work
similar to that in use today, was used by
Daniel Quare, a famous London maker and
others. Daniel Quare also made repeating watches

1680
The Seconds Hand is introduced.

1700
Clocks started appearing in homes as a mark of prosperity.

1704
Nicholas Facio, FRS, a native of Geneva, who
settled in London, succeeded in piercing
rubies and sapphires for use as jewelled
bearing for balance staff pivots.

1715
George Graham invented the dead-beat
excapement for clocks.

1716
A public clock built by Joseph Phillips tolled the news of Washington's inauguration in New York City

1721
George Graham's mercurial pendulum was first used.

1725
John Harrison invented the grid-iron compensation pendulum.

1725
George Graham invented the cylinder escapement.

1726
Ebenezer Parmelee of Guilford, Connecticut, built a clock that was installed in the towns's church tower.

1730
A German Clockmaker named Anton Ketterer made his first cuckoo clock.

1740
Mahogany is introduced for British clock cases.

1750
Round dials were introduced for shelf clocks.

1750
Edward Duffield made Philadelphia's first town clock.

1765
Centre Seconds hand introduced. " Tell-tale" clocks
invented by John Whitehurst, FRS, a celebrated
clockmaker of Berby and London. (1713-1788)

1765
Pierre Le Roy of Paris invented the compensation balance.

1793
Eli Terry began making clocks near Plymouth, Connecticut.

1797
Eli Terry was awarded a patent for an "equation clock," which had two dials. One dial showed sun time and the other true time.

1800
Production of wooden clocks began in the United States.

1802
Simon Willard patented his "Improved Timepiece," later called the "banjo clock" because of its shape.

1809
Eli Terry established a partnership with Seth Thomas.

1810
Seth Thomas and Silas Hoadley bought Eli Terry's Plymouth clock shop.

1812
Eli Terry opened an experimental shop that produced inexpensive wooden shelf clocks.

1813
Seth Thomas set up his own shop in Plymouth Hollow, Connecticut and became a prolific clockmaker.

1816
Eli Terry patented a pillar-and-scroll shelf clock with a thirty-hour wooden works. For a short time, Chauncey Jerome made clock cases for Eli Terry.

1817
Joseph Ives applied for a patent on "looking-glass" clock cases.

1818
Joseph Ives made a brass clock movement with steel plates.

1820
Side-column clocks made their appearance.

1822
The "lighthouse' clock was patterned after Eddystone Lighthouse in Plymouth, England. Simon Willard introduced the clock, which was eight-day, weight-driven, and featured an alarm and glass dome.

1824
Chauncey Jerome formed a partnership with his brother, Noble, and with Elijah Darrow to manufacture clocks. The firm Jeromes & Darrow, was named to produce their clocks.

1824
Joseph Ives perfected a spring-driven shelf clock using flat-leafed springs instead of coiled ones.

1825
Chauncey Jerome patented a bronze looking-glass clock with bronze-colored pilasters, a thirty-hour wooden movement, and a mirror instead of a tablet.

1827
Chauncey Jerome invented a one-day weight-driven clock named the "OG" (ogee). OG clocks have veneer frames with S-curved molding.

1830
Silas B. Terry (Eli Terry's son), patented a method for tempering coiled springs so they could be produced inexpensively.

1831
Rolled brass became more available for clock movements and brass started replacing wood for clock plates.

1833
Elisha Brewster started a factory at Bristol under the name Brewster & Ingraham.

1831
Elias Ingraham founded the E. Ingraham Company.

1836
James S. Ives of Bristol received a patent for a brass coiled clock spring.

1838
The brass shelf clock was developed.

1840
Elias Ingraham of Bristol designed the steeple clock, also known as the sharp Gothic clock.

1840
Spring-driven clocks were introduced.

1840
Alexander Bain, an Edinburgh clockmaker,
made the first electric clock.

1845
One of Jerome's Bristol factories burned down and more than fifty thousand brass movements were destroyed.

1847
An economic depression halted American clockmaking and led to the demise of the wooden clock movement.

1848
A Howard tower clock was installed in a church in New Hampshire.

1850
Spring-driven clocks began to replace weight-driven clocks.

1850
Cheaper steel springs began to replace brass-coiled springs for small clocks.

1850
H.J. Davis made an illuminated alarm clock.

1850
Anson Phelps established the Ansonia Clock Company in Ansonia, Connecticut.

1853
Many patents issued for calendar clocks.

1854
A fire at the Ansonia Clock Company forced the company to move to Phelps Mill and opened under the new name of the Ansonia Brass and Copper Company.

1855
The New Haven Clock Company took over the Jerome Manufacturing Company but continued to use the Jerome name.

1858
The British Horological Institute, an association
of Clock and Watch Makers for the purpose of advancing
the horological art, was founded. "The Horological Journal,"
the oldest periodical dealing with the craft, was stated.

1859
Ansonia patented its "swinging doll" clock.

1859
Seth Thomas died.

1859
Westminster chimes introduced.

1864
Mozart, Beach & Hubbell patented a perpetual-calendar clock that needed to be wound only once a year.

1864
The E.N. Welch Manufacturing Company is established.

1865
Ithaca Calendar Clock Company is established using Henry B. Horton's perpetual roller-type calendar clock patent.

1865
Georges Frederick Roskopf developed
the pin pallet escapement.

1866
Plymouth Hollow was renamed Thomaston, Connecticut, to honor Seth Thomas.

1867
Battery-opperated clocks introduced.

1869
Celluloid, a flammable plastic, was developed. It would later be used on clock cases to simulate amber, onyx, tortoise shell, and other materials.

1868
Joseph K. Seem patented a method of attaching three small disks to the back of an existing clock dial, making it a simple calendar clock.

1871
Daniel Gale of Sheboygan, Wisconsin, patented an astronomical calendar clock dial.

1878
Before 1878 Ansonia clocks were marked "Ansonia, Connecticut."

1879
After 1878 Ansonia clocks were marked "New York."

1880
Fancy shelf-clocks with cases of iron and bronze were introduced.

1880
The lyrics of a song fave the long-case clock its nickname: "My grandfather clock was too tall for the shelf, so it stood ninety years on the floor." Since this time, the long-case clocks have been know as the grandfather clock.

1880
G.M.T. became the standard time for
the whole of the United Kingdom.

1880
Charles R. Sligh forms the
Sligh Furniture Company

1881
The Yale Clock Company, of New Haven, Connecticut introduced "novelty clocks".

1883
A.D. Clausen patented the "Ignatz" or "Flying Pendulum" clock.

1883
Benjamin Franklin of Chicago patented a perpetual calendar clock mechanism that could be attached to an existing clock by cutting a hole in its dial.

1884
The meridian of Greenwich was adopted by
international agreement as the zero or prime
meridian from which the longitude of all
places in the world is measured.

1886
The Darche Electric Clock Company of Chicago, Illinois, and Jersey City, New Jersey, made battery-alarm timepieces.

1888
The F. Kroeber Clock Company introduces it new line of eight-day walnut shelf and mantel clocks with gong strike. Their new models were named; The Fulton, Angel Swing No.2, Corinth, Congress, Mariposa, Leghorn, Jerfferson, Floretta, Essex, Virgil, Wanderer, Vixen, Thunderer, Polaris, Arctic, and Langtry.

1888
The Self Winding Clock Company of New York City started making electric and battery-powered clocks.

1895
The first electric master clock and impulse dial system
was invented by Frank Hope-Jones, F.B.H.I. Upon which
all modern impulse clock systems are based.

1895
The Western Clock Manufacturing Company began in La Salle, Illinois.

1897
The Chelsea Clock Company began operating in Chelsea, Massachusetts. The company made automobile and ship slocks, as well as clocks for the home.

1897
About this time, Simplex Company of Gardner, Massachusetts, began making time recorders and time clocks.

1900
Electric contacts are fitted to a Marine Chronometer
for the purpose of impulsing secondary dials.

1916
Summer Time first introduced.

1918
The alternating current synchronous motor was first
applied to clocks by H.C. Warren in the U.S.A.,
although the principle had been discussed as far back as 1895.
Thus came the first "plug into mains" clock.

1921
Study and development of the Quartz Crystal clock
commenced by Dr. Warren A. Marrison, F.B.H.I.
a Canadian who became an American citizen.

1937
Quartz Crystal clocks introduced at
the Royal Greenwich Observatory.

1955
Atomic Clock invented by Dr. L. Essen, O.B.E., F.B.H.I.
National Physical Laboratory, Teddington.

1960
Sligh purchases the Trend Clock Company
and starts producing the Sligh Clocks.

1969
A family in Lynnwood, Washington starts building fine clocks under the Ansonia name. Their later models were loaded with beveled glass and became very popular.

2006
The Sligh Clock Company
announces that they will
no longer manufacturer clocks.

2007
Ansonia Clock Company
of Lynnwood, Washington
announces that they will
no longer manufacturer clocks.