Ship's chronometer: a brief history of navigation. Vintage marine ship clock Marine clock produced by NKPS 1939

Before you buy antique cabin wall and table clocks with strikes and antique marine ship clocks that chime sea bells in Moscow, read the information below and look into this section.

Measuring accurate time in the navy has become absolutely necessary since the time of Christopher Columbus. For example, on long ocean voyages it was impossible to determine longitude if there was no clock on board showing the time of the departure port. Navigational problems associated with the lack of accurate time on ships became so acute that at the beginning of the eighteenth century, British and Spanish authorities offered huge rewards to scientists who could create a stopwatch capable of maintaining stable accuracy during transportation and during pitching (pendulum mechanisms of that time could not work in the sea).

Such a measuring device was invented by British watchmaker John Harrison in 1737. After several attempts, he created a stopwatch with unrivaled accuracy and stability. His fourth prototype, which was compact in size and was able to lose only a few seconds during two months of sea travel, won the promised prize in 1764. At that time, this became a real discovery for all humanity.

In the eighteenth century, owning a watch became the greatest luxury. The more refined the design of the watch and the more precise the mechanism, the richer and more influential its owner. Despite the absolute uselessness of precise time for the everyday life of that era, man's craving for art and technology haunted him - very reminiscent of the adaptation of the mobile phone by residents of the 20th century, isn't it?

In the nineteenth century, the industrialization of watchmaking gradually made it possible for everyone to own a watch of one kind or another. At the same time, with the advent of the telegraph and the development of railways, the standardization of time and the possibility of synchronizing it will become not only possible, but also absolutely necessary. And even later, accurate time migrated from the navy and to factories, where it began to be used to measure working time and labor productivity...

This section is dedicated to old and antique ship clocks - clocks that were actually installed on ships and dismantled after they were decommissioned, or intended for use at sea. We do not offer modern cheap counterfeits of antiques or remakes. All marine watches presented in our store served their previous owners from several tens to hundreds of years. We make sure to check, clean and lubricate ship's clocks at the Antiques Laboratory before offering them to our customers. The safest way to buy an antique marine watch as a gift is from us! An antique ship clock as a gift for an executive, an antique yacht watch as a gift for a partner, or any other antique items from our store are real VIP gifts that are always visible. Buying an antique ship clock in the BuyAntik™ store is very simple - choose a watch, place an order and we will bring it to you as soon as possible.

Ship's clock- This is one of the most reliable types of chronometers. Their service life is quite long, but, as you know, nothing lasts forever, and they can also fail. In such situations, prompt and qualified intervention by an experienced specialist is required.

Our service center specialists have been providing high-quality ship clock repair services in Moscow for many years. The use of modern equipment, original spare parts and accessories, the rich experience of our specialists are the factors that ensure exceptionally high quality and efficiency of the services provided.

Our specialists carry out not only repairs, but also preventive maintenance to prevent troubles with ship clocks. If a breakdown does occur, our technicians will fix it as soon as possible. At the same time, the speed of work performed will not affect their quality in any way.

Advantages of our service center

• Rich experience and high professionalism of our specialists;
• Proper quality of services provided, regardless of the level of complexity of the breakdown;
• Loyal attitude towards customers, reflected in low prices for service center services.

Our experts are ready to provide the following services:

• Replacement of glass in a ship's clock;
• Restoration of the chronometer mechanism;
• Restoration of the body. If necessary, it can be replaced;
• Restoration of a clock door;
• Restoration of the winding mechanism.

Our organization’s specialists repair and service any ship’s clock, regardless of the complexity of the breakdown. All necessary spare parts and equipment are constantly at the disposal of our specialists, which is why all work is completed in the shortest possible time.

A conscientious attitude towards our work allows us to provide a guarantee for the services provided and spare parts installed during repairs. High-quality repairs of ship clocks in Moscow are carried out by the company "Servic Time"

With us you can get your product diagnosed and receive competent and high-quality service. Modern technology and professionalism enable us to work with any watch and mechanism at the highest level.

You can contact us with any problem and get real practical help!

For 200 years, measuring time was an integral part of maritime navigation, and deck clocks were, in fact, the only way to determine the longitude of a ship. Our material will tell about the invention of the marine chronometer by John Harrison and how Ulysses Nardan brought this device to perfection.

Tim Skorenko

A marine chronometer is not just an instrument by which a cook can find out what time dinner is served. Historically, this device had a much more important function - without the help of a chronometer it was impossible to determine the longitude, and therefore the exact location of the ship. In other words, navigation and the lives of sailors depended on time.

Chapter 1. Sea of ​​Time

The fact is that latitude is an absolute value, that is, a fraction of the distance from the equator to the pole. But longitude is “ephemeral”, it is counted from a certain meridian, and any point can be taken as zero (it’s interesting that different countries at different times considered completely different meridians to be zero). When the ship is near the coast indicated on the map, it is possible to determine longitude, but on the open sea this is a purely calculated value, when measuring which, in addition to everything else, there is nothing to start from.

Method for determining longitude using a marine chronometer.

In 1530, the Dutch mathematician Frisius Renier Gemma proposed a relatively simple way to determine longitude using the angle of the Sun (day) or the North Star (night) above the horizon at a strictly defined time, for example, at noon or midnight. At the same time, the accuracy of measuring the angle was quite high, but an approximate understanding of noon led to significant errors. Plus or minus a few time minutes could give a few degrees of error - and when sailing long distances, this meant a deviation of tens or hundreds of miles! The problem was so significant that in 1714 the British Parliament established a special body - the Commission of Longitudes, whose sole purpose was to encourage invention aimed at solving the problem.

The creation of an absolutely accurate marine clock rested on several issues. Firstly, high humidity, salt evaporation, changes in pressure, and so on led to mechanical changes in the elements of the mechanism. They wore out, became deformed, and broke. And secondly, and more importantly, a conventional pendulum, powered by gravity, did not function very well in swimming: depending on the area of ​​swimming, the difference in the gravitational forces acting on it could reach 0.2%. And, of course, the ship was constantly rocking.

H1 John Harrison's first marine chronometer.

The first attempts to create a marine chronometer that worked independently of pitching and other factors were made at the end of the 17th century. The developments of Christian Huygens, William Durham and other scientists are known. But in the already mentioned 1714, the newly formed Commission of Longitudes established a prize of 10,000 pounds (later the amount was raised to 20,000 pounds) for the development of such watches - and ordinary watchmakers got down to business. Judge for yourself: with our money this is from 2 to 4 million pounds sterling!

In the end, the English self-taught watchmaker John Harrison succeeded. He and his brother James were specialists in “clock cabinets,” large grandfather clocks with long pendulums. Harrison took up the “tender” in 1730 at the age of 37, and demonstrated his first marine chronometer, now known as H1, in 1736. In the same year, he made a test voyage from London to Lisbon on the sailing ship Centurion and back on another ship, the Orford (due to the fact that the captain of the Centurion died suddenly in Lisbon). Upon arrival, the time was checked with the “model” specimen - there was still a deviation, although not very large. Harrison realized that the work was not so simple, and the issue would not be solved on the first try.

The second and third models are Harrison's chronometers.

Harrison developed the H2 model, which was planned to be tested while sailing across the ocean, but the tests were canceled due to the outbreak of war between England and Spain, and while the fighting was going on, the watchmaker began building an even more advanced version of the H3. In it, for the first time in the history of watchmaking, he used bearings and bimetallic parts to compensate for temperature expansion.

We will not talk in detail about Harrison’s further path - more than one book has been written about this. Let's just say that he finished the very famous H4 watch, which ultimately solved the problem of marine timekeeping, in 1761 at the age of 68, and a few years later showed the H5 model, which was officially recognized as working by the Commission of Longitudes. In 1772, the elderly Harrison finally received his prize, not counting more than 4,000 pounds (in our money - about a million pounds) allocated to him over the years for development.

H4 Harrison's fourth model was no longer a table chronometer, but a kind of pocket watch.

Harrison's clocks spread throughout the world - they were on the ships of explorers, in particular James Cook, and on military vessels. Today, the original works of Harrison and his heirs can be viewed at the Museum of Science and Technology in London, at the Greenwich Observatory and a number of other museums.

H5 Garrison's final design, for which he received a "prize fund" from the Commission of Longitude.

There was only one “but” left. Harrison's marine clock was a complex and expensive piece of machinery. Only a few watchmakers were able to make such watches, and a very small percentage of shipbuilders equipped their ships with marine chronometers of similar accuracy. Until the middle of the 19th century, marine chronometers could hardly be called serial products - and a lot of them were required, especially when England was the first to issue a decree requiring the installation of these devices on all military and civilian ships. This is where Ulysses Nardan appeared.

Chapter 2. Courtesy of Kings

Leonard-Frédéric Nardin was one of the many Swiss watchmakers of the early 19th century. Switzerland was then beginning to gain strength, becoming the leader in world chronometer production and seizing this banner from the dominant British. The main watchmaking city of mainland Europe was Geneva. The growth rate of the Swiss was incredible. Compare: in 1800, Switzerland and England produced an equal number, 200,000 watches, and half a century later, in 1850, England produced the same 200 thousand, and Switzerland - 2,200,000 devices!

First of all, this was due to the “serial revolution”: the Swiss began to move away from the traditional principle of production, family business. Before that, watchmakers, of course, united in trade unions, but worked on their own, did everything alone - from the mechanism to the painting of the dial, taught the secrets of craftsmanship to children, and, in fact, were closer to the jewelry business than to mechanical production, where Artels and factories have long ruled the roost. In the first half of the 19th century, Switzerland gradually switched to a manufacturing pattern of work, without losing the highest quality that created the fame of their products.

Ulysse Nardin pocket watch from the mid-19th century.

Leonard-Frederick was a classical watchmaker. His works bore his personal mark, and he passed on his skills to his son, Ulysses, who was born in Le Locle on January 22, 1823. Le Locle was not the watch capital of the world at that time (as already mentioned, it was rather Geneva), but a number of watchmakers worked there. In principle, there was no town in Switzerland where at least several watchmakers did not work. By the way, the watch industry in Le Locle was greatly affected by the Great French Revolution. Due to the town's border position, there were many Jacobin sympathizers there, and the Swiss authorities pursued repressive policies to avoid revolution; a number of strong watchmakers emigrated to France, mainly to Besançon.

Manufacture on Rue Jardin in Le Locle: Ulysse Nardin moved here in 1865.

But let's return to Ulysses Nardin and marine chronometers. Ulysses continued his father's work - but in a new way. In 1846, contrary to family traditions, he founded a manufactory with hired workers. He called her, as he should, by his own name - Ulysse Nardin. The manufactory immediately began working in two directions - pocket watches and marine watches. Pocket watches were always in demand and provided profits, while sea watches promised contracts with the army.

In 1860, Ulysses introduced a specific device into operation - a high-precision astronomical calibrator, which made it possible to calibrate pocket watches to tenths of a second. This device was invented at the beginning of the century by the “father of Swiss watches” Jacques-Frédéric Ourier, but it was practically not used for ordinary chronometers. We hasten to remind you that at that time clocks often did not even have a minute hand, and to the question “what time is it” the answer “it’s about noon” was considered quite correct.

The consequences were not long in coming. In 1862, at the World Exhibition in London, the Ulysse Nardin pocket watch received its first gold medal. It was the highest award in the industry at the time, as if a modern film had won the Oscar, the Palme d'Or and the Golden Bear at the same time. In 1865, the manufactory moved to Jardin Street (translated as Sadovaya Street), where it is located to this day. Ulysses shared leadership with his son, Paul-David, who had reached the age of 21.

At the same time, the production of marine chronometers also developed. They had already moved far from Harrison’s original design and were based both on the principles introduced by the English watchmaker, and on other, competing schemes that appeared in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. By the way, Nardan began to use bimetals and other “know-how” of marine watches in ordinary models - almost no one had done this before.

Marine chronometer manufactured by Ulysse Nardin.

The problem with marine chronometers was, as mentioned above, their inaccessibility. No manufacturer could quickly produce a series of, say, 50 marine chronometers to provide the navy of any country with the same type of instruments. They still remained piece goods. Experienced in the manufacture of watches of the highest quality, Nardan has developed a range of marine chronometer models that ensure perfect precision and are at the same time suitable for more or less mass production. This subsequently had a significant effect. For example - let's jump ahead - in 1904 the company signed a contract with the Imperial Household of Japan to equip the entire Japanese fleet with marine chronometers. She tried to sign a similar contract with Russia, but something did not work out with the papers, and as a result, a batch of Ulysse Nardin marine chronometers was acquired by the Russian fleet in a private transaction. A historical incident arose: during the Russian-Japanese War of 1904-1905, the ships of both belligerents were equipped with the same chronometers!

Ulysse Nardin watch, awarded a gold award at the Chicago World's Fair in 1893.

But Ulysses was not destined to see the success of his maritime enterprise - he died suddenly in 1876 at the age of 53. Two years later, at the World Exhibition in Paris, Ulysse Nardin received two gold medals at once - the second for pocket watches and the first for marine chronometers. The company received the fourth such medal at the World Exhibition in Chicago in 1893 - the same one where the king of electricity, Nikola Tesla, shone. In general, since its founding, the company has received more than 4,300 (!) various industry awards.

Since the end of the 19th century, the company has protected a number of patents for “complications”, that is, additional functions that increase accuracy or give new capabilities to the watch. Generally speaking, in the specialized literature, the type of watch that the company specializes in is still called grand complication watch - some of its branches directly came from professional time measuring instruments of the 19th century and today require exactly the same highest precision in manufacturing along with the preservation of traditions. We will not dwell on the technical innovations of the early 20th century. To give you an example, in 1936 the company released a 24-inch pocket chronometer with a seconds hand that measured tenths of a second—an industry first.

Chapter 3. Sea glory

Let's return to marine chronometers. In 1975, the Neuchâtel Observatory published an official almanac containing statistics on the history of Swiss watchmaking. In accordance with it, out of 4,504 quality certificates issued to Swiss marine chronometers from 1846 to 1975, 4,324 (that is, 95%) received Ulysse Nardin devices. The company's marine watches received 2,411 industry awards (of which 1,069 were first prizes) and a total of 14 medals at World Exhibitions, of which 10 were gold.

Manufacture Ulysse Nardin. Manual assembly of watches.

At the same time, the importance of marine chronometers gradually began to decline. At first this was associated with the “quartz revolution”, that is, the emergence of a new technology using a quartz crystal as an oscillating system in watches. In Switzerland, this led, as is known, to the so-called “Quartz crisis,” when inexpensive and accurate Japanese watches entered the market en masse. But that's another story.

Marine chronometers began to switch to quartz - but there was no revolution or crisis, because already in the 1980s, ships began to widely use satellite navigation to determine their location. This made marine chronometers simply unnecessary - now longitude was determined by a computer. However, any modern ship is necessarily equipped with a high-precision quartz chronometer in case of GPS system failure. When everything is in order with the signal, this chronometer is adjusted by checking with world time via the same satellite.

In 1996, in memory of its navigational history, the company released the now legendary Marine Chronometer 1846 model with the Perpetual Ludwig movement, named after its developer, watchmaker Ludwig Eschslin. As you might guess, it was a model with a perpetual calendar, and it became the ancestor of the Marine collection, symbolizing the close connection of the brand with the sea. Later, in 1999, the GMT Perpetual model appeared, combining a perpetual calendar with several time zones - the company fully justified its reputation as a developer of the grand complication watch class. To this day, the company annually receives patents for new mechanisms and introduces models with ever greater capabilities, without changing the classic design traditions.

What about Ulysse Nardin? The company successfully survived all the crises and emerged on time from the marine chronometer market that collapsed at one point. The question arose: what to do with the numerous developments and one and a half century traditions in this area? And the answer did not take long to arrive. The fact is that high-precision marine timekeeping technologies have not become obsolete or useless. They simply ceased to be needed in a specific industry - navigation. But this does not negate their incredible quality, endurance in any extreme conditions, complete independence from changes in temperature and humidity - and so on. Therefore, technology finally moved into an area in which the company was already one of the world leaders, that is, into the production of high-quality wristwatches.

Ulysse Nardin Marine Torpilleur on the pages of Popular Mechanics

The latest masterpiece from the Ulysse Nardin Marine collection, directly linked to maritime history and tradition, is the Marine Torpilleur. The collection already included the Marine Grand Deck (“upper deck”) and Marine Regatta (“regatta”) watches, while torpilleur translates as “torpedo boat.” This name emphasizes both the dynamics and functionality of the model (such boats were light and maneuverable) and the company’s historical military ties - we talked about the Japanese and Russian fleets above.

The heart of the model is the automatic caliber UN-118 (with a power reserve of 60 hours) and a silicon escapement. The caliber diameter is 31.6 mm, thickness is 6.45 mm, it consists of 248 parts, has the functions of indicating hours, minutes, seconds, power reserve and date with quick adjustment in any direction. The nautical theme is primarily indicated by the design of the dial - Roman numerals, historical “naval” fonts, characteristic shapes of the hands. And, of course, the water resistance, which is very serious for such a watch, up to 50 meters, also hints at the sea!

Caliber UN-118.

The 42mm Marine Torpilleur is available in three models: 18K rose gold with a white dial on a leather strap, and a stainless steel model with a white dial on a leather strap and a blue dial on a bracelet.

Generally speaking, the Ulysse Nardin company is an example of a harmonious combination of historical traditions and high technologies of the 21st century. For example, in the 118 caliber the escapement is made of silicon and synthetic diamond, and this technology, known as DIAMonSIL, is a specific know-how patented just a few years ago. On the other hand, Ulysse Nardin dials are made using traditional hand techniques - we visited their Donzé Cadrans production in Le Locle and.

Ulysse Nardin Marine Torpilleur

And, of course, this is the sea. It’s not for nothing that John Harrison invented sea clocks 250 years ago, and Ulysses Nardin brought them to perfection 150 years ago.