Small Hours
08.10.10
The emergence of small small hours refer to the beginning of XVI century. , but some sources say that the hours appeared in the second half of the XV century. In the XVI century. emerged in Europe, two major centers, which was concentrated the production of the first small hours with a spring drive – PDAs and pendants . At the beginning of the century it was in Nuremberg , a place where he worked as a mechanic , a watchmaker Peter Henlein , and about 1550 came the second such center in Blois (France ), where since 1518 began working as a watchmaker Julien curls , and later – Jacques de La Garde , spring clocks that in the oval case is still stored in the collections of the Louvre.
The fashion for miniature clocks quickly spread throughout Western Europe . In Paris , London , Augsburg, Amsterdam , Brussels , The Hague and in other cities grew watch making , which produces the most diverse forms of spring hours for current needs and as jewelry. Among the first producers of such clocks is a watchmaker and Czech Jakub shop ( Czech) , supposedly the son of John Rouge, one of the founders of the Prague’s astronomical clock , which in his studio at Platnerskoy street at the Old Town of Prague manufactured iron clock with a spring -driven , with a brass cylinder Corps. The initial state is preserved until now one copy of his watch , made in 1525 , located in London’s Museum of Antiquities . Another instance of hours of the same period is in the collections of the Museum of Applied Industrial Arts in Prague.
During the Thirty Years’ War slowed the further development of the average time crafts , but it is less affected countries in Western Europe . Manufacturing small hours , which began in Blois ( France), quickly spread to cities such as Paris , Lyon , Dijon , Grenoble , Rouen , etc. At the beginning of XVII century. French -hour production was at such a high level that it had no competitors. Since it could not even match the English -hour production , despite the fact that it was at that time could boast of a number of workshops work best watchmakers , while concentrating near London .
In the case of small production hours joined and Switzerland, which is now considered to be a great time power, although it does not apply because the countries that have the oldest tradition of watchmaking . Despite the fact that in some Swiss cantons , particularly in Geneva and its environs, the first watchmakers settled there in the first half : XVI century. , the full development of the Swiss watchmaking craft came only at the end of the XVII century .
This recovery time fishing in Switzerland greatly obliged and religious persecution in France, where , especially from Blois, the center of French Protestants , settled on the basis of the Edict of Nantes in 1685 abroad , many watchmakers. Most of them settled in Switzerland , where they are not persecuted for their faith. If throughout the production of large clock was the work of fitters and gunsmiths, the small hours began to produce mainly goldsmith , together with watchmakers .
In the work were then drawn and women who were assigned subtle carvings and engraving works , the production group leaders filigree steel chains for power transmission between the drum springs and curl control , etc. In 1701 Switzerland had issued an order prohibiting foreigners from working in the field of time fishing. At the same time, watchmakers can do their job outside the city gates only when they are following the exit of the city is reclaiming its apprentices and when they pledged not to teach their children the guard craft.
In the XVIII century . when the Swiss watch production reached the level of industrial production with the division of artisanal work, there about 1760 , only one worked more than 800 Geneva watchmakers . At that time , many watchmakers have ceased to label their products their name , city or date of manufacture and , as was previously customary for artisanal products.
The clock on the first commercial brands . According to new methods of work production hours split into several distinct phases – making the trigger mechanism, transmission mechanism and case. Watchmaker , who now specialize in the production of certain components , gave its products to the assembly , in which they simultaneously performed finishing work on the gear parts.
Then they withdrew their details , they drilled holes for the poles , for the arrows attached dials , etc. Mounted part again dismantled and subjected to final finishing of their surfaces , ie gilding and polishing . In the production of portable clock , which had engaged in individual production groups , now attended by many small watchmakers.
The gradual unification of the watchmakers , craftsmen under the commercial brand of the leading companies continually increased the requirements to improve the accuracy of details , which manufactured hand that was provided by private, technically poorly -equipped small workshops. All this certainly increased the level of the local time fishing , which was the first in Europe moved from the beginning of XIX century . the outdated and labor-intensive manual production to semi-automatic production , and then fully automated production of commercial goods .
Not all Swiss watchmaking XVII and XVIII centuries . have been equipped so that they can produce complete clockwork . The division of labor in watchmaking in the production process depended on the professional level of masters and apprentices and the technical equipment of the workshop, which usually was then quite weak , because most he needed supplies and tools , each watchmaker then manufactured for himself.
Method of production of some part of the watch , especially gears, tribes, parts of the trigger mechanism , etc. , was very difficult. Long before the emergence of engineering industry , built on modern methods of metal cutting, watchmakers are facing a similar problem in the manufacture of small or even tiny details. Therefore, already in the XVII and XVIII centuries . Watchmakers were built ingeniously solved by turning and milling machines, on the principle of which were later , more than 100 years , based first major metalworking Modsleya , Roberts , Whitworth and others
For some time the workshops manufacturing such devices were too expensive, and so they produced only the simplest parts of machines , while all the rest , including bushings , dials , switches , springs, hair , etc., they are ready to buy . Jewellery shops specializing in the production of sleeves , they sold their products a wide range of watchmakers , often living far outside the country . This may explain the similarity of form, or nearly complete similarity hours, issued under the name of their end- producers, whose own work in the production of these hours is only a small fraction of the labor to build those hours.
If we intend to trace the shape and style of buildings small hours , then we must begin with the cylinder spring hours , which began producing in the XVI century. Henlein Nuremberg and Prague workshop. In the second half of the XVI century . came a significant miniaturization of hours with ovoid case. They were single-needle , made of iron and had carved and engraved brass cases and ornaments decorated with Roman dials with steel arrows. Before you dial, instead of glass were hinged metal lids , decorated appropriately , with holes for direct timing . Such cases are oval root in the late XVI century . and in France.
Along with brass , some watchmakers have used polished crystal . With glaziers and engravers are made of this material luxury transparent cases , beautifully engraved and polished . This technique is particularly distinguished by the Geneva engravers and goldsmiths . However, the main material here remains brass , sometimes sanitized surface gilding or silvering . Since the second half of XVII century. systematically increased ruggedness forms of carrying cases that in the XVIII century . resulted in the production of suspensorial hours of the most diverse forms in the form of crosses, skulls , musical instruments , birds, animals , flowers , books, vessels, wheels, etc.
A similar way , we find not only against casings , but also ornamental elements , engraved and relief , not only on buildings but also on the dial . Goldsmiths , watchmakers and artists , carpenters even worked , guided by the collections of samples of ornaments , produced , for example , Hogarth, Chipendalem , Sheraton and Adam. The most popular among watchmakers enjoyed the author of such collections of Anton Jacquard Puantera .
Separate kind of ornamental clock-case technique was the enamel stoving . In essence, this was not something new , because the glaze has been known for a long time in France , Germany , Holland , Switzerland , and the first half of XVII century. – partly in England . Here, the priority was France and its artists from Blois, headed by the famous brothers Huodo . The enamel on composition is a quartz material , essentially , glass, coated in molten form to a clean metal surface – a gold or copper , and occasionally on the brass . Enamel can, of course , and iron and bronze objects . The Arabs already in the XIII century . decorated lacquer hot annealing glass bulb lamps mosques .
The oldest technique of enamel stoving , used for the clock-case , called in the special terminology ” champleve (champleve). It is lacquer stoving different colors in the grooves engraved on the metal surface. After annealing in the furnace is formed on the entire surface of the solid glass coating. Enamel decorated cases and dials .
Somewhat different method , suitable only for carrying cases , was the so-called ” cloisonne ยป(cloisonne), which differs from ” champleve ” method of preparing a metal base . Cells were established under the lacquer is not engraved, but to be prepared folding of thin metal strips in the desired pattern . At the end of XIX century . enjoyed great popularity method ” paillonn (paillonne) – fusing gold foil in the paint .
Tags: artisanal products, first commercial brands, miniature clocks, Small Hours, the gear parts, watchmaking craft