With a respectful bow to the famous early nineteenth-century clock maker, Abraham Louis Breguet, David Walter presents the pinnacle of modern clock making, his Double Pendulum Perpetual Clocks.
Styled after Breguet’s exquisite double-dial creations, these new clocks incorporate bespoke flame mahogany construction and design complexities that surpass by far the innovative 1825 timepieces. This sets David apart from any other maker since that time.
Indeed David’s work is now proving itself as a sound investment, as recent sale price-tags have seen substantial rises.
It’s About Accuracy… and much more
This clock has many features designed to improve accuracy. All the bearings and escape pallets are jeweled, which both reduces friction and prolongs the life of the clock. The pendulum rods are made of fused silica (quartz), making them nearly impervious to temperature changes. But the most striking and important feature is the double pendulum.
When two pendulums are suspended from the same non-rigid mounting frame, they want to swing in anti-phase, that is, swing in opposite directions. One unexpected property of this phenomenon is that slight errors in the period of oscillation of one pendulum are corrected by the other. The result is amazingly accurate timekeeping.
The two French-silvered dials of this clock show:
- Mean solar time
- The equation of time, which shows the difference between mean and actual solar time
- Sidereal time, which is timekeeping based on the earth’s position relative to distant stars
- Phases of the moon using an intuitive spherical display
- Month and date
The story of this clock – its origins, development and enhancements by David Walter – is a fascinating read both for the serious horologist and mechanically- or scientifically-inclined reader. Click the links below if you’d like to learn more.
The complete story of David Walter’s Double Pendulum Clock with Perpetual Calendar – View PDF
American Express Style Book Article – View PDF
Details
- Two month-running movements with separate winding for each movement
- Fully jeweled bearings and pallets – a total of 71 jewels in both movements
- Fused silica (quartz) pendulum rods with Invar fittings and compensated brass bobs
- Two specially engraved dials – signed, numbered, and French silvered
- Equation of time indicator – exclusive hand design in 14K gold
- Sidereal time, indicated on a 24 hour dial in Breguet numerals, with a conversion train error of 1 second in 8.6 years; displays true sidereal seconds
- Spherical moon phase indicator with a lunar train error of 1 second in 2.6 years
- Heat-treated “blued” steel screws and hands (left dial Breguet Moon style, right dial Breguet skeletonized Moon style)
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