The Ship’s Bell Clock is a Chelsea Clock classic. First patented in 1898, the movement of the clock is what the Company calls a “4L”, which includes a distinguished chime coordinated with a mariner’s bell code for keeping watch at sea. Alerting mariners to time during their “watch” by employing the unique Ship’s Bell chime earned the Company the name “Timekeepers of the Sea.”

“The patents have been carried over from generation to generation,” said Dan Der Marderosian, Manager of Engineering Services. The Ship’s Bell movement at Chelsea Clock is one of the last remaining mechanical movements still produced in the United States. There was a time in the mid 1900s when the American clock industry included many companies crafting such timepieces, many of them right here in New England. Slowly these companies went out of business – as with many handcrafted trades they could not compete with the rising costs of labor, the rise of industrial manufacturing, and specifically in the clock industry, the introduction of the quartz movement.

Early 1900s Drawing - First Ship's Bell Mechanism

Der Marderosian comes from the automotive engineering field which focuses on high volume manufacturing and computer aided design — a stark contrast to Chelsea Clock’s craftsmanship that has been passed down to each new member of the team through hand drawn designs. “From a Mechanical Engineer’s perspective the precision, gears, pinions, and levers were quite interesting to me,” said Der Marderosian.

Dan Der Marderosian Manager, Engineering Services at Chelsea Clock

He spoke of the detail that goes into a mechanical clock especially one with a striking mechanism that the Ship’s Bell Clock is revered for and the intricacies involved with the bells striking on a cycle. Before the computer age, Chelsea Clock draftsmen would construct hand drawn blueprints of the clock’s internal jewels and pieces. They articulated with the aid of the pencil how those pieces coincided for the clock’s precise motion. Those drawings are still used today as the basis of the internal architecture of the Ship’s Bell Clock. The draftsmen were yesterday’s engineers, and today Chelsea Clock has preserved their work along with the original patents to craft the Ship’s Bell Clock.

Just as the Ship’s Bell Clock is viewed as a family’s legacy being passed down from generation to generation; Der Marderosian is one of the people at Chelsea that has “inherited” the clock’s historical mechanical movement and the original drawings. He is currently seeped in analysis, lining clocks up along the edge of his desk to methodically calculate and record the complexities of each piece. His practice will ensure the designs and theory carved out by previous Chelsea Clock makers will endure for ages. “The Ship’s Bell Clock – we inherited it. And I am examining it from a technical and engineering standpoint so that main design is maintained and understood by others in the Company.”

With 360 plus gold plated parts, and the assembly of each done by hand, some of the knowledge behind the designs was passed on verbally and the art work of each individual draftsman was drawn with that in mind. Der Marderosian and his team are reviewing the previous works of each draftsman, some over 100 years old. Their efforts will ensure that the knowledge and craftsmanship behind Chelsea Clock’s flagship timepiece will be preserved for the next 100 years to come.

For Mark Meyer a Chelsea Clock is not just a time piece but an anchor through all the incidents of time. In our interview with the Bakersfield, Ca resident he spoke highly of his recently restored Tambour and shared how he began to acquire and learn of the clocks starting with his first purchase of a Chelsea Clock, 15 years ago — the Ship Strike Clock. The perceptible quality and dynamics of the piece spurred him to continue to add to his collection that today totals to 26. But the dynamics of the clock go beyond the tick-tocks of the time it keeps rather he describes it as a reliable energetic presence through his life and that of others before him.
“These are living objects there is a dynamic aspect to them, and I am fascinated with the fact that this clock has been running for as long as when my grandparents were alive,” he said speaking of a clock that has been in his family for three generations. In an old black and white photo of his mother, grandmother and aunt taken in the 1940’s is a vintage clock that now stands in his home today. That concept of a living object being a connection from one generation to the next is why he has choosen to purchase and restore Chelsea Clocks.
“I think it is cool in all the history and things that have happened while this clock has been running all this time. They are historic,” he said.
Meyer encourages friends to take photos of their vintage clocks when significant life happenings take place. “I talked to someone at work that said her grandfather was a major clock collector. I told her to take a picture of one of them that she prized with her newborn baby, so when she passed it down to her son and it will have a human connection.”
The clocks continue an ancestral aspect that extends to his childhood home that was built after World War II. A musician and an artist himself, Meyer said the clocks add to his studio where he practices his music and keeps his collection of vintage music makers.
Meyer places his Chelsea Clocks in the areas of his home where he spends the most time.
“People say you only live out of one or two rooms in your home and my music room is where I practice, he said.
Although he rotates the collection at this moment Meyer has 10 Chelsea Clocks intermingled with intrinsic musical pieces – he has a Chelsea Empire 1, Centennial, Constitution, and Mahogany and Metal Clock.
He compares the vintage instruments to the clocks. Just like the instrumental pieces he plays they are vintage, passed on through families, handmade and very much works of art, and being able to use the pieces on a daily basis just adds to his fascination with the clocks and their timelessness. “I can sit there and enjoy the clocks while I practice scales.”

Here at Chelsea Clock Company in Chelsea Massachusetts, we have been designing, manufacturing and procuring solid brass, handmade, top quality clocks since 1897.  We take a lot of pride in our work and we know our clock owners take a lot of pride in their clocks.

Around here, we have a lot of stories.  Clocks and the people who make clocks, repair and restore clocks, and own clocks.  Every day we hear another story from a customer about what their clock means to them.  And some days the clocks themselves, that come into our factory for repair, tell us stories about where they’ve been – just based on the condition they are in and the restoration touches they require.

We are starting this blog to tell you some of these stories.  So you can get a feel for the place these clocks come from and the people here who make them by hand in a long tradition of nautical clock makers.  Over the years we have developed new technology, designs, and processes, but the quality remains.  And the fact that our clocks continue to work for hundreds of years doesn’t change either.

We are also starting this blog to give you pointers – on how to care for your clock, how to consider clock purchases, what to look for and expect of a quality clock.

We hope you’ll find the blog useful and informative.  And we hope you will let us know what you think!  Anytime you have a question or comment, you can write to us stories@chelseaclock.com or Chelsea Clock Blog, 284 Everett Avenue, Chelsea, MA 02150-1598.

Shown Left: Boston Clock, Circa late 1800′s made by Chelsea Clock Company’s predecessor, Boston Clock Company which operated from 1884-1894..

This rare clock (1 of only 3 known to currently exist in this size) was originally named the “Locomotive” for its use in trains in the late 1800’s.