Gallery of synchronous bedside clocks

Abstract

A bedside clock is a clock intended for display on a bedside table, but which can also be used as a desk clock. A bedside clock has a dial that can be read from a short distance. The main purpose of this gallery is to illustrate the range of British synchronous bedside clocks that were available. A clock was assigned as a bedside clock primarily on the basis of the legibility of its dial. The dial on most of the clocks in this gallery is smaller than 9 cm. There are back and front views of each clock, together with a brief description. Clocks are mostly illustrated as found, and some are in poor condition. An alarm clock and a time switch are included. The sample of 43 synchronous bedside clocks, plus an alarm clock and a time switch illustrated cannot be regarded as representative of those that were produced, or have survived. Nevertheless, the statistics provide a rough indication for those that have survived. The large number of Smith clocks, an alarm clock and a time switch (31 %) and Temco clocks (29 %) is noticeable. A number of clocks etc. (31 %) have Art Deco cases, but there are few clocks with other identifiable artistic styles. Relatively few clocks etc. (13 %) are self starting. None of them has an outage indicator. Some clocks etc. (16 %) do not have any form of tell tale to make it easy for a user to determine whether or not a clock is running. None of the clocks etc. show the date, or the day of the week.