Hugh Dougherty
NAWCC Staff
- Mar 18, 2010
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This book review has been reproduced here from the May/June 2012 Watch & Clock Bulletin of the NAWCC at the request of author Doug Stevenson.
Second, revised and much enlarged edition, by Hans-Heinrich Schmid.
Published by the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Chronometrie. Nuremberg/Berlin, 2012.
ISBN 978-3-941539-99-0. Hardback. Two volumes, each 496 pages, and 7" x 10".
Approx. $120 (€89). Available through the Historische Uhrenbücher Verlag:
It was clear when the first edition of the Lexikon appeared in 2005 that it was a remarkable work, a fundamental resource that should be in the library of everyone interested in German clockmaking—in fact, the standard reference to the German clock industry—the volume you reach for first.
Seven years later, on the welcome occasion of the revised and much enlarged second edition, it’s clear that this earlier judgment was an understatement. Not only has the Lexikon been validated as the standard reference to the German clock industry, and in a class of its own at that, it has also served as a common meeting ground for researchers internationally and has encouraged research. The second edition reflects this additional, by now implicit function.
The first edition was already a hefty 674 pages. Schmid’s own intensive efforts have garnered more material, aided by collectors, museums, horological organizations, online forums, and Lexikon users from around the world. Specialists in various areas, from electro-mechanical clocks to gongs, have also contributed to what is seen as a common cause. Many more original German catalogs have become available as well, thanks largely to the efforts of fellow NAWCC member Victor Tang, and Bernhard Huber, Librarian of the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Chronometrie.
Then too, important historic German clockmakers’ journals such as the Deutsche Uhrmacher-Zeitung and the Allgemeines Journal der Uhrmacherkunst—once only accessible at a handful of libraries in person—have also been digitized by the DGC. A wealth of information has come from them. As a result of all of the above, the new edition of the Lexikon has grown by 48 percent, thereby requiring two volumes, for a total of 994 pages.
The format of the second edition follows the pattern of the first. The first volume contains an alphabetical listing of German firms, with each entry offering fundamental information. This could include the various names a firm used over the years, when and where it was founded, street addresses and dates when known, firms it might have merged with or been sold to, how long it existed, what types of watches and clocks were made, along with trade names and illustrated trademarks.
The first edition had 2,173 German clock and watch firms in this section. The new edition has been expanded to a total of 2,360 firms. It contains 1,649 trademarks (compared to the first’s 997) and some 2,800 German trade names (500 more than in the 2005 edition), or 4,500 German trademarks and tradenames altogether.
Some wholesalers and dealers are included in the new edition to the extent that they handled watches and clocks under their own marks, Adolf Stern of Vienna is a good example. Yet the listings are of firms, not individual watch or clockmakers who, as the century matured, although able to make a clock or a watch, were increasingly concerned with retail, service, and repair. For the earlier Uhrmacher in the German-speaking traditions from the fourteenth to the mid-nineteenth centuries, the standard reference is the second (2010) edition of Abeler’s Meister der Uhrmacherkunst. For individual clockmakers in the Black Forest tradition, there are the listings in the fourth (2008) edition of Schaaf’s Schwarzwalduhren.
The number of firms in this section often surprises those who, when it comes to German manufacturers, tend to mentally kneejerk, so to speak, on Becker, Junghans, Kienzle, Lenzkirch, Mauthe, or Winterhalder & Hofmeier. It’s also quite common among those who still rely upon earlier references to assume that, say, a clock with Haller in its name will have come from one of a few, when the Lexikon lists over a dozen. Similarly, with some 19 firms that used the surname, one Schlenker does not an identification make.
Collective experience with the first edition indicates that this first section is also useful for those who only have what linguists term a threshold-level ability in German, and what the rest of us call getting a beer, a brat, and if lucky a wink. Indeed, it is also approachable for those with no German. The format remains the same throughout. The same terms occur repeatedly. And with a little effort they’re soon familiar.
Past its utility, this section also represents the best available information. Googling has become the first approach for many, and yet the Net has not only provided convenient access, it has also meant that outdated information (or misinformation) that might be imparted in a source from a generation ago is sometimes recycled as if it were current.
A conveniently brief example is the misspelling of a clock manufacturer and the misnaming of its successor (the Uhrenfabrik Mühlheim, Müller & Co.) in a self-published volume over 30 years ago. Both were taken over when the information was adapted for a website, which served as a source for a recently published reference that now quoted as an authoritative source. That such is hardly a tragic flaw goes without saying. It is nonetheless somewhere between vexatious and ridiculous when current and reliable information is readily available. It should be about leading horologists to wine, not horses to water.
The second part of the new edition, now the second volume, remains the most remarkable in this reviewer’s opinion. From the 2,361 firms in the first volume, 480 were selected for more complete descriptions. This is 170 more, a 75 percent increase, over the 2005 edition. Nor are these histories simply reworkings of earlier material. They represent consistent, careful, and self-critical scholarship. Just the thought of writing four dozen “or so” would be enough for most of us to seek asylum on a sofa. That Schmid has done the research for and written 480 of these descriptions is extraordinary, to say the least.
As one would expect, more information is available for some firms than others. This however is often significant in the sense that if more were available it would be there. The description for a firm such as Mauthe covers over five pages. By contrast, one of this reviewer’s favorite firms, the Regulatorfabrik Germania, does well with just under a half. A list is given of the firms.
The second section offers considerably more illustrations, around 300, than were in the first. Especially appealing are the old trade advertisements and the original material from catalogs. A bibliography contains 314 references. Throughout both volumes there are footnotes that refer to other sources, additional material, various uncertainties, clarify inconsistencies, and so on.
Hans-Heinrich Schmid has earned our admiration, as well as our gratitude, for thus improving upon what was already a unique resource. The Lexikon is one of the most important contributions to German horology, not just one of the most useful. There are no doubt typos to be found and minor points to be raised. But to rabbit out a few (mightn’t it be Pabst of Haller, Jauch & Papst instead of Papst?) just to show that the reviewer is thorough would be untoward as well as petty.
The Deutsche Gesellschaft für Chronometrie is also to be thanked, and congratulated, for their role in assuring that the volumes are of a fitting quality, and that the future of the Lexikon will be in the best of hands. After all, the new, second edition of the Lexikon is a remarkable work, even more so than the first. It’s a fundamental resource that belongs in the library of everyone with an interest in German clockmaking.
Second, revised and much enlarged edition, by Hans-Heinrich Schmid.
Published by the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Chronometrie. Nuremberg/Berlin, 2012.
ISBN 978-3-941539-99-0. Hardback. Two volumes, each 496 pages, and 7" x 10".
Approx. $120 (€89). Available through the Historische Uhrenbücher Verlag:
It was clear when the first edition of the Lexikon appeared in 2005 that it was a remarkable work, a fundamental resource that should be in the library of everyone interested in German clockmaking—in fact, the standard reference to the German clock industry—the volume you reach for first.
Seven years later, on the welcome occasion of the revised and much enlarged second edition, it’s clear that this earlier judgment was an understatement. Not only has the Lexikon been validated as the standard reference to the German clock industry, and in a class of its own at that, it has also served as a common meeting ground for researchers internationally and has encouraged research. The second edition reflects this additional, by now implicit function.
The first edition was already a hefty 674 pages. Schmid’s own intensive efforts have garnered more material, aided by collectors, museums, horological organizations, online forums, and Lexikon users from around the world. Specialists in various areas, from electro-mechanical clocks to gongs, have also contributed to what is seen as a common cause. Many more original German catalogs have become available as well, thanks largely to the efforts of fellow NAWCC member Victor Tang, and Bernhard Huber, Librarian of the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Chronometrie.
Then too, important historic German clockmakers’ journals such as the Deutsche Uhrmacher-Zeitung and the Allgemeines Journal der Uhrmacherkunst—once only accessible at a handful of libraries in person—have also been digitized by the DGC. A wealth of information has come from them. As a result of all of the above, the new edition of the Lexikon has grown by 48 percent, thereby requiring two volumes, for a total of 994 pages.
The format of the second edition follows the pattern of the first. The first volume contains an alphabetical listing of German firms, with each entry offering fundamental information. This could include the various names a firm used over the years, when and where it was founded, street addresses and dates when known, firms it might have merged with or been sold to, how long it existed, what types of watches and clocks were made, along with trade names and illustrated trademarks.
The first edition had 2,173 German clock and watch firms in this section. The new edition has been expanded to a total of 2,360 firms. It contains 1,649 trademarks (compared to the first’s 997) and some 2,800 German trade names (500 more than in the 2005 edition), or 4,500 German trademarks and tradenames altogether.
Some wholesalers and dealers are included in the new edition to the extent that they handled watches and clocks under their own marks, Adolf Stern of Vienna is a good example. Yet the listings are of firms, not individual watch or clockmakers who, as the century matured, although able to make a clock or a watch, were increasingly concerned with retail, service, and repair. For the earlier Uhrmacher in the German-speaking traditions from the fourteenth to the mid-nineteenth centuries, the standard reference is the second (2010) edition of Abeler’s Meister der Uhrmacherkunst. For individual clockmakers in the Black Forest tradition, there are the listings in the fourth (2008) edition of Schaaf’s Schwarzwalduhren.
The number of firms in this section often surprises those who, when it comes to German manufacturers, tend to mentally kneejerk, so to speak, on Becker, Junghans, Kienzle, Lenzkirch, Mauthe, or Winterhalder & Hofmeier. It’s also quite common among those who still rely upon earlier references to assume that, say, a clock with Haller in its name will have come from one of a few, when the Lexikon lists over a dozen. Similarly, with some 19 firms that used the surname, one Schlenker does not an identification make.
Collective experience with the first edition indicates that this first section is also useful for those who only have what linguists term a threshold-level ability in German, and what the rest of us call getting a beer, a brat, and if lucky a wink. Indeed, it is also approachable for those with no German. The format remains the same throughout. The same terms occur repeatedly. And with a little effort they’re soon familiar.
Past its utility, this section also represents the best available information. Googling has become the first approach for many, and yet the Net has not only provided convenient access, it has also meant that outdated information (or misinformation) that might be imparted in a source from a generation ago is sometimes recycled as if it were current.
A conveniently brief example is the misspelling of a clock manufacturer and the misnaming of its successor (the Uhrenfabrik Mühlheim, Müller & Co.) in a self-published volume over 30 years ago. Both were taken over when the information was adapted for a website, which served as a source for a recently published reference that now quoted as an authoritative source. That such is hardly a tragic flaw goes without saying. It is nonetheless somewhere between vexatious and ridiculous when current and reliable information is readily available. It should be about leading horologists to wine, not horses to water.
The second part of the new edition, now the second volume, remains the most remarkable in this reviewer’s opinion. From the 2,361 firms in the first volume, 480 were selected for more complete descriptions. This is 170 more, a 75 percent increase, over the 2005 edition. Nor are these histories simply reworkings of earlier material. They represent consistent, careful, and self-critical scholarship. Just the thought of writing four dozen “or so” would be enough for most of us to seek asylum on a sofa. That Schmid has done the research for and written 480 of these descriptions is extraordinary, to say the least.
As one would expect, more information is available for some firms than others. This however is often significant in the sense that if more were available it would be there. The description for a firm such as Mauthe covers over five pages. By contrast, one of this reviewer’s favorite firms, the Regulatorfabrik Germania, does well with just under a half. A list is given of the firms.
The second section offers considerably more illustrations, around 300, than were in the first. Especially appealing are the old trade advertisements and the original material from catalogs. A bibliography contains 314 references. Throughout both volumes there are footnotes that refer to other sources, additional material, various uncertainties, clarify inconsistencies, and so on.
Hans-Heinrich Schmid has earned our admiration, as well as our gratitude, for thus improving upon what was already a unique resource. The Lexikon is one of the most important contributions to German horology, not just one of the most useful. There are no doubt typos to be found and minor points to be raised. But to rabbit out a few (mightn’t it be Pabst of Haller, Jauch & Papst instead of Papst?) just to show that the reviewer is thorough would be untoward as well as petty.
The Deutsche Gesellschaft für Chronometrie is also to be thanked, and congratulated, for their role in assuring that the volumes are of a fitting quality, and that the future of the Lexikon will be in the best of hands. After all, the new, second edition of the Lexikon is a remarkable work, even more so than the first. It’s a fundamental resource that belongs in the library of everyone with an interest in German clockmaking.
—D. K. Stevenson (AZ)
