Josef Pallweber was issued German patent No. 54093 on October 27, 1890 for his "Uhr mit Zahlenwechsel durch Herabfallen doppelseitig bezifferter Täfelchen" (Clock with numbers changing by falling double-sided numbered tablets).[1]
Image combined and cleaned up by Flip Clock Fans from the original (pdf)
View larger version of the above.
View Translation from German to English by Flip Clock Fans (pdf).
Pallweber's patent was first described to the public in the December 1 1890 issue of The German Journal for Clock-Makers (Deutsche Uhrmacher Zeitung)[2] and the production announced in the journal exactly 3 years later in 1893.[3]
Using the Pallweber design, The German Lenzkirch Clock Factory (Aktiengesellschaft für Uhrenfabrikation Lenzkirch) crafted the world's first flip clock in 1894. [4] These clocks were very ornate, as was the practice of the Lenzkirch clock makers, and interestingly enough - the first flip clock was a pendulum clock.
The world's first flip clock (1894)
The Father of the Flip Clock - Josef Pallweber
Inventor of:
- the first digital clock
- the first digital watch
- the first flip clock
Josef Benedikt Pallweber was born on 7 February, 1858, in Schörfling am Attersee bei Vöcklabruck, in Upper Austria and died on January 28, 1921, in Mannheim, Germany shortly before he would have turned 63.[5]
In 1883 Josef Pallweber patented the first known digital clock which used rotating flat disks displaying the time through two windows (one for the hours and a separate one for the minutes).
By no later than 1884 the world's first digital pocket watches were created using a Pallweber (jump number) design. They were produced by IWC from 1885-1887 (as well by by other watch makers) and are considered to be among the most famous of IWC pocket watches. (IWC stand for: International Watch Company, Schaffhausen, Switzerland).[6]
Pallweber was employed as a watchmaker in Salzburg until 1886 when he relocated to Mannheim, Germany. There he married Lina (Magdalena) Mack on August 16, 1886.
Around 1890 Pallweber moved to Furtwangen, Germany and from the mid-1890s until about 1904 he worked at the Frankfurter Fabrik Mechanischer Apparate in Frankfurt. Inventions he worked on there included digital wall, table and grandfather clocks from his 1883 patent, as well as a cash register and a full-keyboard, printing adding machine.
Pallweber co-founded the company Adix Company Pallweber & Bordt of Mannheim, Germany, which was entered into the commercial register on October 1, 1903 and produced calculating machines. On October 1, 1908, Pallweber left the company, and Bordt became sole proprietor.
After leaving the Adix Company in 1908, Pallweber established a company for technical inventions and patented an "alarm device for portable cassettes and similar containers". By 1911, the patents shifted focus to alarmed portable cash boxes.
Josef Pallweber died on 28 January, 1921, in Mannheim, shortly before his 63rd birthday.
The Pallweber Legacy Continues
The Pallweber name was recently reintroduced to the world by IWC.
Celebrating its 150th Anniversary, IWC released 27 new timepieces during the SIHH 2018 — Salon International de la Haute Horlogerie. These timepieces carry the Anniversary medallion “150 Years” as either an engraving on the mechanism or as a medallion.[7]
One of the most iconic of these heritage releases has to be the IWC Tribute to Pallweber Edition “150 Years” - the first wristwatch by IWC to feature a jump number digital display. It was released as a limited edition of 25 watches in platinum, 250 in 5N gold and 500 in stainless steel.
Details:[8]
Platinum, white dial with lacquered finish, blue display discs, blued seconds hand (Ref. IW505001) (current price ~ $50K)
18-carat 5N (red) gold, white dial with lacquered finish, white display discs, blued seconds hand (Ref. IW505002) (current price ~ $40K)
Stainless steel, blue dial with lacquered finish, white display discs, rhodium plated seconds hand (Ref. IW505003) (current price ~ $30K)
Why are we just now hearing about this?
I have personally been deep into flip clocks for at least 7 years as of 2021 and have never before heard of Josef Pallweber until March 2021. How could flip clock history be so obscured for so long? There are three main reasons in my opinion - 1) as a people, we have short memories and 2) no one ever wrote "the History of flip clocks" and additionally, flip clocks were essentially ignored in writing about clock history and 3) the internet didn't exist near it's current form until about 1995 with loads of new information and data bases being added constantly - this includes archives of journals and patent records. The first mention of Pallweber and his connection to a flipping clock display, to the best of my research, did not appear on the web until about 2015 at the earliest - but it remained hidden to me. No one thought to document the rise and fall of the flip clock to my knowledge until now, and what a roller coaster ride it's been!
A Very Short, but now hopefully complete, History of The Rise And Fall of The Flip Clock
The history of the flip clock could be described as a series of multiple starts and stops. As we know now, the clock was conceptualized by Josef Pallweber in 1890 and produced by Lenzkirch Clock Factory around 1894, but then it disappeared.
A full ten years later, the idea was resurrected by Eugine Fitch with his Plato Clock in 1904 and produced by the Germans, French and British as well as in the United states by the Ansonia company up until about 1915. Yet they were considered novelty clocks and didn't really catch on (making them highly collectible today).
Flipping digital clocks seem to have vanished from sight for 20 long years until a short appearance as the New Haven Flip clocks around 1936-1939. But again they did not catch on and were essentially forgotten.
The dark age of flip clocks followed when the 1950s were dominated by what are called cyclometer or rolling wheel clocks, essentially completely hiding any concept of flipping digits to most of the public. Yet under this cloud, in 1953 Uhrenfabrik Laufamholz Köhler & Co. reproduced a Plato Clock with ornate, painted cases with floral designs. They also produced a cylindrical, horizontal version (which we now call the "Köhler flip clock") that looks much like our modern flip clocks and likely inspired by the Josef Pallweber design more than the Fitch clock. The Plato Clocks were produced subsequently by Josef Mergenhagen, then in turn by Karl Lauffer Uhrenfabrik in 1965, who continued to make the Plato type clocks until around 1970. These German clocks were distributed in the United States exclusively by the Horolovar Company, Bronxville, New York under the ownership of Charles O. Terwilliger. It was also Terwilliger who commissioned a reproduction Fitch-type plato clock by Karl Lauffer in 1970. While all of these clocks, produced from 1953-1970, were historical and stylish (and now extensively collected and expensive) they still did not become very popular or widely recognized at the time.
There was an overlap in flip clock history when attention to flip clocks began to increase in the late 1960s. The Japanese essentially re-introduced and re-invented the flip clock, releasing their first digital clock - the Copal 101 in Japan in 1964. This was quickly followed by the Italians when Solari Undine captured the public's attention with their release of the Cifra 3 in 1966 - a clock bringing to mind their famous Solari Udine public information public information split-flap displays notable in train stations and airports. The Cifra 3 received much attention and acclaim by being featured in the Museum of Modern art. The USA probably saw it's first commercially successful modern flip clock in the Copal Caslon 201 starting as early as 1967. Soon after the world's first flip clock radio was produced by Sony in 1968 (The Sony 8FC-59 Digital 24, followed immediately by the 8FC-59W in the US - called the Digimatic). The Japanese perfected the flip clock with the Copal Company dominating the production of quality flip clock mechanisms using the Copal Synchronous electric motor from the late 1960s throughout the 1970s and early 80s. As you likely know, many, many flip clocks of many makes and models followed. Sadly, but true to form, interest in flip clocks died out very rapidly in the early 1980s with the advent of the LED digital clocks - flip clocks again went into hiding.
By no later than 2005 interest in flip clocks as retro design elements re-surged strongly, with modern makers primarily in China, but also Hong Kong (with German-made mechanism) through Twemco, and other clocks made by Fartech. At the same time, sales of the vintage 60-70s clocks took off, primarily coinciding with the massive rise in popularity of ebay.
FlipClockFans.com was born in 2014 and here we are today! Yes, we consider Flip Clock Fans to have a major role in the preservation of flip clock history. This is in no small part due to the members of Flip Clock Fans the world over promoting the restoration and collection of the vintage clocks, keeping the flipping alive. And it all started in the Black Forest of Germany in 1894 through the Lenzkirch Clock Factory, born of the imagination and ingenuity of Austrian, Josef Pallweber.
- to comment or access more content visit the forum post "The first flip clock - history rediscovered"
References and Notes:
1. Imperial Patent Office (October 27, 1890). "Patent No. 54093" (PDF). German Patent and Trademark Office (in German).
https://depatisnet.dpma.de/DepatisNe...nt=treffer&act ion=pdf&docid=DE000000054093A
See version hosted on FlipClockFans.com - Pallweber_Patient_54093_1890.pdf
2. Deutsche Uhrmacher Zeitung - Fachblatt für Uhrmacher XIV Jahrgang * Berlin, den 1 Dezember 1890 No. 23 pages 178-179
https://digital.slub-dresden.de/werk...f/53992/181/0/
3. Deutsche Uhrmacher-Zeitung - Fachblatt für Uhrmacher XVII Jargang * Berlin, den 1 Dezember 1893 No. 23 No. 23 page 181
https://digital.slub-dresden.de/werk...f/54715/184/0/
4. Item of the Month April 2015 - Is digital more precise? The German Clock Museum. April 2015
https://www.deutsches-uhrenmuseum.de...pril-2015.html
Archived:
https://web.archive.org/web/20150923...pril-2015.html
5. Much of the biography of Josef Pallweber was obtained from the web page: History Computer - The History of Computing. Here they discussed Josef Pallweber's contribution to computational machines, etc. At this point, their source for his biography has not been determined.
6. IWC Pocket Watch | Pallweber
7. SIHH 2018: IWC Tribute to Pallweber Edition “150 Years” ref. IW5050. Live Pictures & Pricing.
https://www.watchcollectinglifestyle...ctures-pricing
8. IW505003-IWC Tribute to Pallweber Edition “150 Years
https://www.iwc.com/us/en/watch-coll...150-years.html
Attached Files