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The Forgotten History Of American Chronometer Standards, by Aaron Berlow

  • Horological Society of New York 180 W 76th St New York, NY, 10023 United States (map)

Aaron Berlow - Watchmaker

Today the word “Chronometer” is associated almost exclusively with Swiss timepieces, but many may not know that a set of Chronometer standards was formalized by Webster C. Ball in America in the 1890s. The criteria required back then is not incredibly different from today's requirements (minus some pocket watch and material specific requirements.) In attributing the word chronometer solely to Swiss timepieces we easily forget an American disaster that came to define a period of accurate and stunningly beautiful timepieces known as the Railroad Chronometers.