Antique Clock Collecting: Dating Chelsea Clocks by Serial Numbers

Video Transcript

"One nice thing about collecting Chelsea Clocks is you can very quickly find out how old your clock is. Every Chelsea clock number, a clock movement, with very few later exceptions, had a serial number stamped into the plate and there are lists still available both in Andy Demiter's book and in a separate paper that I have that correlates the serial number with the age of the clock. If you're lucky you have a low serial number perhaps a four digit or five digit. They were popular clocks at the time, so pretty soon you get into the six digit ones which are more commonly found. I have a Chelsea Clock Company movement here. This is a ship's bell movements. The serial number is stamped in the side there. I know that it is two hundred and ten thousand and something. I can correlate it to my list and see that this made in about nineteen thirty-three. So, any Chelsea Clock that you get, it may not be visible, although if it has some sort of wooden case or outer case you may see the serial number stamped on the back or on the bottom, so you can find the serial number without having to open it up. Very quickly you can find out how old your Chelsea Clock is, when it was made and even; if you're even more curious, the factory and some information in Andy Demiter's books will tell you who ordered the clock and when they got it."