French industrial clock : automaton steam machine

Very rare so-called "industrial" clock, double boiler steam engine automaton from the late 19th century.

A rare and highly collectible model, listed in specialist works, it was probably produced by the Diette and Hour workshops around 1880-90.
The clock is fully serviced and restored.
Videos upon request.

Examples of this type of clock can be found in museums dedicated to watchmaking, such as the Musée International d'horlogerie, the Musée des Arts et Métiers in Paris, the Beyer Museum in Zurich, the Grassy Museum in Madrid, the Umaid Bhavan Museum in Jodhpur, India, and even the collections of the Forbidden City in Beijing.

My research and discussions with curators od some of these museums have revealed that these models continue to captivate visitors today with their extraordinary and playful nature.

The Diette and Hour workshop for the manufacture of clocks and "bronzes" is known for its models of industrial clocks, sometimes animated (in the style of Guilmet).

D. Roussialle, in his work on the 1889 Paris Universal Exhibition, describes the works of this workshop as follows:

"The diversity of genres in the numerous pieces exhibited attracts a considerable crowd from morning to night and holds their attention for quite some time due to the curiosity it arouses. One person admires a small locomotive that seems to be running at full speed. Another's gaze lingers on a miniature steam hammer, or perhaps on small high- or low-pressure machines, or even on rotating lighthouses that present different light effects to astonished eyes, like our large lighthouses on the ocean coasts. And all these charming little machines turn and move in various directions, not by steam, not by electricity, but by a simple gear (...).

The Diette and Hour firm has long specialized in these interesting little mechanisms that certainly amuse while telling the time and also educate, by giving an accurate idea of how these various devices work on a larger scale."