musical clock
Illustration — Markwick Markham Pipe Organ Clock • Illustration — Inside of a Markwick Markham Pipe Organ Clock • Illustration — Musical "flute clock" with organ manufactured by Matthias Naeschke • Illustration — Musical clock likely from the 1990s manufactured by Rhythm Watch A musical clock is a clock that marks the hours of the day with a musical tune. They can be considered elaborate versions of striking or chiming clocks. Elaborate large-scale musical clocks with automatons are often installed in public places and are widespread in Japan.
Also recorded as flute-clock
musical clock
Creator:Veit Langenbucher Creator:Samuel Bidermann · This file was donated to Wikimedia Commons as part of a project by the Metropolitan Museum of Art. See the Image and Data Resources Open Access Policy · CC0
- Field
- musical instrument · timepiece
VALÉORINE Encyclopedia
VALÉORINE documentary reading
Documentary summary
Illustration — Markwick Markham Pipe Organ Clock • Illustration — Inside of a Markwick Markham Pipe Organ Clock • Illustration — Musical "flute clock" with organ manufactured by Matthias Naeschke • Illustration — Musical clock likely from the 1990s manufactured by Rhythm Watch A musical clock is a clock that marks the hours of the day with a musical tune. They can be considered elaborate versions of striking or chiming clocks. Elaborate large-scale musical clocks with automatons are often installed in public places and are widespread in Japan.
Admitted source layer · organised and presented by VALÉORINE
Reference Check
Propose documentary evidence for musical clock. A contribution is never written directly as fact: identity, source, rights and evidence gates still decide.
Sign in to contribute
Documentary evidence
Documentary basis
Authority files
wikidata · Q1434775 · wikipedia · Musical clock
In this article
Pipe organ clock
Pipe organ clock
The pipe organ clock was a specific clock that chimed with a small pipe organ built into the unit. An example is a Markwick Markham made for the Turkish market, c. 1770.
Popularity in Japan
Popularity in Japan
In Japan, aside from the extensive popularity of large-scale musical clocks installed in public facilities, electronic musical wall clocks has become a popular novelty items since the late 1990s. They are mostly collected for their aesthetic and decorative values, especially those with elaborate movements and advanced music generation. Most of these clocks are manufactured by Seiko and Rhythm.
Description
Unlike conventional electronic musical clocks, these clocks plays pre-recorded music samples, instead of using programmed sound synthesis. One of the earliest known domestic musical clocks was constructed by Nicholas Vallin in 1598, and it currently resides in the British Museum in London.
The music on mechanical clocks is typically played from a spiked cylinder on bells, organ pipes, or bellows. On electric clocks such as quartz clocks, the music is usually generated using an electronic sound module. Most of these quartz musical clocks utilize either FM synthesis or sample-based synthesis technology for sound generation to produce high-fidelity and complex music, similar to the sound generation methods of electronic musical instruments.
Notes from the source article
Cited by Wikipedia
Notes from the source article
These works are cited by the source article, in its own numbering. They are recorded as its citations, not as sources VALÉORINE has verified.
- 1.cita Isacoff p. 144 .
- 2.cita Jüttermann .
- 3.cita Darstellung des Fabriks- und Gewerbswesens pp. 175-181 .
- 4.cita Jackson p. 185 .
- 5.cita Carli Ballola-Parenti p. 277 .
- 6.cita Mozart .
- 7.cita Schaper .
- 8.cita Rattalino p. 378 .
- 9.cita Carli Ballola-Parenti p. 280 .
- 10.cita Hinson-Roberts p. 489 .
- 11.Catalogo delle composizioni di Franz Joseph Haydn. flaminioonline.it.
- 12.Andante in fa maggiore per organo meccanico K 616. flaminioonline.it.
References
Citations
References
Each reference names the institution holding it, so a reader may go to the document itself.
reference work
Secondary witnessreference work
Secondary witness
The Encyclopedia exists whether or not anything is for sale. Corrections are recorded rather than overwritten, and every version of this record is kept. Published 16 August 2026.
Elsewhere in Collectables
20,755 published records in this field, each with its sources named.
- music sequencerTerminology
- music trackerTerminology
- music workstationTerminology
- musical bowTerminology
- musical jugTerminology
- musical keyboardTerminology
- musical sawTerminology
- MusicianWork
Best supported in this field
For owners
Own an object connected with musical clock?
A specialist will read what you send and tell you what the house can establish, what it cannot, and whether the object is suited to sale. There is no charge and no obligation. The object stays with you throughout; nothing is shipped to us unless it is arranged in writing beforehand.