The Vienna Regulator Clock
Tall, glass-sided and quietly precise, the Vienna regulator turned a scientific timekeeper into one of the most elegant wall clocks ever made.
What a Vienna regulator is
A Vienna regulator is a weight-driven pendulum wall clock in a tall, narrow case, usually glazed so the pendulum and weights are on show. It developed in Vienna around the turn of the 19th century, and collectors' references date the earliest examples to about 1790.
Its name hints at its purpose. These were built as high-precision clocks. Specialist dealers credit their accuracy to a long pendulum and a recoil-free escapement, and say they earned a reputation that made them a choice for scientific and government use.
The look became so popular that the term now covers a huge family of clocks made over more than a century, from hand-finished Viennese pieces to factory-made German versions. Telling them apart is a big part of what draws collectors in.
Why Vienna?
By the late 18th century Vienna had a large and growing clock trade. A timeline compiled by the restorer SNClocks describes how Empress Maria Theresa's reforms in the 1760s steered workshops toward high-quality craft production. Under Joseph II, a colony of Geneva watchmakers arrived in 1789, starting with 93 craftsmen and growing to 150, and introduced a division of labor.
Viennese guild clockmakers were more conservative. They kept making individual pieces rather than standardized ones, which is one reason early Viennese clocks vary so much. Their work took on a distinct local character and sold well beyond the city: until the 1830s, exports moved mainly through Serbian merchants to Ottoman, Greek and Armenian buyers, and Hungarian makers modeled their clocks on Viennese ones.
In the early 1800s Vienna's clock output far outstripped its watch output, and the arrival of the precision wall regulator became the most important development in the city's clockmaking. Before German factories joined in after 1850, nearly all regulators of the Biedermeier period and earlier came from Vienna or other centers such as Prague, Linz and Budapest.
Precision in a wall case
Viennese regulators usually used a deadbeat escapement. The deadbeat, also called the Graham escapement, avoids the backward kick, or recoil, of older designs, which helps the pendulum keep a steady rhythm.
The clock specialist Abbey Clock points to another refinement in fine examples: pallets that are taller than they are wide, which reduces how far the pendulum swings and so cuts down on timekeeping error. All parts were fitted and finished by hand.
Power came from up to three weights hung on cords or cables, and most clocks were wound about once a week. Most ran for 8 days, but some were built to run 30 days or longer on a single winding.
See also: how tall-case grandfather clocks work on OnlineClock.app.
One, two or three weights
The number of weights hanging in the case is a clue to what a Vienna regulator can do. Each weight powers a separate job, and the more weights a clock has, the more it does beyond simply keeping time.
A one-weight clock simply keeps time. A walnut regulator from about 1880 in the collection of Museums Victoria in Australia, made in Austria, is a good example: a single brass weight on a pulley, a pendulum with a wooden rod and brass disk, a white enamel dial with a raised chapter ring and a recessed center, and a small seconds dial below the twelve. It stands 117 cm high.
Three-weight examples, which Abbey Clock describes as particularly rare and desirable, can sound the quarter hours on one rod or gong and the hours on another. At 6:45, for instance, such a clock strikes three times on one gong and then six times on the other.
The early styles: Laterndluhr and Dachluhr
The earliest Vienna regulators are known as Laterndluhr, which translates as lantern clock. According to Vienna-Regulators.com, the first ones were built like three boxes stacked on top of each other: a large square on a narrower rectangle on another large square.
The Dachluhr, a simpler shape with a square stacked on a rectangle, followed and stayed in production well into the Biedermeier years. Both styles are generally grouped with the Empire period, which Vienna-Regulators.com dates to about 1800 to 1835.
Pendulums from these years help with dating. Earlier rods were steel or wood, and Biedermeier-era bobs were brass on both sides.
Biedermeier and later fashions
Many collectors call the first half of the 19th century the golden age of the Vienna regulator, and much of it overlaps the Biedermeier era. Britannica describes Biedermeier as a restrained, middle-class style that favored light native woods and natural grain over metal ornament.
Sources date the period differently. Britannica says the style flourished from about 1825 to 1835, Vienna-Regulators.com uses 1835 to 1848 for Biedermeier regulators, and the SNClocks timeline treats Biedermeier as Austria's defining style from 1815 to 1860. Either way, Biedermeier regulators tend to have simpler, narrower, more rectilinear cases.
Later decades brought new fashions: curving serpentine cases from about 1850, and then, after Emperor Franz Joseph ordered Vienna's old fortifications torn down in 1857 to make way for the Ringstrasse, the column-heavy Alt Deutsch style from around 1870. Lavish, asymmetrical Second Baroque carving appeared from about 1875, and plain Jugendstil cases with beveled or leaded glass from about 1890 to 1920.
Bobs changed with the fashions, from zinc backs to steel backs on wooden rods. By World War I, according to Vienna-Regulators.com, production of Vienna regulators had almost stopped in favor of cheaper box clocks.
Made in Vienna, or made in the Vienna style
Strictly speaking, only clocks made inside Vienna's city limits were entitled to the name Vienna regulator under the rules of the city's clockmakers' corporation. That did not stop others from copying the look.
From the mid-1800s, German makers, especially in the Black Forest region, produced regulators in far greater numbers, making them affordable to many more households. Lenzkirch, which borrowed many French methods, and Gustav Becker, which borrowed many American ones, were among the best known. Gustav Becker's name is sometimes found on the movements of otherwise unsigned clocks. Austria answered with its own factory clocks, sold by Gebruder Resch under the Remember name.
Collectors look for small clues to origin. Viennese clocks generally have finer hands, thinner columns and single-piece verges. German clocks often carry serial numbers and trademarks on the back plate, which very few Austrian clocks do, Remember clocks being the exception.
The seconds dial can be a giveaway too. Many German regulators used an 80-beat movement with a 30-tooth escape wheel, so the little seconds hand took 45 seconds, not a minute, to go round. Viennese makers generally did not use that arrangement.
See also: advice on getting an antique clock repaired on OnlineClock.app.
Questions people ask
Why is it called a Vienna regulator?
The style developed in Vienna around 1790, and the clocks were built as high-precision timekeepers. Under the rules of Vienna's clockmakers' corporation, only clocks made in the city were entitled to the name.
What does a three-weight Vienna regulator do?
The extra weights power striking. A three-weight clock can sound the quarter hours on one rod or gong and the hours on another, and such clocks are considered rare and desirable.
How often do you wind a Vienna regulator?
Most are 8-day clocks, typically wound once a week. Some were made to run 30 days or longer.
Is my Vienna regulator Austrian or German?
German movements often have serial numbers and trademarks on the back plate, and many have a seconds hand that goes round in 45 seconds. Viennese clocks tend to have finer hands and thinner columns and usually lack back-plate markings. A specialist can confirm.