Vintage BOSTON Brass Ships Bell Strike Clock made by Chelsea. The bezel and backing plate both measure 4 1/4\" wide; the dial is 3 1/2\" across and it is about 2 1/2\" deep. The movement is a chiming type and it uses the ships bell strike, not a standard house strike. The dial is marked Boston but research shows it was made by Chelsea Clock Co. It comes with the original key and both arbors wind fine and it tests as working condition. Chimes seem fine but ships strike might need some minor adjustment to line up strike with hour from past experience. I guarantee the movement has no damage. I would recommend it be cleaned and oiled for future fine performance.
The Chelsea Clock Company is an American clock manufacturing company founded in 1897. Clocks produced by Chelsea Clock Company have been found in the White House, on US Naval Ships, and in homes and offices around the world. The company continues to build and repair clocks at their corporate headquarters in Chelsea, Massachusetts.
Early production centered on pendulum models and brass-plated, non-striking marine clocks. Pendulum clocks, with their fine mahogany cabinets, often took months to produce. The company produced its marine clocks entirely in-house, so these created revenue far more quickly.
Under Pearson\'s guidance, Chelsea made numerous product design improvements, many of which it patented. These included the design for a ship\'s bell clock having a fully encased chime and striking mechanism, patented in 1900. By 1903, the company also produced clocks for automobiles, soon counting Rolls Royce, Packard, and Studebaker among its customers. It wasn\'t until 1906, however, that the company earned its first profit. The United States Navy was by then ordering Chelsea\'s marine clocks in increasing quantities, leading other military branches to follow their lead. In 1907 and 1908, the U.S. Treasury Department ordered more than 100 clocks for its offices throughout the country. This motivated Pearson to establish the Boston Clock Company, essentially a separate brand for clocks and related instruments—including an artillery time fuse—the company manufactured to meet government standards.
From 1906 until the late 1920s, Chelsea\'s business grew profitably under Pearson\'s guidance. In 1928, however, he died following a brief illness. He wanted William Neagle, who he had hired 26 years earlier, to have first option on buying the company, which Neagle soon did.
Neagle was quick to replace less popular models with new ones, including the Forecaster, Fulton, and Georgian. Shortly after he assumed ownership, however, the stock market crashed and the Great Depression set in. Through drastic inventory and cost reductions Neagle managed to keep Chelsea afloat. When World War II arrived, Chelsea\'s role as a government supplier helped offset declining consumer sales. Neagle retired in 1945, selling the company to longtime employees George King and Walter Mutz.
In postwar 1946, the United States Air Force created its Strategic Air Command (SAC) and equipped each if its bombers and nuclear missile silos with Chelsea clocks. Meanwhile, Mutz noted a growing demand for electric clocks and, in 1947, introduced Chelsea\'s Model VE. He also introduced consumer versions of its popular military clocks, the Type \"A\" (12-hour) and Type \"B\" (24-hour). Mutz and King eventually discontinued several models, including the Athena, Fulton, and Magellan, while adding others, among them Bookends, Comet, and Corvette. James Leone, Chelsea\'s director of engineering, also introduced several improvements to the company\'s Ship\'s Bell model, including the addition of a stop strike lever. The redesigned movement, called the Model 4L, remains largely the same to this day.
In 1970, Mutz and King sold Chelsea Clock to Automation Industries, where Chelsea became part of the marine division. Soon thereafter, Chelsea\'s management noted the growing popularity of less expensive European movements, leading it to introduce a line of mid-priced clocks with German-made Hermle movements. To distinguish them from its premium clocks, Chelsea introduced its Boston Ship\'s Strike brand. In 1972, just two years after acquiring Chelsea Clock, Automation sold it to Bunker Ramo Corporation who, among many things, was the nation\'s largest producer of automotive clocks. In 1975, Chelsea began marketing its Ship\'s Bell and house strike (12-hour chime) movements with pendulum escapements in the popular banjo style. That same year, it also designed and introduced its first tide clock.
Bunker Ramo sold Chelsea in 1978 to Richard Leavitt, a native Bostonian, avid sailor, and former corporate auditor. Leavitt soon realized Chelsea could no longer rely largely on its government, marine, and Ship\'s Bell sales, so he revitalized its jewelry house line, introducing ten new clock models in 1981. He also resumed efforts to reserve the Chelsea brand name for the company\'s premium timepieces, and use the Boston brand for mid-line products—a practice he abandoned ten years later. By 1984, quartz and digital timekeeping technology were well established, leading Chelsea to introduce its Chronoquartz clock, named for its chronometer-like accuracy.
