A real Thomas Tompion clock!
Father of English Horology
Thomas Tompion (b. 1639 – d. 1713), the ‘father of English watchmaking’, was the best maker of the day and supplied the original Royal Observatory clocks in 1676. He was also the first maker, of any product, to give his items unique serial numbers, a practice common today.
Tompion Clocks at Greenwich
Now, this beautiful Tompion specimen is located in the Octagon Room of the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, London. Incidently, English horology files, this room was also used as set in Longitude, the scenes where they giving audience to the various theories of the time on how to calculate longitude at sea. Stephen Fry has a particularly memorable scene featuring a wounded dog.