BellClocks.com Q&A - Chelsea Navy Clocks

We would like to thank all those who have submitted questions and comments via our websites, and phone. We thought this would be a good forum to answer some of those questions.

We'll start this installment of Bell Clocks talk with a few of the most common questions. As always, we are happy to answer your questions by email, blog post, or phone.

Q: Does Chelsea Clock still build navy clocks?
A: Yes. (Follow the links below to visit bellclocks.com Timemaster areas)

Chelsea Clock has built navy, government and commercial clocks for many years, now referred to as commercial clocks. There are two lines currently produced:

The commercial line, which has no "formal" name - just numeric model numbers, which is produced under specific contracts, and is available for sale only to authorized government agencies, contractors, military, and institions, etc.

The second line of Chelsea "navy clock" is the Chelsea Timemaster, which is available to any customer - however, they are built to order and usually require 4-8 weeks to ship.

Several Chelsea Timemaster models are available including various dial sizes, quartz and mechanical movements, 12 and 24 hour. Case selection is forged brass, or black phenolic case (many people call the black case "bakelite" - which is close, as phenolic cases derive their roots from bakelite cases produced years ago). The picture above is our best seller, the Timemaster 40090 - a 8 1/2" dial 24 hour quartz model, in phenolic case.

Chelsea Timemaster, and commercial clocks, are built to the specificiations of MILSPEC (Military Specification) 1194(C)(D) - which we have a copy of. These specs specify every aspect of the clock, from spacing of dial components, to performance requirements. It's pretty stingent to say the least. From our main Chelsea Timemaster page:

"Timemaster Series of Commercial Marine Clocks (non-striking) Meets or exceeds U.S. Navy specifications according to MIL SPEC 1194C & 1194D
All quartz and mechanical clocks have passed U.S. Navy tests for accuracy, shock , vibration, exposure to salt spray, humidity and temperature extremes."

Chelsea also produces a little known matching series of barometers, the Timemaster Barometer line, which is designed to match 6" dial Timemaster clocks in design. The Timemaster Barometer is available in forged brass, or phenolic case, and utilize the same high quality barometer movement as the Chelsea Ship's Bell Barometers.

Again, please don't hesitate to contact us with any questions - we'll be back soon with another round of Q&A.

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