Earliest dated clock with a Fusee

The astronomical table clock shown was made in Prague by Jacob Zech and completed around 1525. There is an inscription in Old German around the dial that reads “when you count the years 1525 Jacob Zech made me in Prague – it is true.” There’s no chain; spring-powered table clocks from this period used catgut instead (often, surviving clocks with fusées from this era have had chains installed at some point). The dial shows “Bohemian hours” (that is, the day starts at sunset) as well as the position of the Sun in the Zodiac and the position of the Moon.

Hodinkee – The World’s Oldest Clock With A Fusée,

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The use of catgut with fusee is documented by Huygens in his work on pendulum clocks: “In this kind of work up to the present time, the differing power of the spring when wound up and when wound down was equalized by a fusee, round which was coiled a gut line; now these are disused.”

Discover more: Identification and attribution of Christiaan Huygens’ first pendulum clock