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Clocks Keep Watch in the Ancient Palace

Before the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) the sundial and clepsydra had been reckoning time in China for 3,000 years. And the earliest mechanical clocks appearing in China were presented by Italian missionary Matteo Ricci (1552-1610) to the Ming emperor in 1601. It took China until the 18th century to produce its own mechanical clocks, starting in the reign of Emperor Kangxi (1662-1722) of the Qing Dynasty. As well witnessing the beginnings of local production, the Qing court were avid collectors of clocks, most of their collection coming from clockmakers in England, and the rest from France, Switzerland, Italy, America, Japan, etc.

The Palace Museum thus has in its collection some of the finest clocks and watches produced worldwide during the 18th and 19th centuries. They are not only timekeeping instruments but also examples of superb craftsmanship, testifying to the outstanding skills possessed by clock and watchmakers of the age in both China and abroad. Noted for their decorative figures, flowers, animals and birds, many of these clocks, when set in motion, also feature the decorations performing complicated movements. They were not only useful timepieces, but also delightful and exquisite technological articles.

The Clock-Making Factory of the Imperial Workshops of the Qing court was set up in the Emperor Yongzhengs reign and reached its heyday in the reign of Emperor Qianlong. It produced mostly striking clocks and desk musical clocks, but is especially noted for its night timepieces that combine traditional Chinese geng (one of the five two-hour periods into which the night was formerly divided) with western  hours and  minutes, and are self-adjusting for changes in solar periods (24 periods in a lunar year). Most of the clocks produced in the Imperial Clock-Making Factory have cases of fine wood inlaid with enamel or traced with gold lacquer in imposing tones, forming a distinctive imperial style.

It s the worlds largest collection of clocks, featuring nearly 200 clocks and watches that were given as gifts to the imperial family by foreign envoys in the Qing dynasty. Exhibited in the Clock and Watch Exhibition Hall or Hall for Ancestral Worship (Fengxian Dian) daily.