Hello everyone,

This one is a little unusual. There are many A-11 type aircraft clocks around, but this is the only one I have ever seen by Chelsea. Can anyone provide some additional information?

Thanks,
Greg

entire clock

The movement...

First one I've ever seen. I didn't know they made them either. You might try an inquiry at the Chelsea site. They're pretty good about providing information.

I've not seen a Chelsea of this vintage before. The design with the winding/setting knob at the 6 position is typically a between the wars design. The serial number ending in 35 suggests that it was part of a delivery contracted for in 1935 and likely a 1935 or 1936 delivery. Also, the serial number of 1,110 suggests that over 1,000 were delivered but it does not put an upper limit on it.

Also, this general design along with the winding knob at the 6 position is usually called a type A-7, though of course not all aircraft clocks with the winding knob at the 6 are A-7s like this one seems to be.

An update: About 1000 of these were provided to the USN per a contract of 1934, with most of the order being filled by 1936. Very few of them are seen today.

Thanks for the update, Greg. There were so many contracts with so many companies over the years for aircraft clocks that it is hard to keep track of all of them. This looks like a really nice example of one from the pre-war WW 2 era. Such a clock could have been used on most any of the Navy or Marine aircraft (trainers, fighters, transports, bombers, etc.) then in use, though the larger aircraft such as the long-range patrol planes seem to have used larger clocks with elapsed time functions.