Chelsea has made clocks in Boston since 1897, and is still in the business of mechanical clocks today. This is a post of a Chesea purchase by the U. S. Marine Corps, and shipped on June 30, 1942. I'm not sure what the application was for, but speculate that it was to marry up with the Landing Craft that was to be used for the Pacific Island Campaigns of WWII. Any insite into these fabulous quality military time pieces would be interesting.

Here is the face after it was returned to the factory for refurbishment.

One great service of the Chelsea Clock Company Inc., is that they still maintain the hand written records of clock sales, and for a small fee, with authenticate the clock with the issuence of a certificate.

Chelsea clocks are fairly common, however, the scope of their application is often overlooked.

Nice clock Matthew.I hope one day to have one in my collection.I have looked for one that needs repair and sells low, but have not seen many.
It seems most or all clocks used where they are in a moving type environment use a platform escapement.Thanks for sharing Matthew, nice clock.

That is one fine clock, Capt. Sutton.

The wooden shelf mount is an excellent way to display it.

There is no direct information in my files as to how the USMC used your clock. However, given how much it looks like the high-grade U.S. Army Message Center clock, of the same brand, I would guess that you have a U.S. Marine Corps message center clock. That being said, it could well have been used in any application calling for a high grade timepiece.

By the way, the time spent in research and restoration are evident and highly appriciated.

Thank you for the images of your clock. As you are aware, these clocks are hard to find. It's good to have images of one on our site.

Best regards,
Greg

When I purchased this clock during October 2002, I requested information on it. I was not aware at the time of other sources of information. This is what I was able to gleen fron inquireies.

I described the clock to an expert, which included clarification of information that I was told prior to purchase. Specifically, that this clock had a movement called a Chelsea "K". However, this is not so. My response is from John Crabtree in 2002.

I received a response as follows: "First of all, there is no type "K" Chelsea movement. What you described is a US Navy-spec Model 17E. It is a redesign of an earlier movement but the 17E has a removable platform escapement, made by Waltham Watch Comapany. Chances are, it is an 11 jewel escapement with ruby jewels. A 1942 production date means it was definately a MIL-SPEC clock since Chelsea made nothing but MIL-SPEC clocks from about 1940 onward as the war materials build-up began in stealth under the guise of lend-Lease.

The Navy later requested a sweep seconds hand model, the 12 E so they could see the second hand at a distance".

I asked for the role of Chelsea Watch Co. in the war effort, and received the following:

"Chelsea made every part in their wartime movements except for the platform escaspement. They designed that and then had the Watham Watch Company build it because they had the machines to build precision escapments that small and the technical know how as well. In many respects they were way ahead of their time because the wartime escapements used Elinvar hairsprings and solid balences. This helped tremendously in reducing rating problems due to tempurature change. Today Chelsea has a company in Switzerland build their escapements which again, are Chelsea designs. This is fairly common practise. Most fine watches use movements from ETA or Valjoux which are then finished by the watch company. The information goes on about Lend lease, and quality, etc...