A mystery watch or mystery clock, in horology, is a timepiece whose working is not easily deducible, because it seems to have no movement at all, or the hands do not seem to be connected to any movement, etc.

One example is a type of mechanical watch where the movement is transmitted to the hands through a transparent crystal toothed wheel.

Mystery watch

The first see-through watch, known in French as ("mysterious watch"), was invented by Hugues Rime, marketed by the French firm Armand Schwob et frère, and made in Switzerland. As an item of historical/horological value, it is preserved in various museum collections, such as the British Museum, the German Clock Museum, the International Museum of Horology, the Musée d'Horlogerie of Le Locle (Switzerland), the Musée d'art et d'histoire de Neuchâtel, the U.S. National Watch and Clock Museum, and the Vienna Clock and Watch Museum.

Mystery watch

See also

List of watch manufacturers

Dollar watch

References

External links

Article published in Antiquarian Horology on the first transparent watch

Video of the first transparent watch at the National Watch & Clock Museum, USA

United States patent of the first transparent watch, 3 pages

Record of the first transparent watch at the NWCM

Hamilton Mystery watch, early 1960s

Watches

Clocks

Mystery watch