Christian Gebhard, A magnificent oak world time, astronomical and automaton standing clock, begun Marseilles, France, 1865, completed Aglaster Hausen, Germany, 1895

the principal movement is to the design of a flatbed turret clock with four trains, the central time train has a constant force spring-remontoire driven pinwheel escapement and pseudo gridiron pendulum, to the immediate right is the train for driving the quarter hour automaton figures and on the furthest right the train for striking the quarters, to the left is the train for striking the hours and for animating one of the automaton angels, the other automaton features are driven by separate movements connected to the principal movement, the central dial has an enamel chapter ring and is for local Berlin time, with, in addition, a sun pointer for solar time, around this dial are subsidiary dials for seconds, at the top, and nine further two-piece enamel dials for local time in Petersburg, Peking, Adelaide, Constantinople, Rome, Paris, Cap. St., Washington and Madrid, these central time dials are flanked by, on the left, an 8½-inch silvered dial calibrated 2x 12 hours for Sidereal Time and on the right for Future Time calibrated for a twenty hour day, on the lower section of the case the central part has a perpetual calendar indicating day, date, month and year, to the left the Golden Number, the Epact and the Roman Hours, to the right the Solar Cycle, the Dominical Letter and the variable date for Easter Sunday, the upper central section is devoted to the automaton features with central thermometer flanked by, on the right the quarter hour figures, to the left the skeleton hour figure and above two angels of destiny, at the first quarter a boy appears and strikes his bell while the angel above holds out a protecting hand, at the second quarter a young man comes into view and is similarly protected while he strikes his bell, the same performance is enacted at the third quarter but this time it is a mature man who appears, at the hour an old man comes into view and the first angel no longer offers a protecting hand and the other angel inverts an hour glass, at the conclusion of the quarter strokes a skeleton dressed in a cloak sounds the passing of the hour on a large bell, the striking automaton figures are flanked by, to the left, an aneroid barometer and a planetarium dial depicting the Sun and the first six planets each making their correct orbit, the outer edge shows the signs of the Zodiac and, on the right, a revolving lunar globe and a 2x 12 hours dial for showing the varying hours of sunrise and sunset throughout the year, on the uppermost central section a further automaton scene is enacted at 12 o’clock when twelve disciples pass before and turn to the central figures of Jesus who raises his hand in blessing, with the exception of the last, Judas Iscariot, who turns his back on Jesus, a cockerel in a niche on the uppermost right side crows three times, the remaining automaton feature occurs only once a year on New Year’s Eve when a trumpeter appears from behind closed doors in the uppermost left corner and heralds the New Year by blowing on his horn, to the right of the case on a protruding shelf is a terrestrial globe on a tripod stand and to the left a similarly mounted celestial globe, both connected to the principal movement and revolving once every twenty-four hours, the quarter-cut oak case with gilt mouldings throughout, central broken-architectural pediment with draped gadrooned urn finial, the side sections with broken-arch moulded cornices and plumed and scroll crestings, the whole paneled and applied with pilasters throughout, leaf carved corbels on the lower section, accompanied by related printed matter.

The Gebhard family
Hagens Clock Manor Museum, Denver, Colorado
Time Museum Inventory No. D1039

The Jewelers’ Circular, Vol. XLVI, No. 10. (April 8, 1903), front cover and p. 76
Garver, Thomas H. "Keeping Time." The Time Museum Brochure, reprinted from Invention & Technology. (Fall 1992), cover
Gebhard, R.L.  Description and Lecture of the Gebhard Astronomical Art and World Clock (booklet)
Murphy, Lu. "Clock for the Ages". The Bulletin of the National Association of Watches and Clock Collectors, Inc., Whole No. 61, Vol. VII, No. 1. (December 1955), pp. 32-36
Smith, Alan. The Country Life International Dictionary of Clocks. London, 1979, p. 133

Christian Gebhard, the designer and maker of this extraordinary clock, was born on June 29, 1829 in Ruchsen Baden, Germany. He came from a modest background and was the eldest of eight children. He left school at fourteen and was apprenticed to the local blacksmith. After four years he left home and traveled throughout Germany, Switzerland and France finally settling in Marseilles. He developed a great interest in Mathematics and Astronomy and spent his spare time studying. He made such good progress that he was able to join the staff of a school in Marseilles where he worked until 1870. During these years he made many astronomical appliances, planetariums and telluriums which were used principally to assist the teaching of astronomy to his students.  For some years he had harbored a desire to make a magnificent clock that incorporated many astronomical indications, comparative time dials and automaton features; he eventually made a start on this huge project in 1865, a task that was to take him thirty years to complete.

By this time he was married and had three children. At the outbreak of the Franco-Prussian war in 1870 he was forced to return to Germany and eventually settled at Aglaster Hausen where he set up in business as a jeweler and clockmaker, whenever possible he continued to work on his special clock. In 1878, his eldest son, R.L. Gebhard, also a clockmaker, began to work with his father and in 1880 the youngest son, L.K. Gebhard, was enlisted to help with the construction of the clock.  At last, in 1895, the clock was completed to the satisfaction of Christian Gebhard. The case of the clock was designed to be taken apart and reassembled fairly easily so that it could be transported without undue difficulty and, for four years after its completion, Christian Gebhard and his wife traveled throughout Europe exhibiting the clock.  It was much admired wherever they went. In November of 1899, Christian Gebhard died and in 1900 his eldest son, having moved to America, brought the clock to his home town of Louisville, Kentucky. The clock remained in the Gebhard family until it was acquired by the Hagans Clock Manor Museum in Colorado and from there it was bought by Seth Atwood for the Time Museum.