Brian Loomes - Watchmakers and Clockmakers of the World - Complete 21st Century Edition

Loomes, Brian. Watchmakers and Clockmakers of the World. Complete 21st Century Edition
Marlborough: The Crowood Press, 2017
ISBN 978-0-7198-0330-7

The "Complete 21st Century Edition" is the most comprehensive compilation and update of all previous editions of Watchmakers and Clockmakers of the World, originally published in 1929 by G. H. Baillie.
Baillie's first edition contained around 25,000 entries of clockmakers up to around 1825, expanded to 35,000 names in 1947. As Baillie died early and copyright reasons prevented a direct continuation, Brian Loomes compiled a second volume in 1976, which grew to around 70,000 entries (up to 1875) and was published in a revised edition in 1989.

With the present edition, Baillie's work, both Loomes volumes and numerous later additions were transferred into a standardised, alphabetically structured index. This step required the sifting, cleaning and standardisation of the contents of three main sources (Baillie Vol. 1, Loomes Vol. 2, and Loomes' own revisions). Different abbreviations, conventions and sentence sequences were harmonised.

The database was also expanded to include findings from a large number of regional watchmaking publications, especially from works published after 1989. Loomes endeavoured to cooperate directly with authors or estate administrators in order to incorporate concise, documented facts. A total of around 25,000 further revisions, corrections and additions were made for this edition.

The work now includes around 90,000 clockmakers, dealers and manufacturers of scientific instruments, sundials and barometers from the late 16th to the early 20th century, with information on dates of life, apprenticeship and journeyman years, places of work, changes of location and monograms, where known. Loomes describes this edition as the most complete attempt to date to bring together global knowledge of clockmakers in a single, consistent reference work. Here, too, the focus is on clockmakers from Great Britain and North America.

Only extracts from French, German, Scandinavian or Dutch watchmaking directories have been included, so these directories are still indispensable.

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