Art Deco Annular Clocks and Calendar Clocks

Annular clocks are round or horizontally circular clocks with the divisions of time shown on a tape-like dial wrapped around the case. Unlike most clocks, where the hands move around the dial, the "tape" dial usually revolved while a fixed pointer indicated the time.
Early digital clocks marketed by Pennwood, Lawson, Telechron/GE and Barr manufacturing although not round are also annular clocks.

I am unsure about how much Herman Lux and W. H. Lamport knew about clocks when Lux Clocks Herman's company started marketing their So-Called "Mystery Clocks" which are Annular clocks and their atomic looking calendar clocks.

Lux's and Lamport's clocks took a standard clock movement and placed it horizontally instead of vertically in the case, these clocks only used only the the hour hand shaft. The same is true in the Atomic looking clocks Lamport created that also display the Month, Day of the week, and date of the week, the calendar wheels have to be manually changed by means of a rod on the backside of the clock,

The combined clock case and dial design was patented by Herman Lux in April of 1935 and marketed in two sizes. The larger 5" wide size is the more common, the smaller 3 inches in diameter and 2 inch in height is the rarer. These clocks were made in several colors using an enameled finish on pressed steel, shown in the first photograph, these clocks have survived with excellent original finish remaining very minor wear. The "tape measure" style dial is still quite clear and easy to read. The bottom shows the patent number of D-85.184 the same number appeared on both sizes of the clock. According to Lux records, they contain a Lux 30 hour guaranteed non-over wind movement. Fixed key wind is in place.

The Atomic calendar clocks in pictures 2 and 3 were marketed by Lux, and licensed to Kal-Klok, Westclox, and Bugle Boy who included a round gauge thermometer as a finial to the clock lid. The calendar functions on these clocks is adjusted by a rod in the back of the clock that can be raised and lowered and twisted to change the data, the rubber on the end of the rod tends to dry out making the adjustment difficult, I use a pencil eraser and go in from the front.

Picture 4 is a French alabaster annular clock from 1895 - 1905, still runs and keeps great time. The clock is wound by unscrewing the finial and winding the arbor. The upper band on this clock displays the minutes, and the bottom band the hour.

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