The Collections

Marine timekeeper, H1. This is the first experimental marine timekeeper made by John Harrison in Barrow-on-Humber between 1730 and 1735 as a first step towards solving the longitude problem and winning the great £20,000 prize offered by the British Government.…

Marine timekeeper, H2. Made between 1737 and 1739, this is a larger and more solidly built version of H1, see ZAA0034, with the additional refinement of a remontoire - a device to ensure that the drive to the two balances…

Marine timekeeper, H3. Started in 1740, this third timekeeper took Harrison nearly 19 years to build and adjust, although it was not to win him the great longitude prize: he found that he just could not persuade the two large,…

Marine timekeeper, H4. This is Harrison's prize-winning longitude watch, completed in 1759. Harrison had been working on improving watches as a sideline to his development of the much larger H3. In 1753 a pocket watch was made to Harrison's design…