Bulle electric clock

Bulle electric clocks were developed in France just prior to World War I.

Two Frenchmen, working initially independently came together to create the Bulle clock. They were Professor Marcel Andre-Moulin and Maurice Favre-Bulle. At the end of the war Favre-Bulle joined with Marius Lavet to form La Societe Bulle et Cie, a company to develop prototype electric clocks. In 1920 a patent was taken out by Favre-Bulle for an electric clock. The patentees were Favre Bulle and Madame Veuve Andre-Moulin, the widow of Marcel Andre-Moulin.

In 1920 Compagnee Generale des Appareils Horo-Electrique was established to commence the commercial production of the Bulle clock. During the period 1920 to 1952 production is estimated to have been some 300,000 clocks. All used the system as outlined in the original patent and over 100 different case designs were utilised.

In the following years, the technology more... remained basically unchanged although new materials such as aluminium, Bakelite and chrome were introduced as they became commercially available. From 1934 production was commenced in Britain utilising the same technology but with differences in the style of the clocks compared to the French product.

Favre-Bulle died in 1954, aged 84 and production ceased as scientific advances made Bulle technology redundant. less...