The Howard Miller Clock Company is the maker, distributor and seller of fine antique, traditional and contemporary clocks. Established in 1926, the Howard Miller Clock Company was originally a subsidiary of the Herman Miller Furniture Company, Herman Miller being the father of Howard Miller. After a decade, the Howard Miller Clock Company became independent from the Herman Miller Furniture Company.
Clocks simply are pieces of instruments that tell us what time it is. It is unclear who invented the first clock but some say it was the Ancient Greeks, others claim it was the Egyptians, and other sources say it was the Hindus. The concept of early mechanical clocks to the modern mechanical clocks and its variation of today are derived from the earliest timepiece which is the sundial.
A sundial is a stationary round plate, or any object which is circular, placed in a flat plane in an open area which indicates the time by casting a shadow on the sundial’s marked face plate that moves in accordance to the sun’s position, determined by the earth’s rotation, of course. The thing that casts the shadow within the sundial’s face plate which sits on top of the sundial is called a gnomon. The sundial, however, does not serve its purpose very well at night, unless there’s a bright light of a full moon. When the moon is not full, or is not as bright, ancient civilization has another means of telling time with use of the stars.
Mechanical clocks come in a variety of forms. The very first clock claimed to have been invented by a German named Peter Henlein in 1510. Heinlein made a spring powered clock but it never caught up with people because of its inaccuracy in telling the correct time. The next form of mechanical clock was made in 1577. Called as the minute hand clock, with a man called Jost Burgi as its inventor, the clock was also plagued with certain mechanical problems and also did not caught up with the crowd just like the spring powered clock. Half a century later, a man named Christian Huygens invented the revolutionary, more accurate and more reliable pendulum clock. Despite the clock’s complexity in terms of its internal mechanical structure, the pendulum clock had a simpler concept of moving the gears and wheels that moves and turns the hour hand and the minute hand. The pendulum clock, however, still had its share of problem such as suddenly stopping and had to be rearranged and restarted. Despite this setback, the pendulum clock was the widely used clock from the renaissance era all the way to the early 20th century. One example of a pendulum clock is the iconic Grandfather Clock. Howard Miller Grandfather Clock Collection comes in a wide array of intricate shapes and designs made with best quality materials. Categorized in different designs such as Broadmur, Furniture Trend, Presidential and Ambassador, Traditional, Urban, and the J.H. Miller Limited Edition Designs.
Nowadays, clocks have evolved from a simple mechanical device which was painstakingly and meticulously hand-crafted such as pendulum clocks and locket timepieces, to the factory made and manufactured from the assembly line mechanical and digital clocks such as wrist watches, digital alarm clocks and so forth. The means of powering these little instruments of marvel have also evolved from its humble beginning from just basing it on the sun’s position or by the movement of a pendulum. With today and the past century’s technological exploration and know-how, sources from energy have been harnessed to power clocks. One being the most popular is the battery, other common source is the quartz, and others are even powered by the wearer’s movement more popularly known as kinetic powered watches, and solar energy is even being used (again) to power clocks and watches.
Howard Miller still sticks to the traditional look of their clocks, but each clock is incorporated with new technological aspects. Their Mantel Clocks adds sophistication and the feel of the Victorian period, their quartz powered Wall Clocks will “save you the time” by not having to change any batteries and their Tabletop Clocks provide elegance and versatility which will keep you up to schedule.
All of these products I found on the Internet but the largest selection by far was at Cherry Lane Collection.com.
Other Great Lines to Howard Miller are Chamilia and Harmony Ball.