American Clock & Watch Museum

The American Clock and Watch Museum in Bristol, Connecticut, is a specialized museum devoted to the history, science, and art of timekeeping, with a particular strength in American clocks and industrially made nineteenth- and early twentieth-century timepieces. Founded in 1952 as the Bristol Clock Museum, it stands in a historic center of American clockmaking associated with the Ingraham and Sessions companies. Its exhibits emphasize Eli Terry’s early nineteenth-century manufacturing methods, which shifted clockmaking from individually fitted handmade parts to machine-made interchangeable parts. That change, alongside advances in firearms manufacture in Connecticut, helped drive the Industrial Revolution in the United States. The museum also maintains an important horological research library.

Bristol, Connecticut · United States