Dent is a British watch and clockmaking company founded by Edward John Dent in 1814. The firm became known for marine chronometers and standard clocks supplied to observatories and government bodies, including regulators at the Royal Observatory, Greenwich; in 1852 it won the commission to construct the Great Clock at the Palace of Westminster (Big Ben). After a period of dormancy in the late 20th century, the brand was revived in London under E. J. Dent & Co. Ltd.
Edward John Dent (1790âÂÂ1853) discovered his passion for horology from his cousin, Richard Rippon, himself a master watchmaker. Dent established his own company in 1814, and developed a reputation as a builder of accurate chronometers. One of his chronometers won the First Premium Award in the 1829 Greenwich Trials. The Royal Navy equipped themselves with Dent's chronometers.
Dent's chronometers accompanied some of the 19th century's most influential explorers. Robert FitzRoy took Dent chronometer no. 633 aboard HMS Beagle in 1831 on the voyage that eventually led to the publication of On the Origin of Species â outlining Charles Darwin's revolutionary theory of evolution.
Two decades later, David Livingstone purchased Dent chronometer no. 1800 for his African explorations, and in 1890, the explorer Henry Morton Stanley was moved to write to Dent that "the Chronometers supplied by you, and which were taken across Africa in my last Expedition, proved a very great service to me and were in every way thoroughly satisfactory and reliable".
Dent constructed the first Standard Astronomical Clock for the Admiralty in 1814, and went on to supply Standard Clocks throughout the 19th century to Switzerland, Italy, Spain, Belgium, Russia, USA and Japan.
In 1871, Dent was given the honour of making the Standard Clock at the Royal Observatory, Greenwich. In 1924 the BBCâÂÂs new Greenwich Time Signal was originated from the Royal Observatory using regulator Dent no. 2016, which sent electrical impulses for the six time âÂÂpipsâÂÂ. The clock was later corrected by a Shortt master clock.
Dent exhibited a turret clock at the Great Exhibition of 1851 and received a Council Medal; a Dent clock was subsequently installed at King's Cross railway station.
It was also Dent who built the mechanism for the 1907 clock placed on a clock tower upon Jaffa Gate in Jerusalem. It was showing both the European and the local , on two faces each. The clock tower was demolished for aesthetic reasons in 1922 (although some believe it was rather meant as a measure to push forward the Westernisation of Palestine, starting with timekeeping) and the clock installed that same year in a new, modern nearby clock tower, which was itself demolished in 1934.
Leading horologists like Edward John Dent were keen to compete for the honour of making this most important of clocks. Therefore, in 1846, the Commissioner decided to open it to limited competition.
On 25 February 1852 the contract for constructing Big Ben's clock was awarded to Dent by Sir George Airy, the Astronomer Royal. For the sum of ã1,800 (), Edward John Dent was to construct the clock according to Edmund Beckett Denison's design. Edward John Dent died in 1853 and it was left to his son, Frederick Dent, to complete the job.
The original firm of Dents closed and ceased to trade but in the late 20th century, Dent London was revived and is now operated under the legal entity E. J. Dent & Co. Ltd, based in London, United Kingdom.
The platform clock was restored by Thwaites & Reed under strict conservation conditions overseen by English Heritage which excluded the hour numerals added by the owner of the original Victorian dial and was officially unveiled by Queen Elizabeth II as the opening ceremony of the restored station.
A few months later a new dial made by Smiths of Derby advertising Dents with additional numerals, was put in its place and the Thwaites dial was put in store under the Station. St Pancras official archivists were granted access to Thwaites & Reed's records and photographs of the English Heritage approved restoration process.
Subsequently the Thwaites dial was painted black, covering the hand painted dial and gold leaf and hung in front of the Dent dial for a few weeks as part of an art event .
In 2007, as part of the restoration of St Pancras International for High Speed 1, Dent was commissioned to produce a new platform clock for the south end of the Barlow trainshed. The dial measures about and was built with metal plate, gilded mouldings and Welsh-slate hour markers; the movement uses synchronous power with GPS back-up and automatic summer/winter correction. Contemporary coverage noted that fragments of the Victorian dialâÂÂrescued and reassembled by railwayman Roland Hoggard after the original was shattered during removalâÂÂwere used as a reference for the new clock. ,
Dent instituted its triangular trade mark in 1876 to combat imitation products; period pieces often bear âÂÂDENTâ within a triangle device.
Dent also holds UK Registered Design No. 6349128 for the Parliament watch design.
By the Victorian era Dent held British Royal Warrants as chronometer, clock and watch makers to the Crown; E. Dent & Co. and M. F. Dent appear on official lists of warrant-holding tradesmen issued by the Lord Chamberlain in the 1880s. Period objects also carry the inscription âÂÂ(Chronometer/Watch)maker to the Queen,â confirming royal patronage under Queen Victoria.
Outside Britain, Dent advertised and inscribed appointments âÂÂto the Emperor of Russia,â and auction-catalogue descriptions record this wording on Dent pieces dated 1875âÂÂ76. A Science Museum Group entry also notes a **Royal Warrant from Emperor Meiji of Japan in 1880**.
Note: Albert Edward was styled *Prince of Wales* from early **1842**, not 1841.
In June 2020, a highly complicated Dent pocket watch (the âÂÂUltra ComplicationâÂÂ, no. 32573, c.1904) sold for US$832,240 (CHF 800,000) in SothebyâÂÂs online *Masterworks of Time* sale; SothebyâÂÂs stated this was then a world auction record for a watch sold in an online sale and a record for a pocket watch sold online.
Examples of Dent watches and chronometers are held by UK national museums, including the Science Museum Group and the British Museum.