Solora Chess Clock, Switzerland, 1940's

Solora Chess Clock, Switzerland, 1940's

Here is a Solora chess clock which I received from a friend who initially got it from Marco Dorland. Marco's website provides some information on the clock. Solora clocks were produced in Solothurn/Switzerland. According to the information on the website, this particular one is from 1946 and must therefore be among the first Solora clocks of this type ever produced. The clock was distributed by Henricus Koopmann, who was using German clockworks to build his clocks, which after the war were no longer available for some time, so he had to resort to selling chess clocks of other producers, such as Danuvia and Solora. The Solora is a very small and elegant chess clock, which is due to the fact that instead of alarm clock movements it uses wristwatch or pocket watch movements (which have the pleasant side effect that they emit a very pleasant pocket watch ticking sound instead of an annoyingly loud alarm clock ticking). The movements are inserted into a wood block precisely cut to house the small works. The players switch between the clocks by pressing a red plastic button resting on a T-shaped lever which moves a slider bar to engage and to stop the movements.
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