The term, mystery clock is fairly apt for these ingenious conversation pieces that were popular in the early half of the 19th century and well into the early part of the 20th. The principle of movement of these clocks is thought to be the brainchild of Robert Houdin, a French inventor and designer of several designs of automata and other novelty mechanisms. His designs earned him many medals at various exhibitions in Europe in the mid-19th century.
When looking at the face of a mystery clock, the hand (generally only one hand is used for the hour) seems to be suspended at the center of the see-through dial with no visible means of any gear work driving it around the dial. This is because the hand is actually part of the glass dial that makes up the transparent face of the clock! The glass disc is encased within a metal rim and has gear teeth around the edge which allows it to be moved along at one revolution per hour, by a series of gears (hidden in the base of the clock) moving the hand around the dial, seemingly by magic. Some clocks have stationary glass discs with a tiny gear attached at the end of the hand that moves along a hidden track at the rim of the face.
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Rarer designs have two discs – one for the hour and one for the minute hand – which move independent of each other, driven by two separate gears in the base. The discs are held in place at their center by a pin which stops any weight of the glass discs from being transferred to the gears in the base and slowing the mechanism over time.
Generally classed in the novelty clock category, these clocks are nonetheless valued by collectors for their ingenuity and design.
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