Seth Glanville Atwood (June 2, 1917 – February 21, 2010) was an American industrialist, community leader, and

horological Horology (; related to Latin '; ; , interfix ''-o-'', and suffix ''-logy''), . is the study of the measurement of time. Clocks, watches, clockwork, sundials, hourglasses, clepsydras, timers, time recorders, marine chronometers, and atomic clo ...

collector. He was the chairman and president of Atwood Vacuum Machine Company, one of the world's largest manufacturers of

automobile body This is a list of auto parts, mostly for vehicles using internal combustion engines which are manufactured components of automobiles: Car body and main parts Body components, including trim Doors Windows Low voltage/auxiliary ele ...

hardware, and a long-time leader of the Atwood family's business which involved in manufacturing, banking and hotel industries, with over 2,500 employees. In addition, Atwood was a director of the

Illinois Manufacturers' Association The Illinois Manufacturers' Association (IMA) is a trade association for manufacturing companies in Illinois. It bills itself as "the oldest and largest statewide manufacturing trade association in the United States." Based in Oak Brook, Illinois ...

, and had served in the

Illinois Chamber of Commerce ''Illinois Chamber of Commerce'', or The Illinois State Chamber of Commerce, is a state lobbying group representing the interests of many businesses across the state of Illinois. It is not a government agency, but a non-profit membership business ...

and the Graduate School of Business at

the University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chicago is consistently ranked among the be ...

. In 1971, Seth G. Atwood founded the Time Museum at the Clock Tower Resort in

Rockford, Illinois Rockford is a city in Winnebago County, Illinois, located in the far northern part of the state. Situated on the banks of the Rock River, Rockford is the county seat of Winnebago County (a small portion of the city is located in Ogle County). ...

, which later became one of the leading horological museums in the world with nearly 1,500 pieces of horological collection, including

atomic clock An atomic clock is a clock that measures time by monitoring the resonant frequency of atoms. It is based on atoms having different energy levels. Electron states in an atom are associated with different energy levels, and in transitions betwee ...

s. The museum's notable collection included ancient Chinese

sundial A sundial is a horological device that tells the time of day (referred to as civil time in modern usage) when direct sunlight shines by the apparent position of the Sun in the sky. In the narrowest sense of the word, it consists of a flat ...

s and

water clock A water clock or clepsydra (; ; ) is a timepiece by which time is measured by the regulated flow of liquid into (inflow type) or out from (outflow type) a vessel, and where the amount is then measured. Water clocks are one of the oldest time-m ...

s, early

pendulum clock A pendulum clock is a clock that uses a pendulum, a swinging weight, as its timekeeping element. The advantage of a pendulum for timekeeping is that it is a harmonic oscillator: It swings back and forth in a precise time interval dependent on it ...

s, a quarter-repeater by

Thomas Tompion Thomas Tompion, FRS (1639–1713) was an English clockmaker, watchmaker and mechanician who is still regarded to this day as the "Father of English Clockmaking". Tompion's work includes some of the most historic and important clocks and watc ...

, Breguet Sympathique Clocks, and the

Patek Philippe Henry Graves Supercomplication The Patek Philippe Henry Graves Supercomplication (no. 198.385) is one of the most complicated mechanical pocket watches ever created. The 18-karat gold watch has 24 complications and was assembled by Patek Philippe. It was named after banker H ...

which currently holds the title of the most expensive watch ever sold at auction, fetching 24 million US dollars (23,237,000 CHF) in

Geneva Geneva ( ; french: Genève ) frp, Genèva ; german: link=no, Genf ; it, Ginevra ; rm, Genevra is the List of cities in Switzerland, second-most populous city in Switzerland (after Zürich) and the most populous city of Romandy, the French-speaki ...

on November 11, 2014. However, the museum was shut down in 1999 and its collection was sent to auctions over the years.

Early life

Seth G. Atwood was born in

on June 2, 1917. He attended

Carleton College Carleton College ( ) is a private liberal arts college in Northfield, Minnesota. Founded in 1866, it had 2,105 undergraduate students and 269 faculty members in fall 2016. The 200-acre main campus is between Northfield and the 800-acre Cowling ...

, and graduated from

Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...

with a B.A. degree in 1938. He later studied at the

University of Wisconsin A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, t ...

for a year, and obtained an

M.B.A. A Master of Business Administration (MBA; also Master's in Business Administration) is a postgraduate degree focused on business administration. The core courses in an MBA program cover various areas of business administration such as account ...

from

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

in 1940. From 1942-1946, he served as an officer in the

United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage ...

, achieving the rank of

lieutenant commander Lieutenant commander (also hyphenated lieutenant-commander and abbreviated Lt Cdr, LtCdr. or LCDR) is a commissioned officer rank in many navies. The rank is superior to a lieutenant and subordinate to a commander. The corresponding rank i ...

. Seth G. Atwood later returned to Rockford and joined in the ''Atwood Vacuum Machine Company,'' which was founded by his father, Seth B. Atwood, and his uncle, James T. Atwood in 1909 specializing in manufacturing

vacuum cleaner A vacuum cleaner, also known simply as a vacuum or a hoover, is a device that causes suction in order to remove dirt from floors, upholstery, draperies, and other surfaces. It is generally electrically driven. The dirt is collected by either a ...

Family business

By 1920, the Atwood Vacuum Machine Company had already shifted its focus from manufacturing vacuum cleaners to door silencers for cars. Eventually, the company began to manufacture a complete line of

hardware. Seth G. Atwood became the president of the Atwood Vacuum Machine Company in 1953 when his father became chairman of the board. In 1967, Seth G. Atwood became the chairman of the company, and under his leadership the company became the world's "largest independent manufacturer of internal auto body hardware" in 1968. In 1970, the company re-organized and established the Automotive and Contract Division and the Mobile Products Division, employing over 2,500 employees with five plants in

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

and

the United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

. In 1971, the annual sale of the company reached around US$50 million. In 1985, Atwood Vacuum Machine was sold to Anderson Industries in

; the annual sale of the company was US$138 million at the time of this acquisition. Seth G. Atwood also managed other businesses of his family involving banking,

venture capital Venture capital (often abbreviated as VC) is a form of private equity financing that is provided by venture capital firms or funds to startups, early-stage, and emerging companies that have been deemed to have high growth potential or which ha ...

, hotels and

real estate Real estate is property consisting of land and the buildings on it, along with its natural resources such as crops, minerals or water; immovable property of this nature; an interest vested in this (also) an item of real property, (more general ...

properties.

Timepiece collection

Time Museum

In 1971, Seth G. Atwood founded the Time Museum at the Clock Tower Resort in

. The resort was originally built by the Atwood's family in 1968. In 1980s, the museum became one of the leading horological museums in the world, with nearly 1,500 pieces of horological collection, including

s. The museum's notable collection included ancient Chinese

s and

s by

Su Song Su Song (, 1020–1101), courtesy name Zirong (), was a Chinese polymathic scientist and statesman. Excelling in a variety of fields, he was accomplished in mathematics, Chinese astronomy, astronomy, History of cartography#China, cartography, ...

, early

s, a quarter-repeater by

, an astronomical and world time clock by Christian Gebhard, the Harrison wooden regulator clock, the Richard Glynn mechanical equinoctial standing Ring-Dial, and so on. In 1990s, the museum attracted over 50,000 visitors each year.

However, the museum was shut down in March 1999 when United Realty Corp., a company owned by Atwood family interests, sold the Clock Tower Resort to Regency Hotel Management. As a result, the majority of the museum's collection went to the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago, and was on display from January 2001 to February 2004. In 2004, a campaign to raise US$35 million to buy the collection for Time Museum failed, and the collection was broken up with its timepieces sent to auctions. Over the years, hundreds of items from the museum's original collection went up for sale in

Sotheby's Sotheby's () is a British-founded American multinational corporation with headquarters in New York City. It is one of the world's largest brokers of fine and decorative art, jewellery, and collectibles. It has 80 locations in 40 countries, and ...

auctions, and several pieces became the world's most expensive watches and clocks ever auctioned. These included the

and the '' Breguet'' ''Sympathique'' C''lock'' ''No.128 & 5009'' ''(Duc d'Orléans Breguet Sympathique,'' owned by

Ferdinand Philippe, Duke of Orléans Ferdinand Philippe, Duke of Orléans (Ferdinand Philippe Louis Charles Henri Joseph; 3 September 1810 – 13 July 1842) was the eldest son of King Louis Philippe I of France and Maria Amalia of Naples and Sicily. He was born in exile in his moth ...

), which was originally restored by English watchmaker George Daniels at the request of Seth G. Atwood. The Patek Philippe pocket watch currently holds the title of the most expensive watch ever sold at auction, fetching

US$ The United States dollar (symbol: $; code: USD; also abbreviated US$ or U.S. Dollar, to distinguish it from other dollar-denominated currencies; referred to as the dollar, U.S. dollar, American dollar, or colloquially buck) is the official ...

24 million US dollars ( CHF 23,237,000) in Sotheby's

auction on November 11, 2014. The Breguet Sympathique Clock, on the other hand, currently ranks as one of the most expensive clocks ever sold at auction, fetching US$6.80 million in Sotheby's

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

auction on December 4, 2012.

Coaxial escapement

During the

quartz crisis The quartz crisis was the upheaval in the watchmaking industry caused by the advent of quartz watches in the 1970s and early 1980s, that largely replaced mechanical watches around the world.

in 1970s, Seth G. Atwood commissioned a mechanical timepiece from English watchmaker George Daniels to fundamentally improve the performance of

mechanical watch A mechanical watch is a watch that uses a clockwork mechanism to measure the passage of time, as opposed to quartz watches which function using the vibration modes of a piezoelectric quartz tuning fork, or radio watches, which are quartz watches ...

es. As a result, Daniels invented the revolutionary coaxial escapement in 1974 and patented it in 1980. The ''Atwood watch'' for Seth G. Atwood was completed in 1976. The coaxial escapement was later used in the watches of watch manufacturers such as

Omega SA Omega SA is a Swiss luxury watchmaker based in Biel/Bienne, Switzerland. Founded by Louis Brandt in La Chaux-de-Fonds in 1848, the company formerly operated as ''La Generale Watch Co.'' until incorporating the name ''Omega'' in 1903, becoming ' ...

References

External links

Time Museum
{{DEFAULTSORT:Atwood, Seth G. 1917 births 2010 deaths Carleton College alumni Stanford University alumni University of Wisconsin–Madison alumni Harvard Business School alumni People from Rockford, Illinois United States Navy officers Horology Military personnel from Illinois