In 1998, the National Museum Speelklok, Utrecht acquired its oldest musical clock: a late-Gothic chamber clock from the Southern Netherlands.
The clock dates from around 1500 or, according to some experts, from the late-fifteenth century. Because of its two prominent bell-striking figures the clock, on joining the museum collection, was baptized "the Jacquemarts clock". The iron frame with its Gothic buttress-shaped corner posts contains five separate trains of wheels: the going, hour-striking, quarter-hour-striking, musical and alarm trains. The trains will run for some 15 hours on one winding. On the dial, the longer hand indicates the hours and the shorter hand indicates the quarters. Above the chapter ring the phases of the moon are shown.
From Antiquarian Horology, June 2003.