Seth G. Atwood

Seth Glanville Atwood (June 2, 1917 – February 21, 2010) was an American industrialist, community leader, and horological collector. He was the chairman and president of Atwood Vacuum Machine Company, one of the world's largest manufacturers of automobile body 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 1971, Seth G. Atwood founded the Time Museum at the Clock Tower Resort in Rockford, Illinois, which later became one of the leading horological museums in the world with nearly 1,500 pieces of horological collection, including atomic clocks. The museum's notable collection included ancient Chinese sundials and water clocks, early pendulum clocks, a quarter-repeater by Thomas Tompion, Breguet Sympathique Clocks, and the Patek Philippe Henry Graves Supercomplication 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 on November 11, 2014. However, the museum was shut down in 1999 and its collection was sent to auctions over the years.

Family business By 1920, the Atwood Vacuum Machine Company had already shifted its focus from manufacturing vacuum cleaners to door silencers for cars. In 1980s, the museum became one of the leading horological museums in the world, with nearly 1,500 pieces of horological collection, including atomic clocks. 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. 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 auctions, and several pieces became the world's most expensive watches and clocks ever auctioned. These included the Patek Philippe Henry Graves Supercomplication and the Breguet Sympathique Clock No.128 & 5009 (Duc d'Orléans Breguet Sympathique, owned by Ferdinand Philippe, Duke of Orléans), 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$24 million US dollars (CHF 23,237,000) in Sotheby's Geneva auction on November 11, 2014.

Coaxial escapement During the quartz crisis in 1970s, Seth G. Atwood commissioned a mechanical timepiece from English watchmaker George Daniels to fundamentally improve the performance of mechanical watches. 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.