The clocks made since 1657 are well known as 'Hague clocks'. It was the Hague clockmaker Salomon Coster who received the"privilege" by the States General of the United Dutch Provinces to make and sell clocks according to Huygens invention. The invention of the pendulum also generated great international interest, especially in France and England.

The Parisian clockmaker Nicolas Hanet stayed in The Hague in 1658 and imported the 'Hague clocks' in Paris, were they were soon copied. These early French pendulum clocks are known as 'religieuses'. Their sober appearance was soon adapted to the French taste, but the movements were still made according to Huygens method for a long time. The exhibition contains several of these 'religieuses', both early ones by for instance Hanet, and also later very abundant ones by Martinot, Thuret and Gribelin.

In London the first to apply the principle of the pendulum was Ahasuerus Fromanteel, after his son John had 'studied' with Coster for several months. Fromanteel and other London clockmakers changed within a couple of years numerous mechnical details and elevated through this English clockmaking to great heights: "The Golden Age of English Clockmaking" had started .....