vintage_rft_wall_clock_1968.jpg
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veeb_clock_driver.webp
vintage_rft_wall_clock_1968.jpg
puck2.jpg
veeb_clock_driver.webp

Vintage Rundfunk & Fernmelde Technik Wall Clock - 1968

CHF 1,265.00

Mid-century industrial wall clock made by Rundfunk & Fernmelde Technik (RFT) in former East Germany (GDR) in 1968. This large 46cm wide electric wall clock features a glossy Bakelite case, a gold-toned metal rear plate, and a warm coffee-coloured clock face with black minute markers. The combination of rich tones and high-gloss finish gives it a distinctive, understated mid-century elegance.

The clock retains its original electric mechanism, running smoothly, and is driven by the included‍ ‍VEEB Clock Driver for reliable time synchronisation.

Mid-century industrial wall clock made by Rundfunk & Fernmelde Technik (RFT) in former East Germany (GDR) in 1968. This large 46cm wide electric wall clock features a glossy Bakelite case, a gold-toned metal rear plate, and a warm coffee-coloured clock face with black minute markers. The combination of rich tones and high-gloss finish gives it a distinctive, understated mid-century elegance.

The clock retains its original electric mechanism, running smoothly, and is driven by the included‍ ‍VEEB Clock Driver for reliable time synchronisation.

Control the angle of rotation with the yellow slider bar

A Timeline of the Rundfunk & Fernmelde Technik (RFT) mark

  • The end of the RFT network 1990
    German reunification ends East Germany's centrally planned electronics industry. The state combines that traded under the RFT mark are broken up, sold, or wound down within the year; Kombinat Mikroelektronik Erfurt, one of the largest, formally dissolves on 28 June 1990. Wikipedia
  • Peak years, and the Kombinate 1970s–80s
    Individual factories are folded into large state combines through this era: Fernmeldewerk Leipzig becomes the lead works of its own Kombinat in 1970, Mikroelektronik Erfurt follows in 1978. Everything from vacuum tubes to complete broadcast transmitters ships under the same RFT mark, and the initials become everyday shorthand for East German electronics. DeWiki, Wikipedia
  • Clocks from the combines 1960s
    Among the dozens of VEBs producing under the RFT mark, Gerätewerk Leipzig and Fernmeldewerk Leipzig build the mother-and-daughter clock systems that still turn up in old East German factories, schools and stations. Surviving examples carry a production date and the RFT mark on the dial. Beutekunst, DDR-Elektrouhren
  • The mark is registered 1957
    The RFT trademark is formally registered on 8 July 1957, years after it was already in everyday use. Officially it stands for Rundfunk- und Fernmelde-Technik, radio and telecommunications technology. Within the DDR the joke ran that it really stood for Repräsentant Fortschrittlicher Technik: representative of progressive technology. Wikipedia
  • The mark appears, before the country did 1946
    The initials RFT appear as early as 1946, three years before the German Democratic Republic itself exists. They're taken up by the newly formed VVB Radio und Fernmeldetechnik in Leipzig, an association of nationalised firms that included former Siemens and AEG works. RFT was never a single company: it was a shared mark, used across dozens of separately run state factories for the next four decades. Wikipedia