William Bond & Son (fl. 1793-1977) was one of America's the most prominent chronometer companies. The founder, William Bond, was an English silversmith and watchmaker who settled in Boston. William Cranch Bond, his son, built the first American chronometer that went to sea. An enthusiastic astronomer, W. C. Bond discovered a comet in 1811, and was named the first director of the Harvard Observatory in 1839. Together with his son, George Phillips Bond, W. C. Bond discovered a satellite and an additional ring of Saturn, and pioneered celestial photography. The Bonds also develiped a break circuit device that attached to the escapement of a clock that was particularly useful as part of the "American method" of determining longitude; it earned a Council Medal at the London Crystal Palace Exhibition of 1851. Ref: Carlene Stephens, "William Cranch Bond" in American National Biography, Vol. 3, pp. 167-168.
Carlene Stephens, "Partners in Time: William Bond & Son of Boston and the Harvard College Observatory," Harvard Library Bulletin 35 (1987): 351-384.
