Bürk Time Recorders

Württembergische Uhrenfabrik Bürk Söhne (Bürk sons clockmakers) company factory in Schwenningen 1855

Johannes Bürk (1819-1872) founded the Württembergische Uhrenfabrik Bürk Söhne (Bürk sons clockmakers) company in 1855. It was located in a town called Schwenningen am Neckar (the river Neckar) in the region of Württemberg, which had Stuttgart as its main town. The town is now called Villingen-Schwenningen in the re-named region of Baden-Württemberg. The original factory is now a museum:  (https://www.uhrenindustriemuseum.de/)

Burk night watchman's clock

While initially the company made watches and various other instruments, Johannes Bürk is credited for making  the first portable nightwatchman’s clock (Nachtwächter-Kontrolluhr) in 1855, which with several variants remained in production for over a century. Johannes’ son Richard took over the company when he died in 1872.

Burk time recorder leaflet

Richard Bürk filed many patents for various types of worker’s time recorders from 1879, including a card stamp machine in 1897. Possibly as a result of finding it difficult to compete with time recorders imported from the USA, in 1900 he signed an agreement with the Bundy Manufacturing Company (BMC) of Binghamton, New York, to manufacturer their models under licence. This included Dey style radial (Radialapparat), Bundy key style (Schlüsselapparat), autograph (Einschreibapparat) and card (Kartenapparat) time recorders. They were marketed and labelled as Bürk-Bundy machines. BMC was integrated into the International Time Recording Company (ITR) in 1902. Once the agreement (and possibly the patents) expired, the Bundy name was dropped.

Burk-Bundy clock dial
Burk Radial Clock

Most model types continued to be made for many years, but the business eventually focused only on the production of their own card stamp machine. From the 1920s the company also became known for making high quality industrial master clocks and time systems.

In 1985 Bürk was taken over by Kienzle, but retained the name Bürk Zeitsysteme until their insolvency in 1996.

In 1997 Bürk Mobatime GmbH was founded, the main shareholder being the Swiss company Moser-Baer AG. All Bürk rights and products were acquired (https://www.buerk-mobatime.de/).

In 2010 Richard Bürk GmbH was founded as a high-quality watch manufacturer (http://www.richard-burk.de/).