The astrolabe clock
The earliest mechanical clocks we know of were mechanical astrolabes - that is, the 'face' took the form of an astrolabe with the rete rotated by clockwork. The tradition was continued with some table clocks of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. In this example the rete has 16 stars. This clock also gives the position of the sun and the moon, and indicates eclipses.
Astrolabe Clock, by Johann Leonhardt Bommel, Nuremberg, c.1686? (Inv. 35592)