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Onorato Comitti, an Italian master of precision instruments, moved from the Lake Como region in northern Italy to London about 1840, seeking new opportunities in a country experiencing unprecedented economic growth during the Industrial Revolution.
In 1870, Onorato he started his business at 2 Back Hill, Holborn. Onorato Comitti quickly gained a reputation for producing high-quality mercury and aneroid barometers. One of his sons, Luigi, became a partner in 1878, when the company name was changed to O. Comitti & Son, and it was Luigi who, in 1898, registered the company as O. Comitti & Son Ltd.
In the 1890s, the company established itself as the patent holder of the "Visible" aneroid barometer (with an open dial) and the sole manufacturer of the Torricelli barometer.
Luigi's daughter, Clementine, married a member of the Barker family, and after Luigi's death, the business passed to this family, under whose management the company continues to operate as Comitti to this day. In 1903, George Barker, Luigi’s son-in-law, became the director and chairman of the company, continuing the family tradition.
Around 1900, the company began producing clocks, and by the 1910 catalog, it offered over 75 different clock designs, more than a hundred various barometers, barographs, thermometers, and other instruments, covering nearly every possible application. It still manufactures various barometers as well as modern reproductions of popular 19th-century instruments.
Today, Comitti remains a family business, managed by the fifth generation, and continues to uphold its international reputation as a producer of luxury clocks in the finest traditions of English clockmaking.
