Bowell and Frank Hope-Jones experimented making new designs of electric clocks, and secured their first patent in 1895, which included the Synchronome switch.

The Synchronome Syndicate Ltd was formed in 1897 as a precursor to a London Stock Exchange float, but when this failed, Bowell left in 1899, to pursue his own business.

Bowell had abandoned the electrically reset Gravity escapement of the Synchronome system in favour of the electrically maintained pendulum design of Matthäus Hipp, and the Post Office used his basic design of clock, in telephone exchanges and for call-timing purposes, for much of the balance of the twentieth century.

Bowell's last involvement in horology was in collaboration with Reginald Brabazon, 13th Earl of Meath, leading to a patent in 1937 for a clock escapement in which a constant force could be delivered, with unlocking independent of battery voltage.

His early collaborator, Frank Hope-Jones, contributed to Bowell's obituary, 'I understand that he met with an abundant share of the trials and difficulties which proverbially beset the inventor and that he failed to reap the reward due his skill and ingenuity.