Show Us Your Mechanical Clocks!

[Hurricane Jack]

Anyone know anything about mechanical watchman's clocks? This one is a Chicago Watchclock Corp 8 day clock. I don't have any station keys or a key to the back, so I can't open it up. It was in my grandfathers possession & I have had it for yrs now since his passing. It should date back to the Great Depression as the family story is he had to take a job as a watchman then.

How hard is it to come up with keys? If I had it cleaned & serviced will it function as an 8 day clock? I have no idea what kind of paper disc or tape might be inside.

I've just started my research. There is an old time clock repair shop where I live. I plan seeing him about it soon.

 

[1930artdeco]

That is a neat watch! Any good locksmith can make a key for it but make sure you do your homework on who you let to restore it.

Mike

 

[Hurricane Jack]

That is a neat watch! Any good locksmith can make a key for it but make sure you do your homework on who you let to restore it.

Mike

Thanks! I'm anxious to see what the mechanism is inside & if there is a disc or punch strip still in it.

 

[de Stokesay]

Here’s my Seth Thomas barrister’s clock. Either WWI vintage or late 1920’s is my best guess. It keeps great time, but it’s supposed to chime the Westminster tune every quarter hour, but only manages to to so every hour. Sometimes the number of bongs on the hour are off to, but it doesn’t really matter that much, I like it anyway.

 

[de Stokesay]

This is our mechanical coo-coo clock that we bought in the Black Forest on a trip to Germany in 2018. It’s not vintage, but it is hand carved and hand made, and very traditional, so I don’t care. We were there for a wedding, and thought we should have a clock as a souvenir, and this is what we came home with.

We had the clock shipped, but the cast iron weights were going to be too expensive, so I carried them in my backpack for the rest of the trip. As we only travel with very small packs, we can go carry on only, and at the security screening at Frankfurt airport on the way home, the weights set off all kinds of alarms. I happily took them out and unwrapped them to show the security guard, but his English was a bit weak and I could tell he wasn’t following my explanation of what they were.

I then had a brainwave (or what passes for a brainwave for me at 4am), and loudly announced “coo-coo, coo-coo, coo-coo” so everyone nearby could hear. You could see realization dawning on his face, followed shortly by a look of disgust, just before he gave me the weights back pointed towards the boarding gates, and said “GO”!

 

[Turnip]

Anyone know anything about mechanical watchman's clocks? This one is a Chicago Watchclock Corp 8 day clock. I don't have any station keys or a key to the back, so I can't open it up. It was in my grandfathers possession & I have had it for yrs now since his passing. It should date back to the Great Depression as the family story is he had to take a job as a watchman then.

How hard is it to come up with keys? If I had it cleaned & serviced will it function as an 8 day clock? I have no idea what kind of paper disc or tape might be inside.

I've just started my research. There is an old time clock repair shop where I live. I plan seeing him about it ...

Rather interesting watch!

Any progress so far ? Here’s a link that might be of interest. Only partly in English but the shown links possibly might help a bit further on.

http://www.timerecorder.de/links.html

 

[Hurricane Jack]

Rather interesting watch!

Any progress so far ? Here’s a link that might be of interest. Only partly in English but the shown links possibly might help a bit further on.

http://www.timerecorder.de/links.html

No, due to the holiday season I haven't taken it in just yet. If Jan & Feb could be bad months for covid I'll wait. I have looked around a bit at the cast iron key station boxes & keys, but I'll wait until I know more about it.

Thanks for your interest!

 

[Edward Reed]

Just purchased this WWII era 15 inch Warren Telechron Co. commercial electric wall clock with metal case.
Model 1H512 was made from 1939-1942
In 1942 consumer clock production was halted at the Ashland, Massachusetts Telechron factory as the shop was put to work making defense-related goods.
Runs perfectly and keeps perfect time. It would have been used in schools, large offices and some factories.

If there is a temporary power outage while the owner is out, the running clock will display the incorrect time when he returns. Founder Henry Ellis Warren, foreseeing this difficulty, provided his clocks with an "indicating device": a red dot that would appear on the dial whenever the power failed. This red dot alerted the consumer the need to reset the clock. Setting the clock would reset the indicator. The electric clock market grew rapidly in the 1930s, and Telechron's patented power interruption indicator gave his clocks an advantage over competing synchronous clocks.

 

[tonyb]

Happen to have a few old clocks myself. Nothing valuable (they made ’em by the millions, after all), but still worth preserving.

I rarely use the wind-up ones, on account of the ticking being so loud. These were the kinds of clocks we used in my childhood, next to the beds, so I suppose I just got used to it back then and unconsciously tuned it out, as I did the airplane noise when I lived just about under the flight path near a major international airport.

 

[tonyb]

Just purchased this WWII era 15 inch Warren Telechron Co. commercial electric wall clock with metal case.
Model 1H512 was made from 1939-1942
In 1942 consumer clock production was halted at the Ashland, Massachusetts Telechron factory as the shop was put to work making defense-related goods.
Runs perfectly and keeps perfect time. It would have been used in schools, large offices and some factories.
View attachment 352306 View attachment 352307 View attachment 352305 View attachment 352309 View attachment 352310 View attachment 352308
If there is a temporary power outage while the owner is out, the running clock will display the incorrect time when he returns. Founder Henry Ellis Warren, foreseeing this difficulty, provided his clocks with an "indicating device": a red dot that would appear on the dial whenever the power failed. This red dot alerted the consumer the need to reset the clock. Setting the clock would reset the indicator. The electric clock market grew rapidly in the 1930s, and Telechron's patented power interruption indicator gave his clocks an advantage over competing synchronous clocks.

Did you put the power cord on it? Was the clock once hard-wired?

I ask in part because I see school clocks and the like often available on the cheap, but they don’t have wall plugs, so I’m left to wonder if converting them would be easily executed.

 

[Edward Reed]

Did you put the power cord on it? Was the clock once hard-wired?

I ask in part because I see school clocks and the like often available on the cheap, but they don’t have wall plugs, so I’m left to wonder if converting them would be easily executed.

I bought it knowing it had a replacement vintage style braided cloth power cord with vintage Bakelite plug. Im not sure how it was originally wired up though at its original time and location.

 

[tonyb]

So you're asking why I would own a 1960's, made in the USSR Slava ("Glory") wind-up alarm clock... probably because I liked the the Deco look. However, I'd like it more if it worked. To list or not to list? Shipping is more than its worth, so looks like Goodwill if I ever socialize again.

View attachment 224323

It is indeed nice looking, and worth preserving for that reason alone.

Am I too project its no longer working as typical of Soviet-era consumer goods?

Overheard a couple weeks ago …

Q: What doesn’t fit in your a** and doesn’t buzz?

A: A Soviet-made a** buzzer.

 

[vitanola]

Picked up a couple of interesting clocks lately. Note that these are the images from the seller, as i must pi k them up next week. First is a Self Winding Clock Co. No. 18:

Then a Standard Electric master clock

 

[vitanola]

A rather nice Birge and Peck eight day with a strap brass movement

 

[vitanola]

A nice little Birge & Peck 8 day with a strap brass movement