Any Idea Who Made This Clock?

[arutha]

My latest purchase from ebay is this .

Is it a “Chalet” clock? I thought I would give this a strip and clean and take a break from the Keinzle as I am getting a little frustrated with it. As with most clocks I manage to buy these days it had been given a large amount of lubrication with our favourite lubricant WD40, I knew this as I could smell it as soon as I opened the door to remove the hands. Got the hands off and the wooden front plate and then found this…. ….It had come with a dull brass pendulum which I gave a quick polish just to see if it would come up ok but the other pendulum was wedged into the top of the movement! So any idea which one goes with the clock? There are no makers marks or labels.

After a good soaking in degreaser and a scrub with an old toothbrush to get off the wd40, dust and hair I gave it the once over checking the arbors and pivots were straight in my lathe, when I noticed this…. This looks like bad machining as opposed to bent teeth through spring breakage, would I be right? The rim on the wheel is different thicknesses too.

Now to the plates….. …..there is a fair amount of wear but I noticed the mainspring pivot holes had big bushes in and one had distorted the plate slightly, would it be possible that it came from the factory like this or has someone bushed it at a later date? They are going to need replacing as they have worn quite oval.
I love these old simple clocks, that they were built and sold for next to nothing and yet they are still around today.
I will add to this as the work progresses, this will include re-making the missing parts from the case.

[willofiam]

Hey Paul, do you have any charts with clock train and length of pendulum???? Let me see if I can figure this out. I need # of teeth on each time train wheel and pinion including the escape wheel and a description of what wheel it is.
William

[arutha]

Hi William, thanks for the offer but I dont want to think about counting all the teeth and pinion leaves Dont worry, I will just try with both pendulums and see which works best. I was hoping someone might be able to shed some light on a maker as I love to know who made the clock I am working on. I think afetr having a good look on the internet it is a german steeple clock (the spires are missing) but I cant seem to find a picture of another like it, the only thing similar has a slightly different case and the winding hole is at 4 o’clock as opposed to 3 o’clock on mine.

[Bob Tascione]

Hi Arutha,
Nice looking clock!
I’m really bad at identifying movements so I’m most likely wrong here. That sure looks like an American or Japanese movement to me. No numbers or insignia anywhere at all? I would like to know what you find out about it Arutha. Maybe someone up here can help out.
Bob

[arutha]

Hi Bob,
absolutely nothing with regards to identifiying marks. Looks like it was all once painted with a brass coloured paint which it has lost most of.
I have re-bushed the mainspring arbor pivots and it runs very well for a couple of hours and then just stops all of a sudden, I have noticed a very worn pivot hole I missed first time around so need to get that done. I am no closer identifying a make even though I have done extensive searches on the internet. I thought it was most likely American but then some of those German copies of the american clocks look very similar, I have to admit though that this is the first one I have ever seen with a round movement.
Will get back to you on this when I have any more info.
Paul.

[willofiam]

Hey Paul, just picked up several clocks and parts and books and stuff from a guy who wanted to sell it all,(couldnt afford ALL, but came away with a bunch) anyway one of the books I got is a New Haven clock and watches, Tran Duy Ly and thumbing thru it I saw one very similar to your, originally had small finials on the bottom of them blocks and then a little larger finials on the flat roof pc. just above. all I can see is that it was called a No.251 zebra veneered, 17 3/4 inches tall with a 5 1/2 inch dial. came in 6 different varieties as far as time and strike.
Have fun, William

[arutha]

Hi William, thanks for looking, its always nice to get new stuff
The dial on this clock is only 4 3/4″ with the bezel, I had a look through the New Haven stuff but didnt see the same dial style as mine, they were all tin faces and completely covered the space where as mine is on a thin wood background. The other thing I noiticed is the winding hole is on the edge of “3” where most of the New Havens are on the “4”.
If you still think it looks close enough is there any chance you could scan and post a pic?
Thanks and have a good day

[willofiam]

hope this works, I did notice how on alot of the gothic style clocks had the paper??? face goes to the top and is not round, I also noticed the winding hole, in your experiance is the winding hole in an assortment of places??? does it matter if it is a one day, 8day, 30 day ???? obviously depending on works and manufacturer, I will have to look at that closer now Good luck, p,s, we should make sure we dont bid against each other on ebay
William

• This reply was modified 2 years ago by Tamas Richard.

[arutha]

There are similarities but not close enough I think. Thank you for doing that William. I will let you know if I am bidding on anything but because I dont have much money if it goes over £20 i drop out anyway Ah, but tools, they are a different matter!

[Author]

Posts