Clock thread/

[Gerontius]

Couple of pics of my desk clock. This is actually a 2" 1920's car clock which is a rather rare size. The vast majority you see are 3". The obscured words on the bottom say 'Swiss Made'.View attachment 77111 View attachment 77112

That's legitimately awesome.

I have a Swiss watch that was originally a ladies' pendant watch, converted to wire-lug wristwatch. It's set up where the watch would read upright if it was on someone's wrist holding a steering-wheel. Cool little $10 piece that works fine. I have not made a wristband for it yet, and have not really wanted to risk damage.

The car clocks like yours are really neat.

 

[Callistemon]

Is that a Roger Federer special, or for the kleptocrats, @Forest Cat? By the way, that's a lovely blue on your watch face, nice to look at.

This is a fantastic thread.

 

[Callistemon]

I always wore Casio until its wristband gave me a rash.

I got metal allergy rashes a few times from metal wristbands and found that if I covered the inside of the wristband with clear nail varnish, I no longer got the rashes. The links on this one were quite large and free, so it was possible to do this without clogging anything up.

 

[Callistemon]

I don't like to wear watches either, they get hung up on stuff when I`m working outside and I just break them.

That's why I don't wear watches when working outdoors. For the rest of the time, I prefer to wear my watch on my dominant arm because I found that I'm much less likely to break it that way by bashing it into something. Anyone else found that?

 

[Crossbreed]

I got metal allergy rashes a few times from metal wristbands and found that if I covered the inside of the wristband with clear nail varnish, I no longer got the rashes. The links on this one were quite large and free, so it was possible to do this without clogging anything up.

My Casios had silicone straps. And I had no problem with them for a number of years.
Even my Fitbit came with silicone, but I was able to buy a fabric replacement.

 

[Gerontius]

I went & decided to go for a break today, and, instead of yet more mental catastrophizing life and my academic duties, go screw around & do some window-shopping for broken clocks in the antique store. Found one for fifteen dollars and seventy-five cents that looked like one of those @Nitro was fixing--Kundo 400-day clock under a glass dome. Not a bad deal on a clock; it still has the suspension blocks in there so I can just get the wire for it, and a winding-key, and once it's oiled and the spring is changed out it will probably go. It was twenty bucks originally but the cost was cut yet again.

Looking forward to seeing this one going; they are so cool to watch spinning around.

 

[Callistemon]

These old clocks look wonderful, and we have nothing like that at our house. But we do have a rather amusing Dali clock that was given to my husband as a Christmas present, which looks like this:

It sits on our bookshelf and yes, it works fine. We also have a mug to go with it...

 

[Gerontius]

@Callistemon I really liked the Salvador Dali clock; the only thing more shocking than abstract art is seeing someone actualize it.

(The first time I saw a picture of Dali's watch paintings I was a little bit irritated with him for melting down a perfectly usable watch; didn't realize he was such a good painter that he made his fantasies photorealistic. The ants, too--he did a great job on the ants.)

Here are some fun clocks for everyone today. I went out & took some pictures. I've also figured out what thickness of suspension to use to fix the little "anniversary clock" I posted pictures of, so hopefully I can get that one going. Parts, mercifully, are inexpensive.

Two Seth Thomas mantel clocks. One had a pendulum, the other had a balance-wheel in it like a large alarm clock (and had stopped working due to oil getting sticky.) I like the white dials and the cut-outs on the hands; they are kinda cute.

A group of neat clocks. None are in real great shape-- The large one in the back is a New England Clock Company's cottage clock that was originally an eight-day windup one but got gutted & converted to quartz. It was probably built in the 1970s or '80s? I'm not sure. Not a valuable clock but the New England brand clocks, from Farmington CT, are usually quite attractive in a 1970s-does-the-1700s sort of way.
The wooden one on the right was made at home from a kit; it's not an antique at all but it is still nice. The steeple clock at the back is a Centurion 35 day from Korea, that didn't want to work when I wound it up. It was made out of a very cheap & soft wood; not great carpentry.

Up front the little New Haven cottage clock was probably the one nice clock there--it was broken, but it looked like it would be pretty great if someone restored it. It's a real 19th-century clock but I'm not sure how old it actually was. Instead of a chime or a gong, it had a cast iron bell inside that struck the hour--ping, ping, ping, instead of the usual sound. I like the flowers painted on the inside of the glass.

And there's a quartz "anniversary clock" under the bell-jar, and a bit of a carriage-clock off to the side. I think it was also electric.

This one came out sideways but there is one electric Plymouth mantle clock, and an old time recorder/punchclock missing its punch-card mechanism but still cool. The Plymouth runs on a synchronous movement--60hz mains electricity spins a rotor at a precise RPM, and it's geared down to turn the hands. The ultimate sweep movement--though not as collectible as it could be. It's very pretty, and would be a nice alternative to a quartz clock, especially since it has real chimes in it. Yep. Most electric clocks have a little sound chip & a speaker but this 1940s Plymouth clock strikes on chime rods like a wind-up clock.

I do not know enough about clocks to appreciate the minutiae of different designs but they're just pleasing to look at, so that's why I packed a camera along (and why I was out staring at stopped clocks in the first place.)

A very old Ingraham mantle clock, pre-1918 I think (it had a thumb wheel to regulate it.) Still had the original key & the weight for the pendulum. The back is missing, and there is a crack in the wooden panel on the front, so it is priced way too high considering. The humidity & temperature in that old building are really hard on antiques. But believe it or not the old Ingraham was still going; I'd wound it up the last time I was there & wanted to see if it would go for a few minutes. It's been running for several days, steady as can be.

I love the green marbled finish on the columns; it's a nice touch. I do not love the high price tag considering this clock is badly damaged.

A Seth Thomas "Adamantine" clock. Adamantine was a trade name for a celluloid plastic veneer that they used to make the outsides; it looked like marble but weighs & costs a lot less. This one is from about 1890 to 1910 I believe but am not particularly sure. It doesn't match any of today's furniture but it is definitely a real period-piece.

Hope you all enjoy these- they're kind of neat. If you have good clock pictures throw them in too!

 

[Callistemon]

The faces on these clocks are just so splendid...you just don't see them like that with modern mass production.

 

[Callistemon]

Thinking about why some of us love those old clocks, and other instances of pre-mass-produced design - we were just reading this essay which I think a lot of people on this thread would be able to relate to. It looks at the comparative impoverishment of modern constructed environments etc. A good read.

Patina and Intimacy

 

[Luca]

@Callistemon I really liked the Salvador Dali clock; the only thing more shocking than abstract art is seeing someone actualize it.

(The first time I saw a picture of Dali's watch paintings I was a little bit irritated with him for melting down a perfectly usable watch; didn't realize he was such a good painter that he made his fantasies photorealistic. The ants, too--he did a great job on the ants.)

Here are some fun clocks for everyone today. I went out & took some pictures. I've also figured out what thickness of suspension to use to fix the little "anniversary clock" I posted pictures of, so hopefully I can get that one going. Parts, mercifully, are inexpensive.

Two Seth Thomas mantel clocks. One had a pendulum, the other had a balance-wheel in it like a large alarm clock (and had stopped working due to oil getting sticky.) I like the white dials and the cut-outs on the hands; they are kinda cute.

View attachment 77462


A group of neat clocks. None are in real great shape-- The large one in the back is a New England Clock Company's cottage clock that was originally an eight-day windup one but got gutted & converted to quartz. It was probably built in the 1970s or '80s? I'm not sure. Not a valuable clock but the New England brand clocks, from Farmington CT, are usually quite attractive in a 1970s-does-the-1700s sort of way.
The wooden one on the right was made at home from a kit; it's not an antique at all but it is still nice. The steeple clock at the back is a Centurion 35 day from Korea, that didn't want to work when I wound it up. It was made out of a very cheap & soft wood; not great carpentry.

Up front the little New Haven cottage clock was probably the one nice clock there--it was broken, but it looked like it would be pretty great if someone restored it. It's a real 19th-century clock but I'm not sure how old it actually was. Instead of a chime or a gong, it had a cast iron bell inside that struck the hour--ping, ping, ping, instead of the usual sound. I like the flowers painted on the inside of the glass.

And there's a quartz "anniversary clock" under the bell-jar, and a bit of a carriage-clock off to the side. I think it was also electric.

View attachment 77463


This one came out sideways but there is one electric Plymouth mantle clock, and an old time recorder/punchclock missing its punch-card mechanism but still cool. The Plymouth runs on a synchronous movement--60hz mains electricity spins a rotor at a precise RPM, and it's geared down to turn the hands. The ultimate sweep movement--though not as collectible as it could be. It's very pretty, and would be a nice alternative to a quartz clock, especially since it has real chimes in it. Yep. Most electric clocks have a little sound chip & a speaker but this 1940s Plymouth clock strikes on chime rods like a wind-up clock.

View attachment 77464


I do not know enough about clocks to appreciate the minutiae of different designs but they're just pleasing to look at, so that's why I packed a camera along (and why I was out staring at stopped clocks in the first place.)

A very old Ingraham mantle clock, pre-1918 I think (it had a thumb wheel to regulate it.) Still had the original key & the weight for the pendulum. The back is missing, and there is a crack in the wooden panel on the front, so it is priced way too high considering. The humidity & temperature in that old building are really hard on antiques. But believe it or not the old Ingraham was still going; I'd wound it up the last time I was there & wanted to see if it would go for a few minutes. It's been running for several days, steady as can be.

I love the green marbled finish on the columns; it's a nice touch. I do not love the high price tag considering this clock is badly damaged.

View attachment 77466


A Seth Thomas "Adamantine" clock. Adamantine was a trade name for a celluloid plastic veneer that they used to make the outsides; it looked like marble but weighs & costs a lot less. This one is from about 1890 to 1910 I believe but am not particularly sure. It doesn't match any of today's furniture but it is definitely a real period-piece.

View attachment 77467


Hope you all enjoy these- they're kind of neat. If you have good clock pictures throw them in too!

Those are really cool clocks. But I want the lighthouse in front of the clock in the last picture.
I always see those in antique shops when I go to Maine, and also on Cape Cod, and I'm always tempted to buy one.