Little story about a lovely old thing
Hi all
I got an interesting phone call the other day. My wife’s uncle got in touch as he knows I like anything old and “horology related”. He was having an urgent and inevitable clear-out, due to the imminent sale of his garage in London. He said amongst all the stuff there were a few old clocks, and asked whether I would like to have them as otherwise he would getting rid of them.
His late wife was swiss, and he spent most of his life in Switzerland. By that point my curiosity was suitably stimulated, I couldn’t help but think he would be the kind to own an Atmos clock!
Of course I said I would take a look, not really knowing what to expect. I am a bit of a hoarder when it comes to things which have a meaning to me or my family: old objects, letters, photos, etc… I could not say no!
The items made their way to the south coast courtesy of the mother in law who was helping with the clear-out. Cutting a long story short, amongst the very diverse cargo, (mainly old tat) was this charming little thing:
http://i1222.photobucket.com/albums/...ps6vjzm1q7.jpg
http://i1222.photobucket.com/albums/...pssnevaebo.jpg
I initially thought it was some sort of desk calendar (it was set on 4-11). However, after rotating the setting lever , it turned out to my surprise that the bottom number goes beyond 12, you guessed it up to 59, so it is actually a clock!
The movement is marked Junghans, so not quite an atmos, but I cannot complain! A bit of research on the internet taught me that it is called a Flip Ticket Plato Clock. According to my very brief investigations this could be close to or around 100 years old. Not hugely valuable, but arguably fairly rare, certainly unusual. This is pretty irrelevant to me as this clock has already got a place in my heart!
http://i1222.photobucket.com/albums/...pskksptubo.jpg
It is not running currently, but I plan to get it serviced and up and running again.
What I can see of the movement looks fairly basic, and it looks pretty clean given that it has been sitting in storage for many decades. With a bit of luck it might just need a good clean.
I will offer it back to my wife’s uncle if we can get it to work, but I sincerely hope he will tell me to keep it! I find it so cool, and it does look great in our lounge, a lovely little piece of family history.
I hope you find this interesting…. Although not watch related as such I thought I would share.
Little story about a lovely old thing
Life sometimes has some lovely ways to raise cheer, doesn't it. Good luck with getting it running again and - if possible - do post us a video if you do! I for one would love to see it run.
An update (with video) - It is ticking!
Where is the “holy thread resurrection batman” meme when you need it?
Unfortunately the pics I included in the original thread have been held to ransom by Photobucket. Here is a photo of the clock in question to jog your memory. It is a lovely old flip ticket plato clock by Junghans.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/av437g54wr...0Copy.jpg?dl=1
I promised an update if I could get this clock going. In the end I ended up having a go at restoring it myself. As you some of you know, I recently re-trained to follow a career in horology. I predominantly work on watches, but having joined a local clock repair evening course this was a great little project to get my teeth into.
These are photos of the movement once out of the clock:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/5gy3ucs8z6...91227.jpg?dl=1
https://www.dropbox.com/s/7worcwdj43...91251.jpg?dl=1
There was quite a lot wrong with the movement. The mainspring was broken, and with no suitable replacement available I had to make do. Thankfully the spring split at the end where it hooks onto the barrel wall, so I just cut a small strip of the spring, annealed the new extremity to reduce the hardness, and punched a new hole so that the mainspring can hook onto the barrel wall again.
This is a pic of the spring after heat treatment:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/9j9ltzab7m...92314.jpg?dl=1
Some of the pivot holes were in very poor condition. There are no jewelled holes on this clock, it is a very basic movement, so some of the holes in the brass plates had worn to an olive shape. See example below:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/ha05brb8wr...52520.jpg?dl=1
I ended up rebushing 6 pivot holes.
Finally the hairspring required a little bit of reshaping.
With all this done and after ultrasonic clean of the parts, the clock was ready to be reassembled:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/odr06y99bs...90834.jpg?dl=1
And… I am pleased to report it is ticking again, well and reliably! Timekeeping is as good as I am going to get on this kind of movement (it is a pin pallet escapement, so not really build for precision timekeeping!)
As promised, here is a link to a video of the quirky little clock in action, I posted the video on my Instagram account. Don’t blink or you will miss it! If you turn the sound up on your device you may even be able to hear it ticking, it is quite loud.
Link To Video
I hope this made interesting reading and viewing!
