My first 400 day

[Pegwood]

I had never been interested in 400 day clocks until I was asked by a friend of the family to repair one, a Schatz 49. That got me interested so I bought this one for myself to restore. The base and pillars polished up nicely. I then lacquered it. I polished the movement with Autosol then applied renaissance wax. I also cleaned and oiled and replaced the mainspring. I am very happy with how it turned out.
I belive that it is a plate 1610 from the guide but not sure of the manufacturer, CB is stamped on the front plate under the dial. I would appreciate any more information on the date of manufacture. The pendulum isn't solid but has a cast iron core under the tin bottom cover, no serial no.
I am sure the hands are not correct. The hour hand has been cut and soldered to make it shorter, the hour hand has been filed on the end. Can anyone please tell me where I might be able to get replacement correct style hands.

Anthony

 

[lesbradley]

Pretty sure it's an early Ph. Hauck which was supplied to and sold by Badische, hence the CB stamp, I am guessing about 1908 manufacture. I am sure JH will be more precise.

 

[John Hubby]

Anthony, thanks very much for posting your clock! As Les has indicated, it was made by Ph. Hauck and based on the serial number was one of their very first production in 1903. It has the lowest serial number documented up to now for this maker. From the data I have at this time, I believe that Hauck started their production at serial number 1001, which would place your clock as the 106th clock made by them.

You are correct regarding Plate 1610 as being the one for your clock. This plate is incorrectly identified as being made by Jahresuhren-Fabrik (JUF), I believe because of the horizontal position of the click bridge with click and click spring underneath and being similar to early JUF clocks. However, it has now been positively identified as being made by Hauck, with this same back plate arrangement being used exclusively for the first 7,000 clocks made, then overlapping with the "typical" Hauck click bridge arrangement as seen in Plate 1007 until about serial number 13500. After that only the arrangement as per Plate 1007 was used. In that arrangement the click bridge is vertical and mounted underneath the mainspring arbor, with the click and click spring mounted to the left.

The pendulum may not be original to the clock but it is typical of third party pendulums used by Hauck and others in this period. Many of these had the movement serial number stamped, scribed, or written under the pendulum disc. Hauck started introducing their own designs in late 1904, with pendulum No. 19. Third party pendulums continued to be intermixed with their own designs until late 1906, after which they used only their own designs which included No. 19 (two sizes with a smaller one fitted to their Semester-Uhr (200-Day) clock, No. 16 found only with standard size clocks, No. 26 found only with standard size clocks, and No. 6 chronometer style temperature compensating pendulum that was patented in 1906. This latter pendulum was made in two sizes (diameters) for the full-size and the smaller Semester-Uhr clock.

The Badische stamp ("B" in crescent moon) has been found on a number of Hauck clocks from yours to about serial number 8000, made about mid-1905. JUF also made clocks for Badische from about 1904 to early 1907, as did Huber. We believe at this time that Badische never made their own 400-Day clocks but purchased either movements only or more up to complete clocks for resale, right on through the 1920's.

The early Hauck clocks used only spade hands as best we know at this time. Replacement hands can be found at Horolovar and other suppliers, since you are in Australia you might try Smith & Smith in Sydney. Meadows & Passmore in the UK has a good selection of hands that can be adapted.

 

[Pegwood]

Thanks for the prompt reply Les and thank you John I appreciate the thorough description of my clock. I will follow your suggestions for finding the spade hands. What would I typically need to do to adapt hands to fit? Would I re-use the collet from the minute hand and solder it onto a new colletless hand.

Anthony

 

[John Hubby]

Does the existing minute hand have a collet that fits? If so, I would remove it from the hand and install on the replacement. Normally you can broach out to fit and solder in the collet.