What clock got you started on collecting them?

[SpedMan]

This is the clock that got me into collecting clocks. It is a E. Howard and Co. master clock. I picked this up last year. I spent over a year looking for one but the ones I found the sellers refused to ship or the cost to ship was ridiculous. It stands about 5 feet and works flawlessly. It was 15 miles from me. What clock started your addiction?

 

[Arthur Cagle]

Back in the 1990s, I picked up a Sessions time only short drop schoolhouse clock at a flea market. It was missing the pendulum, and the proprietor of the booth was shutting down. I talked him down to $25 and brought it home. Somehow I got in contact with (no FB or anything like that then) a lady in NYC who was able to walk me through disassembling, cleaning and reassembling the movement...I'll never forget my grown sons laughing at me with the parts laying about, saying, "Dad, you'll never get that back together again!" Lo and behold, I got it together and it worked! That hooked me. That clock still runs and hangs in our kitchen.

 

[Schatznut]

My grandfather gave my grandmother this Konrad Mauch 400-day clock on their wedding anniversary in 1950. I remember being mesmerized by it as a kid, watching the pendulum glinting in the sunlight on their mantelpiece. It came to me when my grandfather died, and it didn't work. That really bugged me, so after messing with it a bit, I bought a couple of books and fixed it. Then I restored the brass. And I was hooked.

I now have many clocks that are worth a lot more money, but this one is more valuable than all of them put together.

 

[novicetimekeeper]

I always wanted a longcase, since I was a child. I now have 15 or so, the guy who does most of my movements is into dial clocks, I have 15 or so of those now too. I also like hooded clocks, and lanterns, about 4 or 5 of each now. A friend in Australia got me into bracket clocks, I only have three of those so far.

 

[Ken M]

Found this at a flea market about 15 years ago for $10. All busted and dirty, I thought "I'll give it a whirl". Found this sight, and after 2-3 weeks of coaching and frustration, I started it after more adjustments and an hour later it was still running! I was hooked,

 

[Schatznut]

Found this at a flea market about 15 years ago for $10. All busted and dirty, I thought "I'll give it a whirl". Found this sight, and after 2-3 weeks of coaching and frustration, I started it after more adjustments and an hour later it was still running! I was hooked,

View attachment 715485

Ken, I think the Schatz 49 is the most bullet-proof and satisfying 400-day movement to work on. I recently gave a good friend one exactly like this, that I bought as a parts clock but realized was far too nice to suffer that fate. That is one handsome clock!

 

[demoman3955]

It wasnt a clock that got me hooked, it was my father, and he had so many i could never have picked out just one, but i seem drawn to Beckers, in part to my dad that had a friend from Germany, accent and all, and imported a lot of clocks and my dad got first choice.

 

[leeinv66]

I brought this Sessions clock for one dollar at auction when I was 14. It was fully dissembled in a tattered cardboard box (case and movement). This is how I learnt to repair clocks. No books, no mentor, no internet, just a desire to know how mechanical things worked. It is on its fourth and last reincarnation at the moment. I have periodically overhauled it and made improvements to it as my skills have improved over the last 47 years. This clock is priceless to me!

 

[rmarkowitz1_cee4a1]

> 30 years ago, I bought a 30 hour weight driven ogee I believe bearing the label of a maker (really an assembler) named Clark from NYC. My recollection is that it had a pleasant wooden dial with floral spandrels and the best part, a stenciled floral tablet. A NYC version of Fenn. Good label. Very nice early embossed pendulum.

I bought it in a shop on the N. Shore. I lived on the S. Shore (Quincy, MA) at the time and used to go foraging for stuff all around Boston.

I have no pictures and it's stashed away some place.

I have and do own many much rarer clocks. But I still remember how excited I was when I brought it home, hung it up and got it going.

RM

 

[Bernhard J.]

I did not exactly start collecting watches that early (in lack of funds), but the first clock I took apart in the age of 9 years was the Junghans Trivox alarm clock of my parents. They were not really happy about this, packed the parts together and locked me away in a small cabinet without windows together with the pile of parts. And announced that they would only let me out again after I had reassembled the clock so that it works perfectly. Actually I suspect that they expected me to start crying after an hour or so and begging to let me out again without having fulfilled the task. And that this would teach to never again take things apart.

But. I spent about three hours reassembling the clock in silence and without any distraction. One of the finest memories of my childhood. It did, of course, work perfectly. I was let out with no words. And continued talking things apart for investigating how they work

Here is a nice video of the movement with alarm in action. There are three stages, first a toc toc toc, then a ding ding ding, finally the riiiiiiiiiing. In the video the first two stages are not distinguished in absence of the bell. One might understand that it took me about 3 hours to reassemble the totally dissassembed clock.

 

[PatH]

Our first clock, purchased as newlyweds, was a Ridgeway "grandfather" clock. We were supposed to be buying a washer and dryer, but after listening to the clock chime and strike on several trips around the store, the clock went home with us and the washer/dryer had to wait. The apartment complex had a laundry we could use, but they certainly didn't have a clock we could enjoy the way we have the Ridgeway!

 

[SpedMan]

I did not exactly start collecting watches that early (in lack of funds), but the first clock I took apart in the age of 9 years was the Junghans Trivox alarm clock of my parents. They were not really happy about this, packed the parts together and locked me away in a small cabinet without windows together with the pile of parts. And announced that they would only let me out again after I had reassembled the clock so that it works perfectly. Actually I suspect that they expected me to start crying after an hour or so and begging to let me out again without having fulfilled the task. And that this would teach to never again take things apart.

But. I spent about three hours reassembling the clock in silence and without any distraction. One of the finest memories of my childhood. It did, of course, work perfectly. I was let out with no words. And continued talking things apart for investigating how they work

Here is a nice video of the movement with alarm in action. There are three stages, first a toc toc toc, then a ding ding ding, finally the riiiiiiiiiing. In the video the first two stages are not distinguished in absence of the bell. One might understand that it took me about 3 hours to reassemble the totally dissassembed clock.

Wow parenting in the good old days! Today the parent would be put in jail for doing that. I guess sometimes one has to be cruel to be kind. Sometimes I guess, to flower genius a little pressure is require.

 

[John Arrowood]

My Father had wanted a house with a fireplace and a clock to go on the mantle (mantel), so in 1964 we moved into what is known as a B cemesto house in Oak Ridge, TN. We found a kitchen clock at a house in Marble, NC soon after and he bought that. One of my co-worker's husband had become interested in clocks and introduced us to Clement's Antiques in Chattanooga, TN where kitchen clocks were available for $15 each and and lots of French marble clocks lined up on the floor and Vienna Regulators here and there. We started shopping there a couple times a month and always coming home with one or two clocks. Then we heard about Merritts in PA and made a couple weekend trips there driving all Friday night and looking at clocks all day Saturday, getting a motel for Saturday night and returning home on Sunday. Their prices on Vienna Regulators were great and on one trip we had 6 stacked in the trunk of a Buick Century; it would hold about as much as a pickup truck bed.

 

[Dave Coatsworth]

My first clock was a Gilbert Falmouth crystal regulator, which I purchased around 1998. This was an eBay purchase. Other than being a very attractive clock (in my opinion) it was also being sold by the original family, having been given as a wedding present in 1902. (The other info given in the listing made this all rather credible.) Although heavily 'patinated', it seemed to be in very nice cosmetic shape. It was advertised as 'not running', but I wanted to learn how to work on them anyway. So, I bid and won.

When the clock arrived, I quickly understood why it was not running. Any of you who have worked on these 3 plate round Gilbert movements knows that there are shields around the mainsprings to prevent glass breakage if one should break. In effect, what these shields really do is to direct all of the energy back up into the clock movement. I was confronted with about 2 pounds of solder as a result of someone trying to piece the movement and wheels back together!

Long story short, I did eventually get it working with the help of a parts movement that I luckily found in a box of movements at a Greater Los Angeles Regional.

I've long since turned to collecting watches, but this clock still sits on a shelf in my office/shop. It was my first step into horology.

 

[R&A]

I wanted to learn how to repair more than what I had been taught. So I bought about 20 clocks and tried to buy clocks that were the same as far as the movements. This way I could use one to repair the other as far as putting them together and taking them apart. This is how I got started with collecting. When I was 24 I taught members of the NAWCC chapter 59 in San Diego, to repair their own collections. I had 9 students at that time. Had classes every other week and charged 10 dollars a class. I taught how to bush and polish pivots. We had alot of fun back then. Plus I was the Vice President of the chapter. I look back now and it's been 41 years ago. Have had many clock slip through my finger since then. And like many of you kick myself in the butt thinking about the one I could have had. Thanks for for letting me share

 

[phinegan]

My first clock was a crappy Sessions tambour. It kept bad time and the strike couldn't ever decide which hour to ring. I eventually gave to my best friend and it now resides on his fireplace mantel - not running.

 

[Jim DuBois]

this was my first. Dad gave it to me in 1970. It had about 20 coats of white paint on it. The glasses were clear. You can see my first efforts at repainting the upper glass. Not so very well done, but better than clear glass? The clock now lives with my son. I provided him a replacement top for it, and he has not put it on the clock, as can be readily seen. 30-day time only Waterbury. My first efforts at repair too.

 

[Paddypup]

A Hubert Herr cuckoo clock got me hooked.
cuckoo was like magic memory from childhood days !

 

[steamer471]

When I was a kid we went to visit my "slightly " eccentric aunt in York PA. She had a small cuckoo clock on the wall and I always wanted to know what the critter was up to between the hours. Twenty years later I bought my deaf mother a musical cuckoo for mothers day. It hung on the wall playing non stop while my mother wound it everyday without fail. When it finally bit the dust, I put it away. I have since honed my skills and have quite a few clocks under my belt but for some reason I just can't bring myself to fix it and it's still in storage. I get the cheap Regulas, Herrs going all the time and try to gift them to my friends with children in the hopes to peak their interest as mine was 50 years ago.

 

[Ralph]

this was my first. Dad gave it to me in 1970. It had about 20 coats of white paint on it. The glasses were clear. You can see my first efforts at repainting the upper glass. Not so very well done, but better than clear glass? The clock now lives with my son. I provided him a replacement top for it, and he has not put it on the clock, as can be readily seen. 30-day time only Waterbury. My first efforts at repair too.

Jim,

Early on in my collecting, I bought the same clock out of a garage. It also had a lot of white paint on it, and was in pieces. I had to use a needle to aget the paint out of the grain. It cleaned up and hung in my kitchen for a lot of years. It’s in one of the piles depreciating as we write..

Cheers, Ralph

 

[Jim DuBois]

Jim,

Early on in my collecting, I bought the same clock out of a garage. It also had a lot of white paint on it, and was in pieces. I had to use a needle to aget the paint out of the grain. It cleaned up and hung in my kitchen for a lot of years. It’s in one of the piles depreciating as we write..

Cheers, Ralph

Interesting! The one I got was used at the time card station to keep the official time for the Ft. Wayne Corrugated Paper Company in Hartford City, Indiana. They kept it and the punch card time clock more or less synchronized (manually). It went out of service sometime after 1964, I remember watching it, waiting for time to punch the clock when I worked there in 1964-1965 while I was anticipating the draft to give me other things to do. And I got the timepiece from Dad in 1970. And I avoided the draft by joining the Navy.

 

[Darrmann39]

I bought this Germania at an online auction for $75. Didn't know much about clocks. Finish master custom carpenter who needed something to do after I hurt myself and couldn't do the finish work I loved .
Found the throw aways clocks and started there.
This was pretty easy just some bound weight cords. First one I fixed and got me going. Now buy sell and repair 4 yrs. Later. With over 150 clocks on my collection