What sparked your interest in torsion clocks?

[etmb61]

I'll start.

I happen to like torsion clocks almost to the exclusion of all others. That wasn't always true. Back when I was working my wife inherited one from her grandfather. It was quartz and broken and though she loved her grandfather she had no desire to keep the clock. We sold it at a yard sale. One of my coworkers at the time enjoyed collecting clocks. He was keen to find an Atmos and told me about them. After some research I figured I'd never get one so I let the idea go.

After I retired I picked up a couple of old gravity pendulum clocks that I didn't think that much of just to mess with. I was wanting an octagon school house clock. I just like the style. I still couldn't see why anyone would want to mess with an anniversary clock.

I found my first torsion clock, an Atmos, at a consignment shop. Gave it a glance and walked right past it. After digging through the old junk tools I looked the Atmos over, realized what it was, and practically ran out of the shop with it!


After spending some time learning about it, they're very interesting you know, I figured I'd give the other anniversary clocks a second look.

Some time later I acquired my first 400 day clock off ebay. It's a 1952 Schatz with the smaller "pie pan" dial. It was missing the pendulum cup and bottom block. After fixing the suspension it worked right off. I should service it some day.


Now I have so many I've had to stop buying them. There are still a few on my wish list though. I have enough to keep me busy for a few years.

One thing I always did was try to find the date the clock was made and what it would have cost, then see what was going on in its world at the time. I'm a bit nuts.

So how did the rest of y'all get started?

Eric

 

[Ken M]

Flea Market, $10....etc.
Edit: Let me elaborate, I told the girl "I'll give it a whirl." After two weeks of scratching my head and saying bad words, it started. And that was that.

 

[Schatznut]

I've told this story before but I enjoy telling it so bear with me.

My grandfather gave my grandmother an anniversary clock for their wedding anniversary in 1950. On his teacher's salary it must have been an extravagant expenditure. It sat in a sunny spot on their mantelpiece and as a kid I was fascinated by it, especially as I watched the reflections from the pendulum swirling on the walls and the ceiling. After my grandfather passed away, that clock came to me. It didn't work so I messed around with it and sort of got it working but it wasn't right. That really bothered me. So I bought a couple of books and overhauled it, more as a tribute to them than anything else. And with that, the bug bit me hard. I was off to the races. I've probably done 50 torsion pendulum clocks to date, and whereas I have many that are worth more money, none of them (including a couple of Atmos clocks) are more valuable to me. The photo behind it is of my grandfather and me on the day I got married. That was a very long time ago. I have also restored his cuckoo clock but haven't ventured into a Waterbury Eldred kitchen clock that was the centerpiece in their cabin in the mountains of Colorado and has been in the family for probably 80 years. Every time I hear its beautiful gong, decades fall away from me. Pure magic.

 

[Gyro Gearloose]

Well my interest was sparked when I was just a little kid, and my dad brought one home one day. I was mesmerized by it! Later, when my folks passed on, my sister got the anniversary clock, but I got the grandfather clock!

Then, some many years later, my son & daughter purchased an anniversary clock for our 30th wedding anniversary. When that clock quit running 20 years later last May, I decided I could figure out what was wrong with it. It really did run all those years requiring nothing but the annual winding. It was an early '50's Kundo.

Well anyway, while searching for an answer as to why the clock quit running, Google brought me to this Horolovar Website and it was like an epiphany! The clock was out of beat! I got it back in beat, and I was elated that I fixed it. Next was the purchase of the Terwilliger Repair Guide and all was lost. Then later came the purchase of an Ollie Baker spring winder followed by a Peerless lathe and I've really gone off the deep end! This was just 8 months ago and over 30 clocks later. There's seemingly no way to beat this addiction!

But at least I've found a way to keep busy in my retirement years...

Cheers,
Frank

 

[Gyro Gearloose]

I have also restored his cuckoo clock but haven't ventured into a Waterbury Eldred kitchen clock that was the centerpiece in their cabin in the mountains of Colorado and has been in the family for probably 80 years. Every time I hear its beautiful gong, decades fall away from me. Pure magic.

Schaz-

What a wonderful post, thanks for sharing. But I gotta ask: As one who resides in the mountains of Colorado, where in CO was their cabin located?

Frank

 

[Dells]

I was in France the first time I saw a torsion clock 50 years ago, it was a standard Kundo
( I still have it ) anyway some years later it stopped working and I figured it probably needed a service, well I contacted the local repair man and I could tell he wasn’t enthusiastic about doing it because he quoted me £500 ( fifteen years ago) after trying other clockmakers without success I decided to do some research and try and service it myself, I purchased the two bibles and successfully serviced it myself and it’s been running ever since.
I had the bug, I then noticed another Standard Kundo in a S/H shop for £15 so after haggling I purchased it for £10, did the same service on it and again it’s still running.
That was it until I was approaching retirement ( I cut my working week down to 3 days )
I was thinking I needed something to do, I thought if nobody ( clockmakers) were interested in repairing torsion clocks then maybe I could.
I setup a website while I was still working 3 days a week just to see, I also decided if I could find some of the rarer torsion clocks to see if I could restore and sell them ( I now have 30 )
Because I love them and don’t want to sell them, anyway the website started to get enquiries and I now have torsion clocks sent to me from all over the UK as well as bringing them to me if they are fairly local .
I have been elected a member of the British watch & clock makers guild I am very pleased about that because by all accounts one can normally only be elected if you are a qualified clockmaker, I was told when I applied not to hold out much hope bet if I send in videos and pictures of my work they would put it to a vote.
I am by no means an expert because each one is a learning experience, I don’t always get things right straight away but I have not had one defeat me ( yet ) and I am now in full retirement and loving it.
Picture of my first torsion clock and the emblem I can proudly use on my website.
Dell

 

[Raymond101]

Hi found this to be a really interesting thread. I have always had a interest in clocks especially pendulum and rotating weights. My aunt many moons ago had a house full of clocks mainly very expensive novelty clock. The one above the fire place a torsion clock the rotating weights made a hypnotic effect to watch as a child. With the flicking flames of a log fire .
Now being fully retired I needed a new hobby having a wife with demencia that was making me go cuckoo. I saw a shnid torsion clock on ebay . With squares balls pendulum something napped. Just had to have . This was about 4 years ago after spending along time getting it up and running it sat in the same place keeping within 5 minutes a month. I find these type of gravity clocks peaceful and very relaxing to watch.
I also a big fascination with brocot movements and have 2 . Both keeping within a minute a week.
Now I have just seen another Japanese masters torsion 400 day, square glass case. $20 still in the original box from I guess by serial on box 1963 . I wasted no time going for it .hopefully it will arrive within a month .
Even knowing that gravity torsion clock are the worst time keeping. @ 70 years young I loose days. So 5 minutes is just a drop in the ocean to me

Raymond

 

[Gyro Gearloose]

Now I have just seen another Japanese masters torsion 400 day, square glass case. $20 still in the original box from I guess by serial on box 1963 . I wasted no time going for it .hopefully it will arrive within a month .
Even knowing that gravity torsion clock are the worst time keeping. @ 70 years young I loose days. So 5 minutes is just a drop in the ocean to me

Raymond

Raymond,
I think you will really like the Master Nisshin once it arrives. When I acquired mine it didn't need a thing, suspension spring was intact and It looked like new and it was already in beat and was keeping good time. And @70 you're just a kid! In just a few months I'll be 79.

 

[Schatznut]

Schaz-

What a wonderful post, thanks for sharing. But I gotta ask: As one who resides in the mountains of Colorado, where in CO was their cabin located?

Frank

In Wandcrest Park near Schaffer's Crossing. They sold the cabin when they retired and it's still there - on a trip back there a few years ago, working on memory alone, I found it. Another rush of pleasant memories.

 

[Schatznut]

I am by no means an expert because each one is a learning experience, I don’t always get things right straight away but I have not had one defeat me ( yet ) and I am now in full retirement and loving it.

Dells, you said it perfectly - these little clocks can be very humbling. Just when I'm beginning to think I've got the hang of it, one comes along that completely shatters my confidence. But just like you, I've always finally prevailed, and come away from every one of them having learned something new. That's what keeps me doing it, along with the satisfaction from making an old clock young again.

 

[Wayne A]

Remember seeing all sorts of swinging pendulum clocks when I was a kid in the 60's, was really fascinated by them. One Aunt had a torsion clock, thought it was the coolest thing. Turned out I like machines of just about any kind. Made a career out of making all sorts of industrial control system machines go.

After retiring started hitting the estate sales with the wife, one day I saw it, a torsion clock like Aunt so and so had. Picked it up and went to pay the Estate sale lady, she said "those types of clocks are always broken", said confidently "I'll fix it". Well a few books and lots of reading here I did fix it, and many more since.

Wayne

 

[Raymond101]

Raymond,
I think you will really like the Master Nisshin once it arrives. When I acquired mine it didn't need a thing, suspension spring was intact and It looked like new and it was already in beat and was keeping good time. And @70 you're just a kid! In just a few months I'll be 79.

View attachment 748473

Thanks, it's nice knowing you also have an old master other than the wife (joking of course) . I was a bit surprised at the super low price.
You photo looks exactly the same.
All the best for many more yrs
@ 79 .
Raymond.

 

[tracerjack]

A visiting friend of my daughter wanted to bring a gift for me. My daughter told her, “Find a broken clock.” The friend brought a little quartz 400 day. The time worked, but the pendulum didn’t swing. I was on that like a dog on a squirrel. I got it fixed, and admired it. Watching the pendulum spin, it reminded me that my father once had one, but it was all brass. And one thought led to another until I now have rows of them on my bookcase.

 

[KurtinSA]

For me, it started in late 2015 when I was visiting my father. I noticed the anniversary clock and asked about it. He said it didn't work. The story is that his father bought it at the 1933 Chicago World's Fair. I wonder what an agricultural man from Minnesota was attracted to? Probably the same for all of us...the spinning balls! It's a JUF and with help on the forum, it's been dated to the late 1920s. I guess JUF found a place to offload some older clocks sitting around in their inventory!! The fair was celebrating a Century of Progress.

As an engineer, I was interested in the visual nature of the gearing, everything being exposed. I started looking it over and tried some internet searching, but I wasn't really getting things figured out. Something about setting the beat but I just didn't understand. And before I broke something, I managed to hook up with a local NAWCC member in the St. Louis area. We took the clock to him, he initially said the clock was out of beat, but the power in the clock was down so recommended that it be overhauled. He did that and the clock is running well today.

That got me to looking for my own anniversary clocks when I got home. I made the rounds to estate sales and antique stores, even bought a couple from someone in the parking lot of a restaurant!! I was on my way at that point. I had an opportunity to be part of a trip to northern Maine for an estate sale that the St. Louis NAWCC member was going to as a way of helping the family...the member who passed had been a good friend. My collection exploded from that trip. I still don't know how I got over 100 clocks from Maine to Missouri and then to Texas with no major disasters!

I don't remember my grandfather's clock growing up, but I did find in a couple of my father's slides that I had scanned, the clock sitting in the corner of the dining room in their St. Paul house. Sort of full circle! Somewhere in the hopefully distant future I'll get that JUF clock. I already have its brother, an identical clock from the same period.

Kurt

 

[Dells]

I knew you purchased a lot of clocks Kurt from one sale but 100 that’s a lot of clocks, have you serviced them all ?

 

[Gyro Gearloose]

"I don't remember my grandfather's clock growing up"

That's because it wasn't a tall clock, but rather a short clock! OK, bad joke I know, but I just couldn't resist!

~ Frank

 

[KurtinSA]

I knew you purchased a lot of clocks Kurt from one sale but 100 that’s a lot of clocks, have you serviced them all ?

A good portion, at least most of the full-sized clocks. The miniatures and midgets are not so much fun, so I haven't gone too deep into those. Lately, I'm going back through some serviced clocks to see if I can do better, apply the newer tools/skills I might have picked up. I've stated it before that my goal is to get clocks to run a good 10-12 months as opposed to getting it regulated to keep time. When I had only 20-25, I spent a lot of time documenting how the clocks were doing, making tweaks to the time regulation and rechecking them 24 hours later. But when the number of clocks got out of hand, I just can't do that anymore.

Kurt

 

[Schatznut]

A good portion, at least most of the full-sized clocks. The miniatures and midgets are not so much fun, so I haven't gone too deep into those. Lately, I'm going back through some serviced clocks to see if I can do better, apply the newer tools/skills I might have picked up. I've stated it before that my goal is to get clocks to run a good 10-12 months as opposed to getting it regulated to keep time. When I had only 20-25, I spent a lot of time documenting how the clocks were doing, making tweaks to the time regulation and rechecking them 24 hours later. But when the number of clocks got out of hand, I just can't do that anymore.

Kurt

I'm in the same situation, Kurt! I've done maybe 50 clocks but I've probably done 100 overhauls... Each time I go into one that doesn't make it to 400 days, I find things that I now know how to do better, and both the clocks and my technique further improve.

 

[thesnark17]

I do not "love torsion clocks to the exclusion of all others". But I really do love them, particularly the Atmos.

When I was a child, I was fascinated by the crystal and brass clock sitting on my grandfather's mantel. It never worked, (I was told it was broken) but it looked beautiful. It was given to my great-grandfather as a retirement present, and there was no question that it was staying in the family, broken or not.

Now that I am older, it is on my father's mantel. It still doesn't work, but I now know that it's an Atmos 526. I was so excited when I unlocked the pendulum and it turned and ran! It quit after a few months of course - it seems that the bellows needs to be recharged. In the 30+ years that it had sat unused, it must have wound a little bit.

One day, I will get it repaired. The current holders are happy to have it as a static display. But I got my own Atmos in the meantime - a Gruen Cosmos. I prefer the look of walnut to brass myself, and it's happily running on my mantel.

The slow speed of the pendulum is quite something to behold.

 

[sjaffe]

Thanks for starting this thread Eric. It's a nice change from the "what year was my clock manufactured" and "why won't my clock run" posts.

400 day clocks came after my attraction to Seth Thomas tambour mantel clocks (which is another story for a different message board group). Like with my wife, there was just something that attracted me to them. A local clocksmith sold me a few and the addiction started from there. My story is similar to most others here: collecting various styles, colors and brands as they turned up. But then the story diverges.

In September 2020 I lost pretty much everything in a California wildfire. At that time I had some 30-40 400 day clocks. Four months later we bought a new house and I got the unique opportunity to start all over again. So far I have around ten 400 day clocks. Maybe that's enough. Putting my shop back together I had a better idea what worked and what didn't, what tools were necessary and what to skip. For instance, I replaced my Webster spring winder with a Keystone. I have no plans to replace my escape wheel tooth straightener (never used). Added a Myford Super 7 lathe this time as the big brother to the new Sherline.

It's been a learning experience. The most important things I was able to save: my wife, my children and our animals. Almost everything else can be replaced (the Amazon delivery folks know us well).

Don't take your clocks for granted for they can disappear in the blink of an eye. Cherish every day. Enjoy life.

Stan

 

[Gyro Gearloose]

Stan,

I am so very sorry for your loss, it's incomprehensible to me what that must be like. We are no strangers to wildfires here in the mountains of Colorado, and we had one one very close call when the Cold Springs Wildfire back on July 2016 came within 4 miles of our home. And we have friends who lost their home in the devastating Marshal Fire that occured in Boulder in December 2021. He and his family are still struggling with the insurance company to rebuild their home. Since you bought a new home 4 months later I'm guessing you won't be rebuilding your former home.

At any rate I'm glad that you and yours are safe and on the mend, better days are ahead for you I'm sure. As the old saying goes, "one door closes, and another one opens". Good Luck to you...

Cheers,
Frank

 

[Jyst]

I bought a cheap Hermle miniature off ebay a few years before I retired (can't remember when) and then Joe Rabushka's book.
I took it apart and put it together countless times with no success and put it in the cupboard.
I was clueless, I didn't even know the difference between a chimer and striker.
Fortunately a friend introduced me to a clock repairer and I spent a lot of time with him.
I bought several more torsion clocks and gradually things started to sink in and my skills improved.
As the way the universe works I met other like minded people and this opened up avenues to being a more serious collector and now I've lost count of how many I've got.
Years later I revisited the hermle , I hadn't realised that I should have scribed the back plate when removing the anchor and all I needed to do was set the anchor correctly and now it runs a treat.

 

[rjdj2000]

My interest started probably like the rest of you at a young age and mine was of all clocks. My Great Uncle used to repair clocks, which later on I found out that my father used to do it and he sold all of his repair stuff to my great uncle and he started doing it. Anyways, when I was younger my family would go over to their house every Sunday to either have dinner with them or they would have coffee and such. I always wanted to look at the 'clock room' that had tons of clocks either running or in some state of repair. In the later years we stopped going so much but still did do Thanksgiving and Christmas with them and I still wanted to look at what he had gotten new. In 2002 when I married my wife, they gave us a Kundo Anniversary clock for our wedding present. It ran for quite some time until I think just before we moved into our first home in 2008. It had since sat on the tv stand doing nothing except collecting dust. For some reason, I don't remember why, last year I decided to get it going again along with a cuckoo he had given me. Got the parts and with everyone's help on here, it now is running and keeping pretty good time. Now that has snowballed into about 3-4 other cuckoo clocks and another Kundo in a carriage style that sits next to me here at my computer. I still long to have what my great uncle had (was supposed to have gotten the collection but that is another story for some other time) and someday I'll have the collection he had of various calendar, anniversary, atmos and the list goes on and on. So far I have found the anniversary ones to be the simple ones to tear down and re-do. Yeah they can be picky, but who doesn't love a good challenge.

 

[Reconnaissanceman]

As a boy I became fascinated with the gingerbread clock on my grandparent’s mantel which was kept running by whichever male in the house tall enough to reach up to wind it. I grew to love the tick-tocking sound and the gong at the half and full hour. My great aunt up the road had an enormous grandfather clock from her home country, Germany. It had beautiful chimes. Like most boys, the movements and sounds greatly tugged at my curiosity and I took more than a few unauthorized peeks at them.

Fast forward to 1979 and I was stationed in West Germany, and on weekends I would ride the bus downtown to the fussgangerzone to see the sights. There I found shop windows with rows and rows of clocks enough to make my still curious head spin. Of particular interest were the torsion clocks. I didn’t know what they were called but, they were the most amazing things I had ever seen! The slow orbit of the balls, back and forth was hypnotic. I guess I thought they were too expensive, or fragile and so I didn’t buy one…then.

One day I strolled through a little antique shop near my residence and there was one of those clocks! Price tag said $35 (Kundo) but the shopkeeper said it didn’t work. I looked it over and found the winding arbor spun without any effort and without engaging the mainspring. I left it behind, and noticed it was still there on subsequent visits, so one day I asked about it again. $20 and it was mine. After Christmas I took a closer look at it and found the winding arbor was simply detached from the spur. I reshaped it and lo! It works! Someone in the past had overspun the pendulum and the torsion wire had taken a set twist, so without realizing I could have straightened it, I decided to replace it. It is in beat and runs beautifully and polished up beautifully as well.

While researching torsion clock repairs I learned about the Atmos. I retired from employment at the end of the year, and decided that I would get one for myself as a retirement gift. I rolled the dice on a non-working 519 on eBay just a few years older than I am. The photos showed the winding chain in a position that indicated the aneroid bellows hadn’t leaked out. A week or so later the clock showed up. (I was surprised it wasn’t shattered into a dozen pieces the way it was packed, but that’s life on eBay.) I brought it in and set it on my desk, slid the glass case off and found the roller to be overbanked. I recentered the roller as gently as possible into position, and then set it to rotate. That was three weeks ago, and it has held time reasonably well ever since. So, yeah, I’m hooked on torsion clocks.

Best,

 

[MartinM]

I was stationed in Germany in the '80s in a place called Neureut on the northern side of Karlsruhe. The main north-south strassenbahn (streetcar) line went from my kaserne (installation) all the way through the city and into the Black Forest. I'd often visit the cuckoo and other clock maker's shops, there and was, being a steampunk guy with a fair amount of mechanical aptitude, always drawn to the torsion clocks.
I never bought one while there and didn't think about them until a girlfriend who I had served with had one with a broken suspension spring and a replacement spring in a wax paper envelope taped under the base by the manufacturer (I've never seen that on any other clock, to this day). I fixed it and it ran great. I was stationed in New Jersey at the time and she was in Michigan so, with all the driving, every weekend, the relationship didn't survive very long.
Jump ahead about 15 years and I was looking for a suitable 10th anniversary present for my wife and found a diamond dialed Schatz 49 on ebay for a song; Tore it down, polished it up and put it back together, cheating the suspension spring by moving a couple of millimeters out of the bottom block to use in the top block. She liked it but, not in a precious way. About 10 years later, she asked if we could do the same gift for a niece who was getting married so, I had her look at all the clocks on ebay and in google and she kinda fell in love with ours! While restoring the new clock (She selected a KundO mini for them), I realized that restoring these clocks is a good match for my attention span (I have a house full of round tuits) and I couldn't stop buying them. Don't anybody tell her how I secretly wind ours after six months.
Some 300 clocks later, I finally decided I have plenty to keep me busy in retirement. I've found that they just make sense to me, unlike most other clocks and that most clock repairers are the opposite and can't get torsion clocks to work no matter what voodoo they apply. So, I've repaired/restored a couple hundred for local shops as a contractor.
Through it all, this MB has been an invaluable resource and I appreciate all the help of the denizens, here.

 

[Dells]

MartinM
I wind my clock’s every six months as well, it saves me forgetting when I have done them , it’s easy to remember when the clock’s go forward and back.
Dell

 

[daveR]

I can't say exactly what started my interest in 400 day clocks, but I know what pushed it along. I havea,ways had a mechanical interest as well as in clocks going back to my childhood when I could always understand how my father's alarm clocks worked (sort of, he didn’t as he went through a few!) Many years later this became a real interest In servicing clocksstarted seriously when I obtained a early dial clock, of which I have several and are still a main interest of mine. By nowI had joined the Australian chapterr of the NAWCC, theAAHS, At some point I had also obtained a P Hass ( just wait !) 400 day clock which I was also nor succeeding in getting to run. About this time we had a large Australian regional I came across LindsayBramall, who some of you may know. He was sort of an Australian guru of 400 dayclocks then and had a large display including one I will never forget which had the movement hanging and swinging by the torsion wire ! This is where things started for me . Not long after i discovered this message board where I found out a lot more about 400 day clocks in particular including that my Hass was ...a Hauck. At some point when John Hubby was moderating, I put into the test area this same clock and he suggested to me i should put it on the main board , which I did. I also put it as one of the early contenders for the "post your....clock here" Like all of us I always valued his inputs and knowledge and appreciate the work that Eric does now in maintaining all the "400 daytime " updates.
David