HISTORY:
TICK TOCK - TICK TOCK Don't you just love that sound?
Hopefully someone other than myself shares a passion for OLD clocks, the wind up type (clockwork)
A long time ago I collected mechanical clocks, fascinated with all those gears and cogs! Nothing fancy, just some early 20th Century mantle clocks such as the Ansonia's from USA and one or two English & French clocks
All of my primary clock collection have found new homes to "tick tock" in but today I found this lonely old soul sitting in one of my boxes of goodies.
While not in the same class as the larger clocks, it met my basic criteria for keeping in my collection many years ago.
a) Mechanical movement
b) Easy to access the movement (for 'exploration' and maintenance)
c) Well put together
This small "bedside or mantle" clock has not been keeping time for years so the first thing I did was open it up and give it a good clean.
The arch enemy of mechanical clocks is airborne dirt and dust.
Opening this clock up is quite easy - 'Pop Off' the rear Black plastic section of the case (it uses tabs to hold in place), unscrew two very small screws at the rear (near the Time Adjust control) and then the circular metal back cover of the clock mechanism can be removed.
Another two screws hold the mechanism inside the case/against the clock face - remove these and you have free access to the movement itself.
Wound up the main spring and hey presto! It's alive! The balance wheel is doing its thing ... nice
Not bad after roughly 40 years of not being in use.
Reinstalling the movement into the case, I then have had this clock running over the last week to check it's reliability, time keeping and the Alarm function.
All good, in fact very good ... so here are some details
GENERAL TIME (HONG KONG) - Miniature Clock
Made in Hong Kong
Tradename: WESTCLOX
Technology: Clockwork
Circa 1980's
All metal movement
Case is all plastic
DIMENSIONS:
Clock face: 44mm diameter
Clock case: 120mm height x 70mm width x 35mm depth
MOVEMENT IDENTIFICATION:
Stamped into the movement backplate
HONG KONG
GENERAL TIME CORP
UNADJUSTED
NO (0) JEWELS
Standard mechanical clock facilities (rear): Time Adjust, Alarm Time Adjust, Alarm On-Off, Wind Up & Time Speed Adjust
COSMETIC CONDITION:
USED
Clean
Case has no damage at all (no scratching, no broken pieces etc)
Clock face is clean and unscratched
Both time hands and the alarm setting hand are undamaged
NOTE: The time hands are treated with Green fluorescent paint so that when external light is removed, the hands and hour markers all glow a light Green - this effect is short lived though, the glow rapidly fades until after around 10 seconds it is no more.
TESTING:
As mentioned above, I have been running this clock over the last week or so to check the reliability, time accuracy and length of running "between full wind up's"
No issues with reliability at all, didn't stop at all.
Side note: unlike a pendulum clock, you can move this around without it getting upset ... it just keeps on going.
Time accuracy was a bit on the slow side (over 24 hours I lost 4 minutes) so I have adjusted the rear screw and it keeps much better time now - this may need further adjustment as it "settles in" to it's new home - you will need a small slot screwdriver to make this adjustment (no need to take the case off)
Set the Alarm and waited ... yes siree! Off she goes, bells ring for around 1 minute (no snooze control here!)
SUMMARY:
A nice old clockwork time keeper, sure it's not West German, French or Swiss but it still is a bit of nostalgic fun and if you hold it up to your ear you can clearly hear that nice old "tick tock tick tock"
Little bit of information ... the tick and tock that a clockwork time piece makes is important, particularly with pendulum clocks. The tick and tock relationship (the 'sound') gives a good idea of how the clock is running, the tick and the tock should sound about the same and if one is much shorter than the other this indicates that something is not quite right inside.
I have now placed this clock into a sealed clear plastic packet, surrounded by bubblewrap and it now waits a new owner who would appreciate this wonderful old time keeping technology.
