Cluses

The Société Clusienne was a horology school and manufacturer of classic French styled "Mouvements de Paris" and were based in Cluses, France. 

Clockmaking in the Cluses / Arve Valley region is believed to have begun as early as 1720. The town of Cluses is in the French alps and very close to the border of Switzerland. This whole region has a rich history in horology but by the 1950's virtually the entire industry had minimized or abandoned clockmaking and focused principally or entirely on watches. Most of the schools and horological industry moved over the border to Switzerland. 

Most notable in the Cluses horological history is the École d'Horlogerie Cluses which was founded by order of the King of Sardinia (who at that time controlled that area of what just a few years later became part of France) in 1848. That school appears to have survived in one form or through today but sadly even watchmaking was dropped as a subject in 1989. The École survived through Nazi occupation and there are some fascinating photos and history to be found here. There's even a photo of the school being liberated by the French resistance!

Cluses remains well known for its horological history and still has a fine horology museum that your correspondent intends to visit one of these days.

Information of the Société Clusienne specifically is very limited and, in some cases, contradictory. 

One source on the NAWCC boards suggests that it was formed in 1918 by M. Philippe Cassan, a former professor of the École d'Horlogerie Cluses but I can find absolutely nothing to support this.

Another says the Société was in business in the late 19th century through early 20th. I'm inclined towards this take on them. A faltering breadcrumb trail of the company's history suggests they may have shut down in 1944 which, according to the article linked earlier, coincides with the arrival of the Gestapo. 

Welp...

Our example of their work appears to be rather dirty but in good shape overall.

I pulled the movement out of the case for inspection.

And I do mean dirty.

As for the rest of the clock... well we've grown rather fond of her looks but she has been sitting on a nearby shelf in proud view (although not running) for over 18 months. I had managed to put off cleaning the beastie and doing what was needed to get the movement moving until just a couple months ago.

One reason for that delay is that our canine example has a type of escapement that is new to my collection and experience. Remember our friend Brocot and his lovely suspension mechanism on the Rolez clock? Those of you paying attention might have spied such a suspension in the photos of this clock's movement. 

Turns out Monsieur Brocot also made escapements (the heart of the tick-tock of a mechanical clock) and there is a style named after him. The Brocot escapement uses an unusual design of the pallets. The pallet is the part of the escapement that makes contact with the escape wheel.

Here is the grimy escapement of our canine friend.

That wheel with the pointy teeth and the dirty brown arbor (rod) is the escape wheel and above it is the escapement on another dirty arbor. It has a pallet body that is split like an inverted V. The pallets themselves connect to the escape wheel teeth. The pallet visible above is part of what makes this a classic Brocot escapement. The pallet is effectively one half of a cylinder.

Here it removed from the clock held in my fingers. That's the arbor in the middle with it's pivot tip. The pallet body extends left and right and the pallets themself sticking upwards. Note the split cylinder shape of those pallets.

That is a very different type of pallet than those I've worked on before.

Here's a video of the action of a Brocot escapement.

Brocot's suspensions became the rage in French clocks but his escapements were not as commonly adopted.

Finally, about two months ago, I put the pedal to the metal and learned me some Brocot escapement stuff.

For next time!