What's in the hat?

Friend Ed asked your local horologist to stop by and look at his Seth Thomas mantel clock and about a month ago this horological perambulator did just that.

Ed's clock is an early 1970's vintage of a Tambour design, sometimes called a Napoleon's Hat. You can get your own Napoleon's hat but wearing one is not required for Tambour clock service (though would be fun).

A few years back your correspondent wrote about a Seth Thomas Tambour he himself had stalked and finally bagged in Carmel Valley Village. 

Here is a snap of it as found in the wild prior to acquisition.

First introduced in the 1910's the Tambour design became very popular in the 1920's. Your clock hunter's example above is an early model, "1916" marked on the bottom of its case. 

Tambours are rather simple but elegant and as designs evolved they began to cleverly incorporate a very compelling feature in their beguilingly modest look.

The wide base of the case can accommodate quite long strike and chiming rods, suspended horizontally along the length of the bottom of the case. Longer rods make for deeper tones.

Below is another Tambour, made by Sessions, donated long ago to your fledgling horologist by friend Rick. It's probably from 1941 and has two very long and lovely sounding striking rods.

The Tambour design has shown great durability, a Google search for "tambour clock" will result in dozens of new varieties for sale today. Most of them quartz-driven but there are still many, newly made mechanical examples.

Ed's clock is not as old as the two above but it is a fine example for a near quinquagenarian. 

He bought the clock himself in 1975 and has long enjoyed and cared for it. Despite that, it's running poorly, typically losing about a minute a day after even a recent trip to... ahem... another horologist.

Without looking too closely at the clock just the year of manufacture alone suggested to this horologist that the movement might not be of the highest caliber but the fact that it has been running for nearly 50 years is impressive.

And even at first glance one clear example to indicate its age was evident. What became quite commonly used in mechanical movements made during the 1960's and 70's was a balance wheel and hairspring mechanism for the escapement instead of using a traditional pendulum.

Balance wheel designs are centuries old. An innovation driven primarily by the need for reliable timekeeping at sea, balance wheel movements do not need to be leveled to run (as do pendulum clocks) so a roiling sea would not much effect their timekeeping.

Your correspondent wrote about balance wheels in a bit more detail several years back during a failed repair attempt. 

[head hanging in shame]    

Your persistent correspondent is still working the underlying problem for that clock. Greater metallurgical skills needed. Hopefully developing soon.

Back to Ed's clock.

Electricity has not been kind to the mechanical clock industry. By the 1950's mechanical clock sales had already started to decline and that accelerated through the 1960s. By the time Ed bought his Seth Thomas, only a tiny fraction of clocks sold had mechanical movements. The quartz driven revolution was in full swing.

A 1955 flood hastened Seth Thomas' decline in making their own mechanical movements and importing German made varieties from Hermle became a cheaper solution. Hermle remains one of the few manufacturers of mechanical clock movements today.

When visiting Ed I suggested we do a quick removal of the movement to give it a once over and here it is, without a pendulum but with a balance wheel and hairspring.

Look Ma! No pendulum!

Much smaller scaled balance wheel movements are used in virtually every mechanical watch made including today but you don't see many clocks made with them anymore.

Why professor?

Because overall, they more complex, more prone to problems, no more accurate and often trickier to repair than their pendulum driven brethren. 

Looking more closely, and a gentle interrogation of Ed, produced a few key facts. The clock had been serviced before, not successfully.

Bushing repairs were immediately evident and shall we say... not pretty.

Moreover the rather unsuccessful prior service of this clock was just a few months ago and this clock's movement was quite dirty. There was visible dirt in the pivot holes that looked like a decade or three of accumulation.

So the last "repair" was those rushed bushing efforts, too much oil and no movement cleaning. That the movement hadn't been even cleaned made this writer's blood boil for Ed.

And your clockmaker was developing an opinion sitting with Ed in his kitchen.

Ed's movement was quite worn and dirty. Movements made since the late 60's, while not bad per se, were not constructed with the same qualities that can support the incredibly longevity of most well made antique movements. 

It is widely agreed all across the NAWCC boards that Hermle movements built in the last 50 years will typically have only 20-30 years of run life, even with regular servicing, before they just wear out.

And Ed's clock movement, at its age and given its repair history, was at the end of its life. 

So this clockmaker stated that it was possible that the movement could be repaired to proper working order but the simplest and probably best choice would be to replace the movement entirely with either a new one or possibly new/old stock.

Ed was fully in agreement.

YLH made no promises other than to take the movement back to the shop, do some research and see if we could come up with a replacement option.

Best estimate... a replacement movement will run $200-$300 but very much TBD.

And off to the races we went.

Stay tuned!