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Showing posts from June, 2025

How an "ordinary" repair... wasn't

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Charlene (name changed) called a couple weeks back.  "Chip [neighbor who runs Wittpenn Antiques] gave me your name and number. I have a 'Regulator' clock that I think might be 'overwound'. Anyway it stops running after a few minutes." A few days later your local horologist headed over to Carmel for a look. Charlene was gracious and appreciative that this clock jock made house calls. And there it was in situ. A large and fine old American clock. An Ingraham timepiece (which means time only, no strike or chime; see the single winding hole on the dial just left of center).  Charlene called it a Regulator, per the glass decal, and that is mostly correct as larger timepieces like this one were considered to be pretty accurate time keepers and commonly named as such. However the term Regulator ended up getting applied to a lot of types of clocks as more of a marketing gimmick.  Spitballing YLH guessed it was made somewhere between 1890 and 1915. A couple things also...