Seconds to none

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This says 60 right?

15, 30, 45... Sure looks like a 60 to your local horologist.

Ahem.

We'll come back to this.

In our last episode YLH was enjoying the colorful history of the Vienna Regulator clock. More specifically a romp through the evolution of escapements ensued with this horology history hound landing on the engineering and whimsical details of the variation found in our single weight example, the Vulliamy deadbeat.

That escapement, and many other parts of this clock, are what many a horologist would characterize as high quality and well-built clock components. This became more apparent as the clock was disassembled for close inspection and cleaning.

For example, here is the click and its spring on the main wheel. Really nice construction.

And flipping that main wheel over YLH noticed what looked like another kind of spring on the back that he'd not recognized / noticed before. 

A bit of research revealed that this was a secondary spring that keeps tension on the main wheel while the weight for the clock is being raised. This ensures that there is no disruption of the running of the clock during winding.

Impressive attention to detail and engineering design to help ensure accurate timekeeping.  

Yep, a quality clock.

Disassembly completed. Lots of well made parts.

A simple service ensued. No repairs needed. 

Excellent.

The movement cleaned up nicely.

Then, fully assembled, up on Scott's most capable (and configurable) test stand to check its action.

Ran well. 

Very good.

Reinstalled in the case it ran happily.

Story over right?

All good yes?

Well... Hawkeye here noticed...

Huh?

That second hand seemed pretty darn fast.

Way too fast.

Yes, starting a timer when the second hand was at the top of the dial AKA "60"... 

And watching it do a full rotation, it swept up to that same "60" in... 

45 seconds.

WTF?

Yet the clock was keeping perfectly good time. 

It was running just fine.

But every actual minute that “second” hand rotated 1.333 times.

What!?

Did this clock fool make a boo boo?

Does YLH have to turn in his horology badge?

Time to dive into some deeper research on Vienna Regulators.

It's a Vienna right?

Hint: Yes it is.

Sorta.

Mostly.

No, it is.

Why is this so confusing?

Well...

Tune in next time!

Comments

  1. AnonymousSeptember 15, 2025 at 3:35 PM

    As Clarence Darrow never said: "Never ask a question for which you do not already have the answer.

    ReplyDelete

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