Peerless Mantle Clock

As promised, I am posting more pictures & details of my Peerless mantle clock.


It would be best to start with a video :-). It has Westminster chimes every quarter & strike on the hour. (sorry about the kids screaming in the background)



The sound is all the more pleasing when you consider that this clock is just 190mm wide X 140mm deep X 210mm tall.


The glass is thick and bevelled.


The dial font is quite interesting. The Arabic numerals are engraved and filled with paint. The three winding arbours are for time, strike & chime.


This clock has a "silent lever" at three o'clock. One can silence the chimes & strike at night if one so wishes.


Some details shots of the woodwork....


The movement is accessed through a door in the back.


Lets see what's under the bonnet :-)
As you can see, this clock has a balance wheel, just like a watch. That makes it more versatile, a pendulum clock needs to put in beat every time one moves it. The downside, I assume, would be the higher beat rate and the consequent higher wear.


And now, the reason why this small clock sounds like a much bigger clock.
It had five rectangular section coil gongs! I am not familiar with clocks but my research says that rectangular section gongs sound better than round section gongs. Also, the longer a gong the deeper the note. Coil gongs allow you to get deeper notes in a small form factor. I believe these gongs were difficult to manufacture & tune.


Here are the markings on the backplate . It was made in Germany by Peerless.
I wonder if the serial number will help date the clock.


Hope you enjoyed reading about this lovely clock :-)

Birthday Gifts

It was my birthday on the 13th & a very happy one if it is to be judged by the gifts I received :-)

From my wife I got a book I have wanted for close to three years now. 'Watchmaking' by George Daniels is considered to be the Bhagwad Geeta/ Bible/ Koran for anybody interested in watches. It was out of print & when a new edition came out earlier this year I lost no time in ordering one. Special thanks are due to my friend, Camden Coffman, who organised a sizeable discount for this book.

Since this was something I requested, my wife gave me another gift that she chose- a chair with height adjustment! For years she has seen me hunched over my desk, working away. Quite often one does not notice the discomfort one is in till one experiences something better. I must say using the turns is much more comfortable with the chair at the lowest setting. So, a big thank you to my wife for a thoughtful gift!

Next up is an HMT NASL-04 watch from my sister-in law, Sasha. This is one of the new breed of HMTs. I am very pleased with this watch. The design is very balanced & the dial is readable. Even the lume is decent. This could very well become my every day watch!

It is good to see HMT pay attention to details on their watches.


And last is what I consider to be a gift to myself. I have always wanted a chiming & striking clock. I bought this years ago on ebay-UK. Since shipping costs were prohibitive I had it delivered to my uncle in the UK. He managed to get it this time & handed it over on my birthday. It is a 'Peerless', German made, with strike & Westminster chimes. I will make a separate post on this clock.

Video of No.1-02

Here is a video I shot of No.1-02.

It is a bit fuzzy, I still need to perfect this. Next time I will try some sort of magnification between the lens & the watch. I wish my camera had macro mode for video :-)

DNA Newspaper

The Pune edition of DNA Newspaper has run a small article on my collection today. It is most flattering to read about oneself in the press :-)



Aditya

No.1-02: Pictures

As promised here are the better pictures.


In the two pictures below you can see how all the hard work on the anglage has paid off.


The blue steel dial marker.

I really like the way the minute hand gracefully arches towards the dial.

On to 03 now!

Kind regards

Aditya

No1.-02: Completed

Hello after a long break. Many things have happened in the last two months to keep me away from the blog.

Anyway, the watch is complete now. Putting a watch together after all these months of work is always full of suspense. One can never be sure if everything is all right. The proof of the pudding, as they say, is in the eating :-). So here it is, No.1-02. All together and keeping great time! I will take better pictures in the light tent later.



I also made a teak wood box for it.


The name and serial number are laser etched on the box.

A detail shot.

As an additional treat my wife made a small booklet with the story of the making of this watch. This fits into a little compartment in the bottom. It also contains the specifications, care instructions & pages for the service record. No.1-02 is now ready for it's new owner!

I have learnt much during the making of this second watch. One decision I have taken is to give the plates much more pronounced bevelling. I will have to reduce the 'empty spaces' in the plates for this but, in the end, it's all about the overall balance.

Another decision is to dispense with plating altogether. I have suffered much heartburn due to the plating on 02. To date I have not found a source for plating who is capable of delivering 100%. 02 was delayed nearly 2 months because of plating issues. I trust that the protected environment of a watch case will keep the brass from tarnishing. On the other hand, tarnish might add a different dimension to the look of the watch over time. It might even act as a service indicator :-). In any case, bare brass can always be plated at a later date when a good source has been identified & developed.

These are my thoughts as I plan work on No.1-03.

THE COLLECTION: Unknown Tissot movement

This is a movement I bought a few years ago. It is a ladies pocket watch movement, something that makes it ideal for a wristwatch project :-)
Even before disassembly, it appeared to be of very good quality. The layout is typically Swiss.

There was a surprise under the dial, the Tissot name. However, I have been advised that this is not the Tissot. I would be very obliged if anybody could throw some light on this Tissot.

On barrel bridge we can see this 'HB' logo. Also, the regulator is marked 'fast-slow' as against 'avance-retard' which was more common on the continent.

It is evidently a good quality movement. It has a Breguet over-coil hairspring. The balance, lever & escape wheel pivots are capped on both sides.

An interesting feature is the side, English type of lever. This indicates an early date. Perhaps before the entire Swiss industry adopted the anchor escapement.
Every part reeks of quality. even parts that would only be seen by a watchmaker have been carefully finished.




This movement is fortunate to still have the Geneva stop-work intact. This is a feature little understood by watchmakers & was generally discarded during servicing.

The only real problem this movement had was with the balance. As you can see in the picture below, the roller table was miss-aligned and, indeed, loose.
... an easy fix on the staking set.

I hope you enjoyed reading about this beautiful movement. One day I will make a nice dress watch using it :-)

Aditya