The case is exceptional, heavily carved oak with panel sides. It’s over seven feet tall and looks very grand.

The movement is an authentic French handmade Comtoise Morbier. Unusual in that one has the option of bell or gong strike combinations  and night time silent option. I was able to find the manufacturer of this movement, still in business today:

http://www.cupillard.com/page1.htm

Morbier clocks are a particular favorite of mine. The robust well engineered works appeal to my taste. Over the years, I have collected antique, vintage and newer versions of these wonderful clocks.

A word of advice when collecting the newer ones: to my knowledge, there are only about two manufacturers in existence who hand make authentic Comtoise movements. The lesser quality copies are easy to spot as they will most likely be fitted with small Hermle type movements and they are typically of lower quality in all other respects: face, trim hands, pendulum etc. . . As with anything of quality, of course, authentic Comtoises come at a price!

This is the link to the other quality manufacturer:

http://www.comtoise.de/comtoise.htm

Here is a few photos of the movement:

Upon disassembly, I noticed that both main springs had hairline cracks at the hole or barrel end. I annealed the spring ends and cut off the defective tips and reformed new hole ends. I always check mainsprings for fractures such as this whenever I remove the springs. Mainspring failure is always a recipe for disaster. If a spring breaks under load it can potentially render a movement unrepairable if gears and pinions are damaged…well worth the time to perform some preventative maintenance.

This is one of those clock projects where, during the reassembly, I was very lucky in that after cleaning and assembly, the striking train was exactly in sync! It was not even necessary to adjust the wheel for the hammer lifting pins!!

I wish I could be that lucky with the lottery!!

Porcelain two piece face and heavy lead backed pendulum with grid iron temperature compensation.

It is a very unusual rounded top Gustav Becker wall clock. The obvious difference is the rounded top to the case; I have not seen another like this in recent years. Also the movement has an unusual setup regarding the gathering pallet arbor. As you can see in the photo, the arbor can slide up and down within a slot, enabling the gathering pallet to disengage from the rack. At first I thought there was something missing! To me, this is obviously a strange setup because in order for the arbor to lift at one end it requires the pivot at the other end to tilt at an angle within its bushing. I must only assume that the bushing is designed specifically to compensate for this action…I have never seen this before!

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The top referring sites in 2010 were en.wordpress.com, search.aol.com, mb.nawcc.org, vi.ebaydesc.co.uk, and google.com.

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M. Winterhalder & Hofmeier bracket clock. ca 1890. May 2009

Gledhill Brook Fusee Time Recorder. 1940s. January 2009
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Welcome to Due Time! February 2009
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Urgos 8-day Westminster Chime Mantel Clock. 1920’s. February 2009
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French Morbier Comtoise Grandfather Clock. ca 1850/60. (movement and face only) May 2009

I have very little experience with electro mechanical clocks. I had to do some serious research before diving into this one. As far as ‘time only’ clocks, this is by far the most complex that I have in my collection.

The entire movement was designed around the magnetic impulse motor that engages every hour to wind a small main spring. In addition to the motor, there is a ‘solenoid’ to the top right of the movement which would have, at one time,  received a signal via telegraph which would have been used to  synchronize the time. The solenoid punches a lever down on a cam on the motion works that would move the hour hand to 12:00 every day.

As you can see in the photo, the mainspring is very small. This was possible due to the fact that the motor would engage and wind the mainspring every hour. Due to the low power output of the spring, these clocks often show minimal wear to bushings and gears. I can imagine that this clock had seen a drop of oil after Western Union pulled the plug on the program…and it was in exceptional mechanical shape … just needed a good clean and adjustment!!

As you can see, I am short one pendulum. I think a Seth Thomas No 2 regulator pendulum may work?? I’m open to advice.

The movement of this clock was cleaned, the spring barrels were removed and the springs were taken out for cleaning and re-oiling. There is an unusual hammer set-up on this clock.  Note how the striking hammers are suspended below the movement and connected with chains.

The movement was quite a challenge to remove from the case. As you can see, there is not much wiggle room once it is nestled in the case.  I recall having to fit the hammer assembly after the movement was in place.

Nice robust clock work and a relatively small case for such a large movement.

This was a relatively easy cleaning project as the spring barrels could be removed without disassembling the plates. One simply pulls the winding arbor out and the barrels can be removed from beneath.

The movement in this one was rebuilt as there was severe rust on most of the steel components in the movement. The photos show the before and after results.

The case needed only cosmetic work such as replacing screws and minor repairs. One common problem I see in clocks such as this is the use of new ‘Philips Head’ screws to hold hinges and movements in place.  Obviously, these need to be replaced with old slot head, wood screws. I save all my old wood screws for such projects.  It’s always a good idea to save old parts such as taper pins, hand washers, screws, nuts & bolts. These items are often replaced new and look obviously out of place.

The Lever Escapement was invented by Thomas Mudge in 1750 and has been used in the vast majority of watches since the 1800s.

I still have to replace the hair spring as the one in this clock is beyond repair. A previous repairman had cut a section of the spring off leaving the tail badly damaged and shortened to a degree that the regulating lever will no longer engage the spring correctly.  I hope to find a new spring; this may be a difficult task as the original springs were most likely fabricated for this specific movement.

The winding arbor is located in the rear of this clock which leaves the porcelain face free of key holes.

Notice the retailers name and locations enameled on the face!

Quality reproductions are hard to come across. The better ones are made to the exact specifications as the original, as this one is.

One should, however, be cautious when considering the purchase of a reproduction as there are many lower quality reproductions from China and India.

Seth Thomas No. 2 Movement from both sides

I have two reproduction clocks in my collection, the other from a company in Canada: The Bradley Woodworks Company (http://www.bradleywoodworks.com) these are also fine copies of original clocks.

This is an eight day time-only clock Oak case made to the original specifications. Seth Thomas No 2 movement.

Many goods manufactured outside the UK in those days were simply marked as ‘Foreign.’

These clock movements were most likely made in a western European country and shipped to the UK where they were fitted into cases manufactured in the UK by the distributor.

Above top, you see the only triple chime clock in my collection.  Not a particularly grand example but the chimes are definitely a refreshing change after hearing Westminster on the majority of my chiming clocks. The clock has options for Westminster, St. Michaels, & Whittington Chimes…

Notice the eight chiming rods and hammers required to play the chimes. Also, not shown in this photo is the enormous spring barrel that is almost twice the size of the time and the strike spring barrels, a feature I only noticed upon cleaning the movement.

The example above bottom is a simple time & strike 8-day clock.