Ship's Clock

[toshiba tony]

Hello, New to this section of the forum but I'm well known on the TV\audio area. Been in the TV trade for almost 50 years but someone asked me to look at a ship's clock. Although I appreciate it's a replica it's a very heavy thing and made of brass but it's a quartz movement, and the guy does own a yacht so let him live and dream like Captain Birdseye. Anyway, there is no movement at all. There is a surface mount IC on it and there is plenty of activity around the crystal, but I can't see anything happening around the large coil that operates the hands. It measures about 1k. I have a good reputation at the day care centre I work at as a volunteer and to turn up with this repaired would get me free coffees for life. Any ideas anyone? Thanks. Tony Walker

[Nickthedentist]

Hello Tony,

Could you post some pictures of the movement, please?

I suspect replacing the entire quartz movement would be one of the simplest ways to mend the clock; they're available for under a fiver, but you'd need to ensure the new one will accept the old hands and is designed for the thickness of the dial.

Nick.

[toshiba tony]

Thanks Nick. I'm at the centre tomorrow. Will post then. Best regards. Tony

[Graham G3ZVT]

A different kind of reproduction ships clock. A Poundland item with an image I found online, suitably manipulated.

Well I like it.



"SEELONCE MAYDAY"

[Electronpusher0]

I recently restored a friends rather large kitchen clock by replacing the quartz module.
Just make sure you select one that can take the larger hands, they seem to be slightly more expensive but have uprated gearing for the larger hands.

Peter

[toshiba tony]

Thanks Graham and Peter, I see you are as cutting in this section of the forum. Poundland indeed, I wish I'd have posted the picture first. I've had my wrist slapped on here once or twice, for nasty comments. Love it! I know there was no offence meant. I once asked for a lamp for my DLP Chad Valley overhead projector, if any of you remember them it was a toy you put slides in. Daft things we do! Nice to see you are crackers on here too, stay well all. Tony Walker

[dave walsh]

Can I interpose [as lawyers say] between Tony's thread subject and Peter's comment about the rather large kitchen clock. My wife was given some nice furniture items plus a large pale green clock [20" across] which fits in well on our kitchen wall [as the room has a high ceiling]. Despite it's grandeur and long "hands" the clock is driven by a basic quartz movement. Strangely, one of the battery clips seemed to have snapped off. I thought I could easily run a piece of wire out but managed to destroy the mechanism in the end so a new movement is needed.

I've read the advice about making sure it's the right one and watched a demo on You Tube. It might be "You" but I'm not sure if it's me. Seems a bit delicate, especially if the hands get bent. [I'd much rather work on a live chassis]. Was the clock you mentioned as big as ours Peter and can I seek advice if needed from you or Tony and and others. I won't be in a position to do anything just yet anyway so I didn't want to start a separate thread but I have been looking out for someone experienced in this area in view of the fact there is often a clock/radio crossover on the Forum!

Dave W
Bexhill [at the moment] but often in Church Accrington.

[Electronpusher0]

When I said large I meant 28inches across!
See photo, and yet the hands are driven by a normal size quartz movement, however I fitted one described as "High Torque" from ebay.
The description states:
"Available in 4 spindle sizes : 11mm shaft - suitable for clock faces up to 2mm thick, 16mm shaft - suitable for clock faces 4-6mm thick, 20mm shaft - suitable for clock faces 8-12mm thick, 26mm shaft - suitable for clock faces 16-18mm thick
More powerful than a standard movement and will drive hands up to 360mm long."

Peter

[dave walsh]

Thanks for that info Peter-very informative! I thought our clock was big until I tried it on the wall. I suppose it depends on the environment and distance from the face! It seems counter-intuitive that a Quartz Drive would fit the bill but clearly, there are high torque versions as you point out! The contrast with former metal based movements seems quite extreme

Dave

[Graham G3ZVT]

Peter's clock is what I call a Garden Centre clock, because that's where I see them.
Here's one I snapped on my last visit to Newbank GS, I confess I don't fully understand the markings.

[bluepilot]

Originally Posted by rambo1152

I don't fully understand the markings.

The small numbers appear to relate to half hours wrt the hour hand (e.g. 15 = 1.5 hours or half past one) and at the same time could be interpreted as half minutes for the minute hand, whatever use that is.
Not as confusing as this clock:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p5ZDBE-ASHI

[Radio Wrangler]

I was given a backwards clock. An anticlock? the hands run anticlockwise and the numerals are in reverse direction to match.

David

[turretslug]

I recall, probably about 25 years ago, someone at a car boot had a load of rather nice stop-watches in a carton. They were NOS, wrapped in tissue paper and boxed, and marked with crows-foot and NSN- but marked in thousands of yards.... Eh? I bought one for a quid anyway. The penny soon dropped that they were probably torpedo run timers!

[Brigham]

They are ranging watches, for artillery use.
If you start the watch when you see the flash, and stop it when you hear the report, THAT is the distance away of the gun.

[turretslug]

Come to think of it, that sounds rather more likely- the seller had quite a lot, I assume that every squaddie gets issued with one whereas I don't suppose that there is a need for too many torpedo run timers in the whole world. I ought to dig it out (if I still have it) and try correlating how many of its yards correspond to seconds. Finding an obviously post-war thing calibrated in yards seemed a peculiarly British hang-up!

[mole42uk]

Originally Posted by turretslug

Finding an obviously post-war thing calibrated in yards seemed a peculiarly British hang-up!

We were normally using yards well into the 1960's so it's not really that surprising.

[Electronpusher0]

Originally Posted by Brigham

They are ranging watches, for artillery use.
If you start the watch when you see the flash, and stop it when you hear the report, THAT is the distance away of the gun.

Perfect for calculating how far away that thunderstorm is.

Peter

[60 oldjohn]

Originally Posted by Radio Wrangler

I was given a backwards clock. An anticlock? the hands run anticlockwise and the numerals are in reverse direction to match.

David

Often found in barbers shops, great when viewed through a mirror.


John.

[G6Tanuki]

Someday I want to build a clock that counts-down in "Rels", the Rel being the DALEK unit-of-time. Seemingly there were 50 Rels in an Earth Minute.

[Can anyone identify the indicator-bulbs used here?]

[Herald1360]

When I was still working, all of the clocks in conference rooms were replaced by a job lot of cheap (I hope) quartz wall clocks. (The previous radio time signal controlled clocks were hopelessly unreliable after the transmitter site moved oop north.)

I realised during a particularly boring meeting that there was something odd about the new clocks- they had 72 minutes round the dial. Some numpty had converted five minute spaces between each hour marking into five minute markings between each hour marking when laying out the dial artwork!