Antique Clock Repair: Components

Video Transcript

"I'm not going to take a lot of time trying to teach you clock repair. But, it's important as a collector to know what's happening behind the dial, what's back there, so you can, perhaps, look there, or at least ask questions about the, about the inside of the clock, so you're safer when, safer when you're buying an antique clock. We've seen this movement on the stand before, but this is a good time to get another look, just so you know what's happening back there, because normally you're just seeing the face of the clock with one, two, or three winding holes, and behind there is a machine that probably is a mystery to you. This technology, as we mentioned, has gone back to the twelve hundreds. You're really taking a power source, whether it's a hanging weight, or a coiled mainspring, as in this case, and storing that power. Basically, it's your energy stored in that spring after you've wound it, and taking a lot of power, and stepping the power down, basically through a gear train, or a transmission into just enough power to either swing the pendulum, in this case. So far, a escape wheel, or on this side, since this is a striking clock, to run the striking, and if we had a gong, or a bell here, we'd be hearing it counting out the hours on our little hammer below. So, you want to be sure that all the wheels are there. It's particularly safe, unless you are a clock repairer yourself, to buy a clock that is working. I probably do well as a clock dealer, because I'm also a restorer. I guarantee the clocks that I sell, and people have confidence that the clock that they buy from me is going to run. You don't always have that confidence from a general dealer, who may even represent that is running, and it truly isn't in good condition. But, behind virtually the dial, virtually every clock that you're thinking about buying is going to be a movement that looks, either just like this, or a lot like this, and is going to be a set of gears ticking away. You want them to look relatively clean, you want to hear ticking, you want to see wheels turning when you're testing it, and in order to be sure that you've gotten a complete clock that either is running, or can easily be made to run."