I repaired this one-day musical cuckoo clock. The movement was made in Germany, and the Thorens music box came from Switzerland. The clock dates from the 1950s. The dial is 3 inches.
This is a very good design for a musical cuckoo clock. The main movement has the gear train and governor to run the music box. The music box is a separate unit mounted on the side. It has a drive gear but no other gears.
Repair job 6068. I polished the pivots and installed 10 bushings. A previous repaired had bent the verge our of shape, I was able to shape it properly without it breaking.
This Schatz cuckoo clock is dated 10 54 (October 1954) on the movement. It is the first one I’ve seen with a movement date. The movement also has RR for Remington Rand, the importer.
Schatz designed and made their own cuckoo clock movement. They made only one movement model, an 8-day, with the design of the bird in the plates.
This 1950s German cuckoo clock fell off the wall. Fortunately, it wasn’t too badly damaged. All of the wood case parts had clean breaks, and no one had tried gluing it yet. The left photo below shows it as my customer brought it to me.
I recently repaired this Schatz cuckoo clock. It has the KU50 movement, and the case is the bird and leaf style with light color shaded finish. See my previous post, Four Schatz Cuckoo Clocks, for some other case styles. The top piece of the case isn’t shown in the photos.
I recently repaired 3 Schatz cuckoo clocks, and have photos of another I repaired several years ago. These examples show 4 case styles: maple leaf, hunting, oak leaf and multi-color. An earlier post shows the movement and gears of the Schatz hunting model cuckoo clock.
Schatz introduced their cuckoo clock movement in 1950, and probably made cuckoo clocks up until the late 1950s or early 1960s.
The movements are the same design, but I noticed some variations:
There are 2 different logo circles on the back plate. The earlier ones say: ”Jahresuhrenfabrik Germany” around the circle and “50″ in the center. The later ones say: “Aug. Schatz & Sohne Germany” around the circle, and “KU 50″ in the center.
One of the “50″ movements has a brass lever to open and close the cuckoo door, the others have a blued steel lever.
The clocks with “50″ movements had lighter weights that clocks with the “KU 50″ movement. See bottom of article for a list of weights.
I believe the above list is in chronological order, it seems that Schatz used heavier weights for later clocks.
The Schatz is different from most cuckoos in that there are separate controls for door and bird – bird goes in and out with each cuckoo while the door stays open. Here is a video showing this:
A customer recently brought in this 1950s quail and cuckoo clock for repair. The case was dusty from years of storage. I cleaned it with Natchez Solution and it came out looking great. This clock has the solid brown finish that was used on many cuckoo clocks from the 1950s and 60s. The case is 18 inches tall and 13 inches wide, with a 4 inch dial. The clock was made in Germany and imported by Welby.
Below is a video of the clock in operation.
The instruction sheet on the back of the clock is not the correct one for a quail and cuckoo clock, it describes a cuckoo clock with rack and snail cuckoo that is self-synchronizing. On this quail and cuckoo, if the clock runs down, the quail and cuckoo may get behind and will need manual synchronization.
The gong mounted inside the rear cover.
The insruction sheet outside the rear cover.
The instructions are for a cuckoo clock, not a quail and cuckoo!
Synchronizing the quail and cuckoo:
The quail should call once on the first quarter, twice on the half hour, 3 times at quarter to the hour, and 4 times on the hour. If it does not, you advance the quail by moving the minute hand forward to 3 minutes before a quarter hour (3,6, 9 or 12) then moving the minute hand back 10 minutes. Each time this is done, the quail does the next quarter hour. Do this until the quail is correct.
To synchronize the cuckoo, move the minute hand forward (allowing the quail to go on each quarter) to the next hour (except if the next hour is 1:00, keep going to 2:00). Open the door on the right side of the of the clock, and push in on the vertical wire. Each time the wire is pushed in, the cuckoo will call the next hour. Do this until the cuckoo calls the correct hour.
Then move the minute hand forward to set the clock to the correct time, pausing each quarter for the quail (and cuckoo on the half hour and hour).
This clock cuckoos after the quail on both the hour and half hour. On antique quail and cuckoo clocks (around 1920 and older), the cuckoo goes only on the hour.
I recently overhauled the movement of this clock. The case was in very good condition, it just needed to have a couple of broken leaves glued on and the surface wiped down with wood feeder. I love all the hand carved leaves on the case. The case is missing two finials on the bottom. The clock was made in the Black Forest of Germany.
I polished the pivots, and replaced one badly worn pivot (time second wheel front pivot). The wood movement plates have brass pivot bushings, 3 of them were worn badly enough to need replacing. A previous repairer had bent the warning lift improperly (there are plier marks all over it), it took over an hour to get it shaped properly again.
The front of the movement has an FF trademark on the front. Below are 3 photos, followed by a slideshow of many photos, followed by a YouTube video.
I recently repaired this clock. I overhauled the movement, rebuilt the bellows, and put the case body back together. My customer glued the carvings back together. The deer antlers are not shown in the photo. This clock was made around 1900.
The videos below show the following:
The action of the quail and cuckoo;
How to synchronize the quail and cuckoo when they are incorrect (usually caused by the clock running down). These antique cuckoo clocks run only 24 hours on a winding.
