This German chiming wall clock was made about the 1950s or 1960s. There is no maker’s name on the dial or the movement. The back of the movement is labeled:
Western Germany
35
The trapezoidal case is 19 3/4 inches tall and 12 5/8 inches wide. The dial’s minute track is 6 3/4 inches.
Repair job 5557. I polished the pivots and installed 6 bushings. The chime mainspring broke as I was winding it in the mainspring winder. I’m glad it broke then, instead of while in the clock (which may have damaged some gear teeth). The chime mainspring is unusually long (about 70 inches) and is 25.9 mm wide and 0.015 inch thick. I couldn’t locate a replacement in my parts catalogs, so I repaired the inner end of the spring (it had broken about 5 inches from the inner end). The break was caused by the barrel arbor hook being too long, causing stress on the spring when fully wound. I shortened all 3 arbor hooks to reduce the chances of future mainspring breakage.
The amount of hammer lift is adjustable by rotating the lower right movement pillar. When first set up, the strike stalled after 7 days. The hammers lifted 7/8 inch during chiming and 1 inch duriing striking. I reduced the lift to 9/16 inch for chiming and 11/16 inch for striking.
This clock dates from around 1900 – 1920. The movement was made by Kienzle in Germany. The case is 29 inches tall and 14 13/16 inches wide. The square background part of the dial has been painted black (it may have been silvered originally) and the chapter ring is a replacement. The minute hand is 3 1/2 inches long.
This clock has the typical coarser type of German movement ( as contrasted with some by Kienzle that have fine gears and pinions, very similar to the gearing in Lenzkirch movements and French movements). The back plate of the movement has the Kienzle wings trademark, and the front plate is labeled “Pat. Kienzle”
Back of the case is marked “J. Gutmahn Dorrebach”
The gong base is named “Hurra!”
Back plate has the Kienzle wings trademark.
Front plate labeled “Pat. Kienzle”
Back of the case is marked “J. Gutmahn Dorrebach”. The gong base is named “Hurra!”
This wall or “box” clock was made in Germany, but has no maker’s markings. The movement says 42/105 and 392 on the back, and 392 on the front. It has a coil gong, with the gong base labeled “Viola-Gong D.R.G.M.” The German clock companies were trying to outdo each other in the richness of sound of their clocks, and many different names and trademarks were put on the gong bases.
Viola-Gong D.R.G.M.
The case is 26 7/8 inches tall and 13 1/2 inches wide, and the dial has a 7 1/4 inch time track. The dial is silvered brass with printed numerals.
This clock was probably made in the 1920s or 1930s.
This Kundo standard-sized 400 day clock has a nickel plated finish instead of the common plain brass. It has a wide-plate movement so I believe it was made on the early 1950s. The back plate has no name, just the Kundo logo in a circle. It uses a 0.0032 inch thick suspension spring. I didn’t do a full repair on this clock – just replaced the suspension spring. The gears are not nickel plated.
This is the most unusal Schatz 400 day clock I’ve seen – it has a copper plated finish. It is the only one I’ve see in all my years of collecting and repairing clocks. When the clock came in for repair, the finish on the base had been damaged by attempted polishing. The movement and bezel still looked good!
Pendulum parts: hook, 8 half-ball covers, 4 arms, regulator assembly, decorative washer and center assembly;
Case parts: 2 pillars, 4 pillar ends, platform, base cup, base cup screw, base, 3 finials.
The movement plates, suspension guard, guard washers, ratchet, ratchet cock, ratchet cock washer, bezel, saddle, saddle washer, saddle bridge, plate washers are copper plated. The hand nut, gear train and motion work are not copper plated.
This clock was made around 1940 or 1950. The dial has no maker’s name, and the pack plate says Jahresuhrenfabrik 49 Germany in a circle.
The parts as received from being copper plated by Ken’s Clock Clinic
Nickel, copper and brass 400 day clocks
I didn’t clean the movment plates in cleaning fluid for fear of damaging the lacquer or the copper plating. I pegged and smooth broached the pivot holes to clean them. The movment is identified in the Horolovar 400 day clock book as plate no. 1278.
This is one of the most often seen 400 day clocks: the Kundo standard with brass base, glass dome (5 1/2 by 11 inches) and enamel dial. The Kundo is a well-made clock and will last for many years. This one is about 56 years old and still going strong. In the repair process, I polish any pivots that aren’t smooth. The pivot holes in 400 day clocks don’t wear much, so bushings are not necessary. The original mainspring is usually powerful enough to run the clock, but should be replaced if it is “set’ (lost its elasticity).
Crack in the base
I polished the base using my polishing machine, then lacquered it. I hand polished the columns and platform after removing the old lacquer. These brass bases sometimes develop stress cracks (see the close-up photo below for a crack in the rear of this base) but they can usually be polished successfully. Some Kundo bases from around 1950 develop long cracks along the edges and may fall apart during polishing.
This clock has a plastic suspension guard to protect the thin suspension spring during shipping. Earlier Kundo clocks have metal guards. This one looks spotted because someone applied solvent to it.
Repair job 5536. Horolovar back plate similar to no. 1407B but has an “L” on it. It uses a 0.032 inch thick suspension spring. There was a bent tooth on the center wheel because someone had tried to turn the gears with pliers!
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:
