This Schatz Standard 400 day clock is painted maroon with brass trim. The dial is maroon behind the brass numerals, and the unusual center is painted with a scene of a standing man playing a lute, and a seated man and woman with the man playing a flute and the woman holding a fan. The most common 400 day clocks are brass with an enamel dial, but there are many variations of these painted 400 day clocks (see my Clock History Database for more examples.)
Many of these are found in good to excellent condition, luckily. I haven’t tried restoring one of these painted cases yet, I just do a delicate cleaning, and sometimes wax the paint, which restores much of its original gloss.
Starting around July 1952 Schatz stamped a date code on the back of the movement (digits for month and year). This clock has no date, and I believe it was made around 1951 to mid-1952.
Repair job 8923. I disassembled and cleaned the movement (of course, but I don’t always list this step in my repair descriptions), burnished the pivots, secured the mainspring hook in the barrel, and replaced the suspension spring and the lower suspension block.
The back plate number is 1278 (stamped Jahresuhrenfabrik 49 Germany) with no date stamp. 0.004 inch thick suspension spring, unit 7.
If you have a 400 day clock you’d like to have repaired, please see my Bill’s Clockworks website. These are one of my favorite types of clock.
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Yes, it’s backplate 1278. Thanks for helping them out, I depend on Horolovar!
This backplate wasn’t in Terwilliger’s big book? Horolovar still has them.
It’s now a one-man operation: Natalie and I wandered in the other day to visit John Gordon and watch the new machine cut suspension wires.
They do a mighty mail-order business, and we helped John get a shipment out.