Here’s a “Crystal Regulator” clock I repaired for a customer. The maker was Ansonia Clock Company, New York, NY, USA. I estimate it was made around 1880 – 1910. A crystal regulator clock has a brass case (sometimes gold plated) and beveled glass side panels. This little clock is 9 1/4″ tall and 6″ wide and strikes the hour and half hour on a coil gong. The strike is not as rich sounding as a wooden cased clock, because the metal base doesn’t conduct sound waves as well as wood does. The pendulum has a brass frame with two glass tubes, each holding a polished steel insert for decoration (to simulate a mercury temperature compensation pendulum).
The movement is much smaller than the usual American antique clock movement. (see third picture below).
Back of movement The gears on the back plate ready for assembly On the left is a mainwheel from a standard American antique clock – on the right are the backplate and mainwheels of this crystal regulator movement. Note the tremendous difference in size!
Repair job 8917. I polished the pivots and installed 18 bushings. A previous repairer installed Bergeon bushings of 2mm and 3mm diameter, so replaced the worn bushings with Bergeon bushings. I prefer the smaller KWM-system size bushings because smaller holes need to be reamed out. But, once the larger holes have been reamed, you can’t easily put metal back in!
The mainsprings are thin and narrow:
Time mainspring: 7/16″ by 0.0162″
Strike mainspring: 7/16″ by 0.0165″
If you have a clock you’d like repaired, please see my website billsclockworks.com.
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