So….a tricky subject because what you will read here may ruin you current clock routine.

Its the history of the clock that really appeals to me and most others who collect or have a single holy grail clock. I am in the middle with a trinity. In ascending order, Carriage, Grandfather, Black forest double fusee cathederal style table top wooden cage cuckoo (for short). I now only run these in a particular erratic cycle which I will explain. Its about dignity, specifically the dignity of the clock. Like its a person. Do you demand constant service from your mother or your friend or the local shaman viking church leader?. No. You go to the temple to worship, not crack a whip. If you crack the whip your friend (or shaman prophet) will tire of you. They will be wear and tear on the relationship and by the time you have finsihed with them you will have changed them. This metaphor works for me perfectly but Ill spell it out for muggles.

If you run a clock as a daily it definitely means servicing it. If you fix it only when it stops then its probably going to come out of clock hospital with a replacement hip and assorted prostetics. Every engineering change on a service is a reductive or additive process. The clock changes each time you service it. Your killing the value both commercially and historically. And its your clock. You are doing that to yourself. You dont have to be a life coach to see the problem here.

My carriage clock is an inherited item that belonged to a prolific member of the family tree. I love the clock because its really good quality and was really expensive when first bought. For what it is, there are few better. Its conservative and beautiful, and opulent in its engineering. After a recent service and polish of the movement it looks particularly nice. Its now has an almost gold movement clearly visible through an even patina case. I left the case unpolished but clean and dry to effect the contrast to the gold of the movement. The clock is in the best looking and functioning condition it WILL EVER BE!. And thats the point. I know for a fact that if I run the clock as a daily then the bits that wear will need major replacement probably by my family later this century. The pinions for instance. Its all very well rebushing but think about the aggregated wear on the pinons that go into the bushes. As the pressure within the bush changes with wear pattern you get high and low areas wich leads to radial striation. Basically the pinon ends up scored and bodiced. That process happens…. when you run the clock and only when you run the clock. A bit every time. Tick tock ££££ la la la la destruction of what you love as well as the historical record. You see, once a pinion wears to that level it will have to be replaced. Its like having to graft new fingers onto michealangelos David because the tourists like shaking his hand as they pass (they dont). Its not the same afterwards.

The cherry on this cake of doom is if you find pinion wear in one place the rest of the clock is probably pretty rough as well in my experience. Almost always. It gets even more alarming when you condiser the…alarm, specifically the chiming mechanisms. So, think about this. It is assumed by many that the finesse of friction mechanics in the pinions is reflected throughout the rest of the moving parts on of clocks. This is rarely the case. Chiming hammer mechanical assemblies are made to deliver power to counter torque resistance, not for low friction. The cost of that is fast and progressive wear patterns in areas like hammer levers, activation cams and selectors. Pretty much everything outside the plates, and there is a lot outside the plates. The tradition is not to oil these things, or it gets missed so the wear is always there. Once those components fail you are into costs for custom parts production. The last worm I will put in your brain is that if you bring me a brand new clock that you have run for 1 day with a chiming system, Im pretty sure I could show you the physical wear. This is because when you drag steel or brass over polished brass, it scuffs (wears). You can see one days wear and after a month its obvious if you look. Sorry. Im saving clocks so its gloves off.

Also consider the change in repair services and how that effected the design of your clock. The fact of it is that the reason less attention was paid to the friction mechanics outside the timing gears is that it was easy to get parts replaced. There were tons of people doing clocks when the antique ones were not antiques. The clock is designed for remedial service infrstructure which no longer exists. No parts, few skills, everything is a special in one way or another. Try getting a new head gasket for your ford fiesta in 100 years.

Heres the strange thing. If you own a vintage porche or ferrari you are very aware that its costing you a lot to use it and you limit your use as the average owner (I imagine). Its second nature to rest the asset in that scenario but oddly, not with clocks. I have found with my clocks that running them and knowingly making them less forever, is a guilty pleasure. Everyone needs sugar in their diet, so to speak. I really enjoy running my carriage clock and I often do. Every few months, usually around some event or visit, I crank up the grandfather and the carriage clock. Hearing and marvelling at them every now and again is genuinely much better, as an experience, than the grafication you get from daily use. Either way you still get the gollumn “my precious” moments so you may as well tell your clock that, for its years of faithful temporal slavery, you are giving it a holiday entitelment. Possibly even a nose job and kidney transplant.

At any rate, thats the case for not running your clocks. Get them done properly and then own them as valued assets not daily fodder. Actually, there is one more thing. A lot of my customers are anxious about their clocks, specifically the running state and condition. All of them run their clocks daily. I was the same and regarded the running as some sort of responsibilty in many ways. This, for me, is not a thing anymore and I think I may very well feel like a weight has been lifted. You should definitely try it. That said dont overdo it. When customers collect their clocks its incredibly common for them to comment on how the abscence has been conspicuous and unsettling, specially grandfather clocks. I fear I may be metaphorically telling you to send you children to boarding school. “clocks should be seen and not heard blah blah”.

Whatever. Do what you want. We have had loads of really good Victorian cuckoo clocks in recently. Awesome machines – I will post about it at some point.

What? You are not convinced. Well sir, I shall point you in the direction of phonons. Ive just learned about these. A phonon is essentailly the quantization or unitary measure of a molecular vibration. Like a little packet of energy. Imagine your clocks atoms. They are all nice and neat and tightly bonded in a crystaline lattice and fantastically safe. But….then the clock ticks. Billions of phonons flood the escapement wheel. Chaos. Atoms flying everywehere. Issac newtons quantum ghost forces the maelstrom of phonons into a frenzy of energy conservation as the phonons, unable to escape the escapement, ricochet and agitate emitting hot infra red particles like anti aircraft fire. Squillions of clock atoms distort in the sacred crystaline matrix which has been forever changed. Then the clock chimes. Phononic Clockageddon. I need not go on.

I cant be bothered to spell check this. It took ages.