Vintage Clock, Smiths Mantel, 1970s, Zebrawood, Very Rare

Description

A vintage wooden mantel clock by Smiths.

Made in Great Britain.

The ‘Quadrant’ model

Super cool looking clock from the 1970s, architectural in it’s design.

A solid, beautifully made clock in fabulous original condition.

This is an incredibly hard to find model, it comes from a period when Smiths moved away from the traditional clocks they made, to produce some great looking contemporary designs, albeit in small numbers, I have only seen pictures of this clock and it is the first one I have ever seen in person.

Zebrawood (Zebrano) on black pedestal black dial dial white indices, white metal hands with black arrow, sweep second hand.

The clock is 100% original as it still has the Smiths Tuning Fork battery movement fitted and keeping time, these movements themselves are very rare. The movement is the predecessor of the quartz movement and is easily as accurate. Similar to the Bulova Accutron watch.

If you put your ear to the clock you can hear the gentle 300Hz hum of the tuning fork.

The case has been carefully cleaned and oiled, it has a lovely soft sheen, this contrasts beautifully with the black dial.

A heavy, beautifully built clock.

160mm high x 175mm wide x 75mm deep ( 6″ x 7″ x 3″)

The clocks I sell are all vintage and some will have some age related wear. I will try to bring attention to any flaws in this description.

Clocks are fully tested and are kept running up to dispatch to ensure correct time keeping.

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I am a clockmaker/restorer, I have been in the business for 40 years.

All my clocks are stripped down, cleaned and repaired and serviced where necessary, new, high quality quartz movements are fitted, this does away with the need for the clock to have cables trailing down walls or across shelves or mantelpieces, unreliable clockwork movements are also replaced.

The original hands will be modified to suit the new movement, it is a little time consuming, but worth the effort, a clock with hands that do not match the original design of the clock just doesn’t look right.

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Interesting technical info on the movement:

This clock has a tuning fork movement similar in principle to the Bulova Accutron wrist watch. Whereas the Accutron drives the hands by a mechanical linkage from the tuning fork, this clock does so by means of a magnetic escapement (developed by C.F. Clifford in the 1940s). The tuning fork vibrates at 300Hz, which makes the second hand move smoothly, and look as though the clock is powered by a motor.

The electronics (one transistor, one resistor and two capacitors) are on a single board along with the coil assembly.

The 300 Hz tuning fork is fixed to the back plate at the centre of the curve at the left hand end. The right hand end of the lower tine carries a cylindrical magnet that vibrates within the coil. The coil has two windings; one generates current from the movement of the cylindrical magnet which turns on a transistor; a second coil which in the collector circuit of the transistor then gives impulse to the tuning fork, maintaining its vibrations.

The right hand end of the upper vibrating tine carries a small horse-shoe magnet which interacts with the mu-metal escape wheel and drives the wheel round in continuous motion. The escape wheel is not self-starting, but is spun into motion by the hand-setting action. Once rotating, the escape wheel’s speed is locked to the vibrations of the horse-shoe magnet. There is no mechanical connection between this magnet and the escape wheel.