Featured The ambiance of old clocks.

Does anyone else miss the old tick-tock and chime sounds of old clocks? I truly feel like they bring a peaceful, calming mood with them.

I have a Sessions clock that came to our family in 1918, and I still run it on holidays. I had it worked on in 2004. In my previous home it ran daily and kept great time.

I grew up in a home with a Seth Thomas electric mantel clock with chimes, and I still have it.

Anyone else miss the atmosphere they generate?

 

Ditto.

 

I can well stand it. I find the (quiet) ticking soothing and peaceful. When in a more philosophical mood it may remind me of "the time my life" ticking away, but that's just a reminder to get up and do something. BTW, all of my clocks, and yours too, have a method of stopping the strike. If nothing else, you can just let it wind down.
Anyway:

A Welch Patti and Baby Patti, 1879. This company became your Sessions in 1903.
French Swinger clock, from Paris ca. 1890. The bronze base was cast in the Barbedienne foundry.
Waterbury #8 Floor Regulator, 1896. No strike, time only.

Viennese wall regulator ca. 1860. I don't like the coil strike on this, so I just let it run out and didn't wind it again.
Parisian clock ca. 1870. The sculpture group is by Auguste Moreau, based on an 18th Century bacchanal sculpture by Clodion.

 

Very timely post, Ghopper!

 

I have a nice banjo clock that got overwound and a mantel clock that decided to stop working. The only guy left in my area who fixed clocks never showed up the day he said he would and then two people posted on our NextDoor page saying he had their clocks and vanished so I guess I'm lucky he didn't take mine. I do miss the sound, though.

 

beautiful clocks Ghopper I'm with you, I love the sound of them ticking. I have 6 clocks that tick and chime on the hour and 1/2 hour. I also have a grandfather clock that ticks away but no longer chimes - something went wonky with it and unfortunately there is nobody local that fixes old clocks.

 

Ticking bothers me now, but given how I've learned to sleep despite the sirens, car alarms & garbage trucks in the night, it would just be a matter of getting habituated.

My parents acceded to my pleas & got me a small cuckoo clock when I was a kid. Fun at first, but I kept forgetting to pull up the weights. It wasn't difficult learning to live without it.

 

We have three clocks, 2 aren't working (can't find someone to repair them) but the 3rd one has been going strong for 30 years! I love the ticking and after all the years there are times I don't even hear the chimes

 

this one has a very pronounced voice.....but the wife doesn't like the ticking and the chime , even less so............so it sits on the wall , in it's silent richness...!

 

Nice piece!

 

I've got a tall case clock that my father bought about 1960. I think it was made about 1900. I love the ticking and the chimes.

It hasn't been serviced since I inherited it, and not for at least 20 years before that. It stayed at a friend's house while we built, and he couldn't keep it running. Since I got it back, though, it's done pretty good. The moon face hasn't worked since my dad bought it, but (for no reason that I know) it works about half the time now. I've got the pendulum adjusted to a regular beat. Over a one-week period, it drops about 5 minutes, but there after keeps good time. We just accept that it's always 5 minutes behind, but hell, it's a lot older than I am, and if it wants to be 5 minutes late, I don't mind.

 

For a couple of bucks, I bought a weird metal base with long metal rods coming out of it. I later learned it was a 'chime block,' the part that makes the chime kinda 'jingle' in that full, rich way. It sounded cool when you shook it then placed it against a wooden door.

Then I gave it to my musician friend and now he 'plays' it in one of his original songs.