Carriage Clock Mechanisms

In this article we take a look at some of the different mechanisms featured in carriage clocks.

This article is part of a series of article we’re doing to look at the history & development of the carriage clock.

Alarm Work

Alarms in clocks go back before the development of the carriage clock. The mechanism is usually the same throughout different makers. A small mainspring powers a gear train, at the end of which is a hammer. A 12 hour dial indicates the time the alarm is set for. A gear driven by the main hands of the clock activates the alarm at the time set, and allows the power from the alarm mainspring to travel through the alarm gear train to a hammer, which strikes a bell or gong rapidly. Unlike modern alarm clocks, there is no snooze or silence and instead the alarm runs until the power from the spring has run down.

Striking Work

Hour and Half Hour Striking

The most common type of strike work seen in carriage clocks is the hour and half hour strike. On the hour and half hour the strike mechanism is freed by the rotaion of the hands. An arm (rack) drops onto a cam (snail) attached to the hour hand. The distance this falls will dictate the number of strikes the clock will strike. On the half hour the rack is only dropped one tooth.

Petite Sonnerie

A petite sonnerie is a clock which on the hour strikes a bell or a gong, creating a low note. On each quarters the carriage clock will sound a ting-tang, which is a double strike of a high pitch bell or gong. The quarter past will sound one ting-tang, the half past tow ting-tangs, and finally the quarter too three ting-tangs. A repeat mechanism is usually fitted which allows the user to press a button on the top of the case, causing the clock to sound the hours and the quarters on demand. For example when pressed at 2:35 the clock will sound ‘bong, bong, ting-tang, ting-tang’. The user counts the bongs, and deduces its two o’clock, and the ting-tangs, which tells him its after the half hour.

Grande Sonnerie

Similar to the petite but each quarters ting-tang is preceded by (though in some case followed by) the hour bongs. They can usually be reduced to petite, or silenced all together.

Westminster Chime

A very rare striking mechanism to find in a carriage clock. We have repaired them in the past, and the issue with these is that the Westminster chime, and most chimes in fact, alternate the tune they play depending on the quarter. The use of the repeat mechanism advanced the chimes on though. For example using the repeat at 2:35, will cause the first two bars of the quarter two chime to sound, followed by the hour strikes, therefor the quarter too chime plays the final bar of the quarter two, followed by the first two bars of the hour chime. It wont correct itself. The only thing to do is wait for quarter past the hour and use the repeat to advance the chime back until the quarter past scale has played. Nonetheless these are always of very high quality.

Five Minute Repeater

A very rare type of strike work, when the repeat is pressed the clock strikes the hours followed by up to 11 strikes to indicate the time to within the last five minutes. One type of five minute repeat uses two repeat buttons, one which will indicate the hour and the second the 5 minute interval. When running the clock only strikes the hour and half hour as a more typical striking carriage clock would.

Minute Repeater

A minute repeater when activated sound the last hours, and the last quarters, followed by rapidly sounding off the minutes that have passed since this quarter. For example if activated at 2:35, the clock will sound as follows ‘bong, bong, ting-tang, ting-tang, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding”. You can only imagine the sound if pressed at 12:59…

Double Strike

We’ve never seen one of these. The clock strikes the hours on the hour and two minutes past. This is isn’t unique to carriage clocks, some church clocks, and some French made comtoises clocks feature this.

Calendar Work

In its simplest form this is a dial with 31 days marked on it which gets knocked over every 24 hours. In its more complicated form you have perpetual calendars, which now the date and month, and adjust the last day of the month accordingly and know if its a leap year. There’s also annual calendars which will display all the months of the correct length except for February which will go to 29, meaning the owner only has to adjust this once a year unless it a leap year.

Digital & Flick Clocks

These are clock which display the numbers of the hour and minutes without the use of hands that travel around a dial. A digital clock has apertures which the hour and minutes gets displayed though, a flick clock has the numbers printed on bits of paper which flick over. Both clock sare unreliable for a number of reasons. Digital clock are usually of high quality but rare, flick clocks are more common and of lesser quality

Multi Dial Clocks

Quite literally as the name suggests a carriage clock with multiple dials, either four or two. Four dials feature a dial on each of the four sides. Two dial feature one on the front and one on the back. The clocks are wound and set from the bottom.

Bottom Wind

A keyless type of clock. You wind it by a handle on the bottom of the clock. Turning one way winds the time gear train, the other the strikes. The hands still need to be set in the back, and if fitted with an alarm this needs to be wound from the back. A very nice design we have seen a few examples here. Sometimes they are susceptible to damage on the gears of the winding mechanism. Very rare and used only by Le Roy.

Year Going

A very rare design, one we haven’t seen here. A very large mainspring is fitted and an very long gear train which allows the clock to run for a year, in theory. Timekeeping is likely to be awful, and the clock is likely still going to need to be wound every few months to try and counteract this. As we say we haven’t had the pleasure of repairing one of these yet, but we would expect there would be quite a short service interval, as the first gears are subject to a lot of power from the large mainspring, and the last gears turn quickly but don’t have much power going to them, making them susceptible to stopping due to lubrication thickening.

Here at the Carriage Clock Company we specialise in the repair and restoration of carriage clocks, both antique and modern, and can undertake repairs ranging from services through to full restoration, along with case and dial repairs. If you have a carriage clock you would like repaired, please click here to be taken through to our ‘Book A Repair’ page.