Carriage Clock

In for repair is a very nice carriage clock.  A carriage clock is a small, spring-driven clock, developed in the early 19th century in France. 

Who invented the Carriage Clock?  Abraham-Louis Breguet, a renowned horologist.  In 1812.  He made this clock for Emperor Napoleon.

This clock was made about 1880.  

It is important to inspect these clocks carefully.  If the balance has been damaged or incorrectly repaired, repair success could be in question.  This clock seemed to be complete.  A quick shake of the balance wheel showed that the balance staffs were in OK condition.  Another check on this clock was to see if the clock was fully wound.  If the mainspring was unwound would indicate the mechanism could be in running condition.  The mainspring was unwound.  Although, there was no pressure on the spring.  The first thought was the mainspring was broken.  Upon further evaluation there was much more.

Click the picture to see a short video of the issues

Upon further inspection a number items were found:

1) The 1st wheel of the mainspring barrel had a broken pivot

2) Spinning the wheels it was found that not all the wheels turned when manually pushing on the 2nd wheel.  This was of concern.  It was later found that the 4th wheel was installed upside down.  By installing this wheel upside down, the pinion on the 3rd wheel did not connect to the 4th wheel, hence no power to the escapement.  

Here is a picture of the missing pivot.  Upon closer examination, it looks like a previous repairer already drilled a centering hole but the replacement pivot broke again.   

The next few images display the work envolved in pivot replacement

Using a centering drill to find the center of the pivot shaft 

A drill bit is then used to complete the pivot hole

Pivot wire is used to complete the pivot.  After the pivot is inserted the wire is sized, polished, and the end is finished.

The finished product

Next a bent tooth on that same wheel was discovered

The tooth was straightened as per the image below

The following images depict the wheel setup of this clock

  

This clock has an alarm feature.  Note the twisted winding arbor on this clock.  the twist is so bad, it was decided to not repair this arbor.

Here is the clock movement ultrasonically cleaned, oiled, & adjusted.

And finally, the movement installed in the case and operational

Click the image to see the clock running