10 weight driven clocks in my collection

Posted on by rjoiner2021

I am a big fan of weight driven clocks and will add them to my collection when time, opportunity and finances allow.

There are generally 2 categories of motive power for mechanical clocks. The energy required to run a clock is provided either by a spring or a weight. Most of my collection is spring-driven but 10 clocks are driven by weights and they represent the broad period from 1835 to 1996.

here are some interesting facts about my ten weight driven clocks:

  • Eight are American,
  • Two are Austro-German,
  • Three are Ogee style,
  • Five are thirty-hour or one-day,
  • Two are column style
  • One is woodworks, and
  • Three have deadbeat escapements with maintaining power

Rather than describe each one I will let the photos (with captions) speak for themselves.

Seth Thomas column and cornice shelf clock
Seth Thomas 8-day column and cornice circa 1875
Seth Thomas Regulator #2 circa 1930
Daniel Pratt reverse ogee and splat clock
Daniel Pratt reverse ogee and splat clock with woodworks, circa 1835
Chauncey Jerome 30 hoir Ogee clock
Chauncey Jerome 30-hour Ogee clock, circa 1850
George H. Clark 30 hour Ogee
George H. Clark 30-hour Ogee with a wood dial, circa 1840
Waterbury OG clock
Waterbury 30-hour Ogee style clock, circa 1875
Sperry & Shaw 4 column clock
Sperry & Shaw 30-hour New York style 4 column clock, circa 1860
Gustav Becker time and strike Vienna Regulator, circa 1902
one-weight Vienna wall clock
One-weight time-only Vienna Regulator wall clock, circa 1870
Ridgeway Hamilton Country, Westminster chime with moon phase, circa 1996

There will certainly be more weight driven clocks in the future. I hope you enjoyed the tour.

4 thoughts on “10 weight driven clocks in my collection”

  1. I would be curious to know which of these has “maintaining power” because it tends to be something that is available coincidentally (like pull-up 30 hour longcase movements) or an expensive added feature in fine regulators and precision clocks. If I had to guess based on the 10 photos shown I’d say 0/10 have maintaining power.

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    1. Perhaps our definitions of maintaining power are different. However, why would Timesavers sell a maintaining power return spring if, as you say, it does not have it? As for the small VR I am pretty sure it has MP but do not have a good photo to show it.
      Ron

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    2. The Seth Thomas #2 has maintaining power and here is what the maintaining power spring looks like. I do not have a photo of the small VR movement but it also has maintaining power….unless our defintions differ.

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      1. Interesting. I know some Viennas can have them, but as I said, it’s a more expensive luxury feature as extra parts need to be manufactured. I have well over 100 clocks, and I think I only have maintaining power on one or two (not counting endless loop longcase movements? I’ve worked on regulators and high end client clocks that had maintaining power.

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