Antique and Vintage Clocks

Pequegnat was in the business of making clocks in Kitchener, Canada for over 35 years, 1903 to 1941. Unfortunately the shortage of brass during World War II was the death knell for this company. Pequegnat clocks are sought after by Canadian clock collectors and command higher than average prices, in Canada at least. The best collection of Pequegnat clocks can be found at the Canadian Clock Museum in Deep River, Ontario.

This article concerns the servicing of a typical Pequegnat time and strike movement. By typical I mean that most time and strike movements have steel plates with brass bushing inserts pressed into the plates. This was a working clock when I got it but I knew that there had to be wear issues that needed to be addressed.

This movement comes out of a Canuck.

The Canuck is a gingerbread style clock, not particularly sought after by collectors but an attractive clock for the kitchen or the dining area.

I began with revitalizing the case which meant giving all the oak surfaces a good cleaning followed by two coats of shellac. The dial was in poor condition and I considered an aftermarket dial but in the end decided to try a little inpainting with good results.

Pequegnat movements with steel plates are nickle plated. Most of the plating has worn off on this movement so while it make look dirty after cleaning it is simply tarnished. The movement is well constructed with 4 cut pinions and 6 lantern pinions. I am going out on a limb here but I have worked on a lot of similar American movements and this movement, in my view, is better designed in many ways.

I do not not believe this movement has ever been worked on. I see no evidence of past repairs and/or adjustments which is a good thing because undoing previous bad work can be very frustrating. There is some bushing wear as expected, but the pivots, cut pinions and lantern pinions are all in excellent condition.

The time side required 4 new bushings, T2F, T3F, T4F and T4R. The strike side required one bushing, T3F. There is plenty of power left in the mainsprings which were cleaned and oiled. Otherwise, the movement was dirty, though I have seen far worse. My ultrasonic took care of most of the dirt and grime but the wheels benefited from additional hand cleaning.

Getting everything working nicely when all is back together is more luck than skill. The strike side did not lock as it should but I decided to test the time side for a few days before opening up the plates to move the stop wheel into its correct position. Everything is working now.

A nice little project and while I would not say it was brought back to life it is completely serviced and will run for many years to come.