I acquired my Sessions Raven clock about a year ago. It had been serviced by someone knowledgeable about clocks and arrived in excellent condition. The movement had clearly been disassembled, oiled, tested, and the case carefully reconditioned. Interestingly, it also came with a set of instructions from the person who had worked on it.
Ebony in colour and very attractive Detailed operating instructions
I imagine he wanted to ensure the clock found a good home—and it certainly did! The only drawback was the absence of a label, which is always a consideration when purchasing antique clocks. Otherwise, everything appeared to be in order. According to Tran’s book, the leading authority on American clocks, the Sessions Raven dates to the 1920s. It is a time-and-strike clock, featuring a bell for the half-hour and strike rods on the hour. I suspect it was named the Raven because of its deep ebony color—quite striking, in fact.
Time and strike movement showing the bell
The Sessions Clock Company emerged from the E.N. Welch Clock Company in the early 1900s and was once one of the most recognized American clock manufacturers. However, like many others, it struggled to compete with the rise of electric clocks. Despite its efforts to adapt, the company persisted until the late 1960s before ultimately being forced into liquidation in 1969—a bittersweet end to a once-prominent name in horology.
My clock holds a prominent place in my family room. Its simple design reflects the style of its era and blends seamlessly into any space.
I have dis-assembled this clock twice. After the first dis-assembly I cleaned and oiled it, found everything to be in order but once I assembled it, bench-tested it to find everything seemingly correct and set the beat it would not run more that 5 to 10 minutes at a time. When it stopped it seemed to catch on the escape wheel.
Shown with back plate off
It is now stripped down again. No need to have as through a cleaning as the first go-around but now is the time to investigate other factors. It is a pretty simple clock as the photo shows.
Escape wheel showing worn teeth
What I see right away is the escape wheel teeth and how some are hooked or misshapened. My temptation is to file it down but others are suggesting that I use pliers to press the hooks back into shape. I have’t decided what to do just yet.
Others have suggested that I put more weight on the pendulum which I am reluctant to do since this clock was likely designed to run on a light bob.
The pendulum showing the twist adjustment for speed regulation
Now back to further investigation.
Late note: I finally got this clock to work after taking it apart twice. The second time I concentrated on the pivots discovering the at least 2 had enough rust that them that they may have slowed the clock down. I also took a burr off the escape wheel but in the process damaged the escape wheel a little, so that while the clock runs there is a little clunking sound once with each rotation, but it works and keeps time! Live and learn.
I am continuing work on my Dugena mantel clock with a Hermle movement. Everything seemed to go well after re-assembly but the strike barrel.
A serious problem or simple fix? The latter, thankfully. Something was definitely amiss since the winding arbor was not engaging on the mainspring. The spring was either broken or had not engaged the winding arbor sleeve.
Mainspring barrel
I had no choice but to open up the barrel but it was not much fun getting the cap off. Some suggestions I received on a clock forum site were to bang the arbor with a steel hammer or a rubber hammer and it would pop neatly into my hand. This did not work. Finally someone suggested that if it was really stubborn to find a piece of hardwood, hold the barrel in a gloved hand and bang it with some amount of force on the hardwood. It worked!
Once I got the thing apart I inspected the spring and arbour for possible damage. I initially thought the spring catch (see photo with black arrow) was broken but a member of NAWCC (National Association of Watch and Clock Collectors) assured me that this was quite normal. I re-positioned the catch onto the spring, tested it and snapped the cap back on.
Strike mainspring barrel on the left
The barrel can be easily slid back into the clock without taking the movement apart. Using the clock key I gave it a few turns, tested the action of the strike side and everything seemed to be working.
Arbor sleeve spring catch
Now for bench testing. I put a make-shift hour hand for the clock to see if it marked the hours properly. Testing for a week or so will reveal any issues and allows for finer adjustments before I install the movement back into its case. Everything looks good at this point.
Mainspring with barrel cap off
The original problem was that the clock was running too fast and no amount of adjusting would slow it down. I am hoping now that after a good cleaning it will run as it should.
If you are following the progress on my Dugena mantel clock project it seems to be going fairly well though there have been some minor issues.
I had no trouble taking the movement apart and cleaning all the parts to the best of my ability. Everything seemed to be in good order with minimal wear. My initial method months ago of dunking the assembled clock in a solution clearly did not work. The clock did not run at all after that procedure. So, I put the clock aside to decide what to do. Dis-assembly is the only way to do the job correctly as I am learning. After a thorough cleaning comes re-assembly.
I have learned from taking apart movements that getting it back together means that once the back plate is on it is better to work from the bottom up, by getting the barrels in place, the main wheel and then working up to the top of the clock. Once I have the barrels in place I put on the lower nuts. I am not sure if that is the correct procedure but it works for me. I then use a pair of tweeters to carefully move the pivots in their proper place.
The hammer assemblies are on the right side
The hardest part was re-aligning the hammer assemblies since the hammer wires are located outside the back plate. You can see this in the photo. I later learned that even when the clock is fully assembled the barrels will come out by simply removing the winding arbors and sliding them out. It’s all good learning!
It took a lot of fiddling to position the hammer assembly properly. With time (no pun intended) it all came together. Once the back plate was on securely next came the balance wheel escarpment and aligning the fork correctly which I think I did. I then put the clock in beat, oiled it and started it up. It did not run. Whoops, it needs power and had to be wound. I immediately noticed that the time barrel spring would not wind at all. I am guessing that the spring had, at some point become un-clipped from the barrel. I say un-clipped because I did not hear a broken spring sound. I switched barrels (#8S spring barrel) since they are the same for both time and strike. Once I got the barrels switched I gave the spring a few turns with the key, gave the balance wheel a little shove and the clock has been running for 24 hours as of this writing.
Does it keep time, I have no idea at this point? I suspect it does with a little adjustment. As for the strike side, if I can re-attach the mainspring within the barrel I am on my way to re-installing the movement back into it’s case. I know the strike side is working properly because when I had the good spring on that side for a brief period the strike assembly seemed to be working as it should.
Should I try to fix the mainspring or buy a new (or NOS) barrel and mainspring? I am not keen on fixing a mainspring because of potential injury but if I can scour around and get a used 8S barrel and mainspring for a reasonable price that would be the better option in my view.
Antique and Vintage Mechanical Clocks 
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