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Interesting clock - from a Navy ship, maybe?

tommydog
OK, I know this has nothing to do with firearms, but I figured that with all the armed forces members & veterans on the forum, someone must have an idea. To me, it looks like it's brass and came straight off a ship. I looked all over it, and there are no markings.

Any opinions, ideas, etc.?? Thanks!! [:D]

[img][/img]clock2g.jpg
[img][/img]clockside2.jpg
[img][/img]clockside.jpg
[img][/img]clockback.jpg
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Comments

9 comments

Date Votes
  • babun
    Open it up and see if it is made by "Ashton"?? close but no cigar....http://cgi.ebay.com/WWII-US-NAVAL-ASHTON-VALVE-BRONZE-MARINE-SHIPS-CLOCK-/230540091355?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item35ad429fdb I'm thinking submarine.... bob
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  • yblockhead
    It looks like someone put a battery powered clock in an old gauge case. Just my 2 cents worth. Still cool though.
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  • Grasshopper
    Don't think Navy would use the Roman numerals,,,,but still a cool looking item/
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  • tommydog
    quote:Originally posted by mm8nambu
    Don't think Navy would use the Roman numerals,,,,but still a cool looking item/


    Yeah, I had the same thought - the face just doesn't go with the housing. I'm thinking that maybe my Dad fixed a broken clock. He was pretty creative and quite the pack rat!

    I'm going to try to open the housing today & take a look inside.
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  • mbsams
    A less than convincing fake!
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  • givette
    quote:Originally posted by mbsams
    A less than convincing fake!


    Be very careful with the top. It's 'cross-threaded' on to the body. Now, the body..

    It has gimballing holes. That is a sure sign that [the body, at least] was meant to be used in an unstable platform.

    I'm sorry that I can't answer your question correctly, save to say that parts are not fit correctly. Now, chronometers (I'll delete this post if legitimate 'on focus' replies near the ten reply limit). Here goes...


    ..The modern Hamilton (WWII vintage) chronometers, both the Model 21 and Model 22 variants will have, when complete, gimbals, and are set in a double mahogany box. The inner box will be topped in glass.

    They are expensive, (cherry condition about $2300), but I'd love to have a Model 21. Like military firearms, the chronometers were sent in to the Navy observatory for calibration, just as firearms were returned for arsenal inspection/repair.

    The calibration papers are just as important as documentation of a firearm being arsenal re-built.

    Now, the kicker..about twenty or so years ago, Hamilton made a brand-new run of Model 21's. Sure wish I jumped on the opportunity then! They're out there, if you've got the dough!
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  • thorhammer
    the two large holes remind me of the old remote boiler pressure gauges. those remote gauges would sit up in an office away from the boilers so the operator can check the pressure. the steam piping would go into the large holes, but now it looks to be converted into a clock[xx(].
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  • thorhammer
    driving home i remenbered that those 3 holes in back held the pressure gauge mechanism and face. i have 4 boiler gauges here mounted on my wall, one dated to 1958. they all have a single brass threaded connector at the bottom that went on the top of the boilers. yours has the two openings which was piped to an office so

    the chief could see the boiler pressure.

    yours could have come from a large boiler plant in an office

    building built during the 50's or early 60's. or from a ship or off

    a steam locomotive. we'll never know because the mechanism was

    dated and not the case, and it's gone.


    value if not converted to a clock....about 150 to 250 depending

    on maker. it's not scrap, someone may have a pressure gauge face

    and dial that needs a good patina'd case. if you clean it then it

    turns to scrap.


    why do i know this.....i'm a Chief Engineer an old timer. good

    luck restoring it.[:)]
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  • robertchambers
    The more I look at it...the more it looks like a marraige...Bronze case, which suggests salt water environment....then a clock face with Roman numerals which suggests decorative as does the Louis 14th hour hand...is the minute hand missing? or is that central second hand mounted on the minute pinion?...It would be RARE indeed if that timepiece had a central second hand (50+ years ahead of it's vintage)...so I suspect someone married a case from one timepeice to the movement of another timepiece, hense the 20th century minute hand...(timepiece=no sound)...(a true clock must ring or announce the hours)
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