# Tuning Fork Clocks



## Zephod

Having recently become hooked on Omega and Bulova tuning fork watches I was wondering if anyone ever produced a clock based on the tuning fork movement the sweeping second hand would look superb , i cant stop waching it on my Omega and Accutron


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## Silver Hawk

There are quite a few Accutron clocks....try a search in Google and you'll come across them.


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## Zephod

Wow no thats interesting I had tried searching for tuning fork clocks but not accutron , Absolutely fascinating never new NASA had used them in instruments

Cheers

Stuart


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## Johnny M

Zephod said:


> Having recently become hooked on Omega and Bulova tuning fork watches I was wondering if anyone ever produced a clock based on the tuning fork movement the sweeping second hand would look superb , i cant stop waching it on my Omega and Accutron


 :agree: Me too.


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## Who. Me?

Bulova also made a marine chronometer tuning fork watch.

There's one in Greenwich, apparently...

http://www.nmm.ac.uk/collections/explore/o....cfm?ID=ZAA0275


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## Zephod

Who. Me? said:


> Bulova also made a marine chronometer tuning fork watch.
> 
> There's one in Greenwich, apparently...
> 
> http://www.nmm.ac.uk/collections/explore/o....cfm?ID=ZAA0275


Cheers for that very interesting


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## rdwiow

Zephod said:


> Who. Me? said:
> 
> 
> 
> Bulova also made a marine chronometer tuning fork watch.
> 
> There's one in Greenwich, apparently...
> 
> http://www.nmm.ac.uk/collections/explore/o....cfm?ID=ZAA0275
> 
> 
> 
> Cheers for that very interesting
Click to expand...

Hi

If you want a tuning fork clock they are were quite common, and sometimes on ebay, they were sold in the 1970s under the Smiths brand name, but the movements were made by Jeco of Japan licensed from Bulova. The movement had a magnetic form of indexing, instead of pawls and jewels as in the watches. The clock had good accuracy and ran 18 months on 1 'C' cell. The clocks are often just labelled Smiths Battery and sometimes have a tuning fork symbol. If you get stuck i can sell you a movement only, PM me if of interest.

Thanks

Rob


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## Jeff T

> Hi
> 
> If you want a tuning fork clock they are were quite common, and sometimes on ebay, they were sold in the 1970s under the Smiths brand name, but the movements were made by Jeco of Japan licensed from Bulova. The movement had a magnetic form of indexing, instead of pawls and jewels as in the watches. The clock had good accuracy and ran 18 months on 1 'C' cell. The clocks are often just labelled Smiths Battery and sometimes have a tuning fork symbol. If you get stuck i can sell you a movement only, PM me if of interest.
> 
> Thanks
> 
> Rob


Rob, if you have one of these Jeco tuning fork movements available to sell, I would like to buy one.

I've not had much luck in finding one on ebay, not knowing the model of clock they were use for.

I design specialty digital clocks, and I would like to integrate an anachronistic tuning fork timing source in a new design.

http://www.nixisat.com

Please PM here or email me through the website link above.

Best Regards, Jeff


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## JonW

Jeff great to see you posting here mate. Welcome to the forum. I own a Nixie clock I bought from Jan, its been with me 4 years and its a stunner. Keeps great time too


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## Jeff T

JonW said:


> Jeff great to see you posting here mate. Welcome to the forum. I own a Nixie clock I bought from Jan, its been with me 4 years and its a stunner. Keeps great time too


Hi Jon, Thank You for the post reply.

You did very well. Jan is a good guy, and a smart engineer too.

Jan and I had joined forces for awhile back in '02-'03 to help him market the thousands of big RFT Z568 nixie tubes he had acquired out of a former east german warehouse. I packaged up a GPS referenced nixie clock kit based on these tubes, and it exhausted his considerable tube inventory after the IEEE offered to publish an article about it.

http://www.amug.org/~jthomas/clockwork.html

There certainly are a myriad of nixie clock marketeers these days 

I tried to lead the pack through innovative designs, and then move on before they caught up. Now after a three year hiatus, I've some fresh ideas on implementing different timing mechanisms and packages. One of those is the tuning fork reference oscillator.

I built up a driver and feedback circuit that seems to work ok in spite of being somewhat temperature sensitive. I would like to compare to what Jeco did in stabilizing their scaled up tuning fork motor design. Hence that's why I was wanting to acquire one, and saw Rob's post from a few months back. I began with the tiny Bulova accutron concept, scaled to a 100mm length C256 fork.

Best Regards, Jeff


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## foztex

wow cool stuff Jeff and welcome,

I used to repair and install nixie tube displays for corrugator machines (that made corrugated cardboard). Always fancied a nixie clock. If only I'd thought of it at the time I would have 'borrowed' some tubes 

do you still do the kits? commercial links are not allowed and you are not up to PM status yet. I will see if Jon has an email for you and get in touch if you do.

cheers

Andy


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## JonW

Jeff, this is mine:










Its very similar to a couple of your designs.  It keeps great time on the mains power, but I would like to GPS it, that would be superb. If youve any ideas on how much effort that would be Id be keen to know. 

Jan was very helpful when I bought the clock but to be honest its been relaible from day 1 so Ive not had to get back in touch with him so not extended the contact any. I probably should have as I love the clock. 

Blimey a 100mm fork! Please feel free to share the photos of that one! I think the idea is sound (sic) and very interesting but I guess the tuning of the clock will be its ultimate test, my experience with tuning fork watches is that they take a while to get tuned in and even then can vary with temp. None of mine have been as accurate as a quartz, especially the Omega Megaquartz 2.4s - building something based on that technology would be something LOL

Foz, Jeff's site appears above, I thought I saw an email link there. There are plenty of sellers about on ebay etc, but make sure you read Jeff's page on the bad seller he dealt with first. My kit came ready built and was almost 400 euros but (as youve seen it) you know its quite a stunning bit of kit.

Jeff, I hope you like the forum and hang about mate, Its great to have a Nixie guy on the forum. Everytime Ive shown my clock I get asked where to get one, so Im sure if you wanted to sell a few that the sales section would be the place.


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## dickstar1977

Hi all

I just realsied how long it has been since I posted in the electronics section! I am very bad!

Anyway, thought I would share this with you! The clock isn't mine (the watches are), it was owned by a close mate and forum member who was kind enought to bring it over to show me! I had to get a snap of it with some of my treaures when he was over!

It now resides in a new home in STS's display case where it can be enjoyed by all!

As you can see it is an Omega Electroquartz desk clock! to say it is rare doesn't come close! Apparently only available as dealer demos and very few of those! Accurate to 1/100th SPD (MC rated basically) and one of the most amazing pieces of kit in the world when you see it 'naked! It runs on a quartz ciruit with a tuning fork (I think) system! Utterly stunning!

Enjoy:










Cheers Tom


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## bridgeman

oh my gawd-what a set


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## dickstar1977

bridgeman said:


> oh my gawd-what a set


Cheers, the watch collection has actually swelled considerably since then, especially the Omega electronics one! The clock I wish was mine! One hell of a piece of kit! I also know where there is Marine Chronometer 4,19Mhz ships clock, but thats a story for another time!

if you ever get a chance get in to STS and have a look at their displays, they are amazing, especially the Omega clocks

Cheers Tom


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## rdwiow

dickstar1977 said:


> Hi all
> 
> I just realsied how long it has been since I posted in the electronics section! I am very bad!
> 
> Anyway, thought I would share this with you! The clock isn't mine (the watches are), it was owned by a close mate and forum member who was kind enought to bring it over to show me! I had to get a snap of it with some of my treaures when he was over!
> 
> It now resides in a new home in STS's display case where it can be enjoyed by all!
> 
> As you can see it is an Omega Electroquartz desk clock! to say it is rare doesn't come close! Apparently only available as dealer demos and very few of those! Accurate to 1/100th SPD (MC rated basically) and one of the most amazing pieces of kit in the world when you see it 'naked! It runs on a quartz ciruit with a tuning fork (I think) system! Utterly stunning!
> 
> Enjoy:
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Cheers Tom


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## rdwiow

Lovely collection! And that clock....never even new such things existed.

Thanks for posting it Tom

Rob


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## JonW

Shush! Tom! you're not supposed to tell people about that clock... I sooo want one  :lol:


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## dickstar1977

JonW said:


> Shush! Tom! you're not supposed to tell people about that clock... I sooo want one  :lol:


He he he! sooorrrrryyyy couldn't resist it! honestly thought chaps you should see the insides of the thing! These were relesased in 1967 prior to the quartz watches as a 'tempter' for potential customers! when you have the back of it it runs on a fan of 5 aa batterys, and is simply a mass of circuits, diodes cogs and workings! utterly amazing! It is also the only thing I have found with a tick louder than my Marine Chronometer! It really does sound like a rifle bolt!


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## dickstar1977

P.S. There is no danger of anyone getting one as I have only ever seen 1 for sale and this is it!!! They simply never come up for sale anywhere at any time!

:cry2:


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## JonW

Yeah dont we know it mate, sigh...


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## Jeff T

Jeff T said:


> Hi
> 
> If you want a tuning fork clock they are were quite common, and sometimes on ebay, they were sold in the 1970s under the Smiths brand name, but the movements were made by Jeco of Japan licensed from Bulova. The movement had a magnetic form of indexing, instead of pawls and jewels as in the watches. The clock had good accuracy and ran 18 months on 1 'C' cell. The clocks are often just labelled Smiths Battery and sometimes have a tuning fork symbol. If you get stuck i can sell you a movement only, PM me if of interest.
> 
> Thanks
> 
> Rob
> 
> 
> 
> Rob, if you have one of these Jeco tuning fork movements available to sell, I would like to buy one.
Click to expand...

Hi All,

as a newly listed user, I'm not allowed to PM anyone here.

Could I ask a favor of someone reading this thread to send a PM to Rob (rdwiow) including this post. I would greatly appreciate it.

Thanks, Jeff


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## webvan

rdwiow said:


> Hi
> 
> If you want a tuning fork clock they are were quite common, and sometimes on ebay, they were sold in the 1970s under the Smiths brand name, but the movements were made by Jeco of Japan licensed from Bulova. The movement had a magnetic form of indexing, instead of pawls and jewels as in the watches. The clock had good accuracy and ran 18 months on 1 'C' cell. The clocks are often just labelled Smiths Battery and sometimes have a tuning fork symbol. If you get stuck i can sell you a movement only, PM me if of interest.
> 
> ThanksRob


Came across this thread by accident a couple of weeks ago and being a fan of all things "sweeping" I am now on a quest to find one of these "Bulova" clocks ;-)

Apparently Seiko have come out with "quiet sweep" clocks that behave the same.


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## Who. Me?

webvan said:


> rdwiow said:
> 
> 
> 
> Hi
> 
> If you want a tuning fork clock they are were quite common, and sometimes on ebay, they were sold in the 1970s under the Smiths brand name, but the movements were made by Jeco of Japan licensed from Bulova. The movement had a magnetic form of indexing, instead of pawls and jewels as in the watches. The clock had good accuracy and ran 18 months on 1 'C' cell. The clocks are often just labelled Smiths Battery and sometimes have a tuning fork symbol. If you get stuck i can sell you a movement only, PM me if of interest.
> 
> ThanksRob
> 
> 
> 
> Came across this thread by accident a couple of weeks ago and being a fan of all things "sweeping" I am now on a quest to find one of these "Bulova" clocks ;-)
> 
> Apparently Seiko have come out with "quiet sweep" clocks that behave the same.
Click to expand...

If you want a cheap and cheerful alternative to the 'proper' accutron clocks, trawl ebay for Smiths 'Timecal' clocks. I've a pair of 'sunburst' clocks from the 60s that use the 'Jeco' type of tuning fork movement which Rob refers to above. Both were under Â£40.00 delivered, keep excellent time and have the benefit of the smooth sweep hand.


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## webvan

Suburst ? Sounds intriguing, thanks for the tip! Wonder if they made table clocks too...since I missed the Omega f8192hz one that got sold last year on eBay for a reasonable price, unlike the current one that has an asking price of Â£3000!


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## Who. Me?

webvan said:


> Suburst ? Sounds intriguing, thanks for the tip! Wonder if they made table clocks too...since I missed the Omega f8192hz one that got sold last year on eBay for a reasonable price, unlike the current one that has an asking price of Â£3000!


This is a lousy picture (taken against a white wall, so the flash washed out) but they look like this...


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## webvan

Hum...had missed this, impressive design! Int the meantime I got my grubby hands on a stylish (IMHO) Smiths Astral with that Jeco movement. After some tweaking it looks very accurate, around 20 spy I'd say, will know for sure when DST ends...here it is :


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## tixntox

I rebuilt an anniversary clock for my lounge but her indoors does not like the "tick"! Maybe I should look out for an accutron so that she can complain about the hum!

Mike


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## rdwiow

webvan said:


> Hum...had missed this, impressive design! Int the meantime I got my grubby hands on a stylish (IMHO) Smiths Astral with that Jeco movement. After some tweaking it looks very accurate, around 20 spy I'd say, will know for sure when DST ends...here it is :


I agree, always liked these 'industrial' looking Smiths tuning fork clocks since my primary school days back in the early '70s.

We had 3 from what i remember and i was always facinated then ( i was about 7) at the sweeping seconds hand which was just like a mains synchronous clock. Of course i didnt know it had a tuning fork movement then, it was only in later years i picked one up at a car boot sale and the memories immediatly came flooding back. I also remembered that they used a 'C' cell and it was gold in colour and marked 'Transistor Clock Battery'. All other battery clocks of that time were electronic balance and the seconds hand always 'ticked', and quartz was still for the rich of society then, so i didnt see many of them. Seth Thomas did make a sweeping quartz clock around '73, it had a synchronous motor and used 2 'C' cell batteries. Amazing what you can remember....but ask me what i had for dinner yesterday????


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## webvan

Nice memories, yes it's a school clock, apparently removed in 1991. I must admit I don't remember what kind of clocks exactly we had in my classrooms but that type of design is familiar. I have another one like that which is quartz and it ate through its battery pretty quickly (6 months).


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## rdwiow

Just to add to this thread, I went into our new post office yesterday, it has recently moved from the old sorting office.

They must have discovered and old 1970s Smiths Quartz Post Office clock when moving and it is now on the wall there, looks great!


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