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Weird Watch Watch

posted by [personal profile] bugshaw at 12:15am on 01/11/2006
When buying my watch, they needed to remove a couple of links from the strap, which was a fiddly operation which took them a few minutes with a very small hammer. This gave me time to admire the display of pendulum clocks behind the counter.

One clock caught my eye - quite modern, a glass plate with clock face and a stainless steel disc pendulum which was quite hypnotic. However, the pendulum swing seemed unrelated to the ticking motion of the second hand. Every five seconds the pendulum had got 180° out of phase with the seconds - five seconds later it was back in phase again. I suspect the pendulum is driven by a motor independently of the timer mechanism. WTF? Hello? Mechanics, anyone??
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posted by [identity profile] bovil.livejournal.com at 12:51am on 01/11/2006
It's not unusual for a quartz movement in what would classically be a "pendulum" clock to feature a fake pendulum that's not at all connected to the clock movement itself. Often there's just an electromagnet to give it an occasional kick to keep it moving. It may also, as you surmised, be driven by a simple motor without any (quartz) timer mechanism to keep it paced with the hands.
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posted by [identity profile] bugshaw.livejournal.com at 09:11am on 01/11/2006
I didn't know I had a horologist in me until it fled, screaming, from the shop.

The other thing I have that seriously breaks my head is, coincidentally, another clock. It was painted by famous space artist David Hardy, and is a starscape with Earth in the middle (where the hands are fixed) and twelve Moons in a circle around it, in progressive phase, to mark the hours. But - aieeee! That means the Sun has to be in twelve different places at the same time, to provide the illumination?
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posted by [identity profile] cobrabay.livejournal.com at 02:17am on 01/11/2006
I'm in the same position with my new watch, though I think mine needs about 4 links to be removed. I shall take a book just in case there are no interesting clocks to watch.
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posted by [identity profile] devilgate.livejournal.com at 09:20am on 01/11/2006
I'm curiosly reminded of the "mississippi paddle boats" on the Thames, on which the paddle wheel at the back turns independently of the movement of the boat, which is propelled by (I presume) a propellor.
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posted by [identity profile] del-c.livejournal.com at 10:33am on 01/11/2006
In architecture, a feature of a building that reproduces something that used to be an essential design point, that may even have been in a completely different material, is called a skiamorph ("shadow shape"). The marble lintels of Greek temples have fake pegs carved in them, to look like the wooden beams of their predecessors. For years motor yachts had bowsprits with no sails to tie to them, just because a ship should have a pointy bit on the end.

This sounds like an extreme skiamorph.
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