Judging by the "used to", I guess you've lost the itch.Quote:
Originally Posted by clocker
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Judging by the "used to", I guess you've lost the itch.Quote:
Originally Posted by clocker
Last one was about six years ago.
The market for specialty clocks began to collapse...a precursor to today's financial apocalypse.
Whats the going rate for a specialty clock? Do you have any pics of them or is it a personal thing?
Were they something like this?
http://www.1-800-4clocks.com/miva/gr...805-740352.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v7...ker/clock2.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v7...ker/clock3.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v7...ker/clock4.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v7...ker/clock5.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v78/clocker/PS1.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v78/clocker/PS2.jpg
The first two shots show clocks that have finished construction but haven't been final polished. They are both remontoire mechanisms- a spring driven gear train rewinds a weight that drives the clock train. #1 has a duration of 1 month between winding and #2 runs for a year. #2 is actually the first clock I ever completed (lots of failures to start and I made life very difficult by attempting a long duration/high complexity mechanism to start with).
The third is a finished piece, most of the brasswork has been gold plated.
For reference, the large gear ("wheel", in the trade) is @8" diameter and has 360 teeth. The large dial displays seconds and the subdial shows hours/minutes. Displayed in front is the gold medal it won in competition.
#4 is my take on the classic "self-winding" electric clock. The original design was common in Post Offices and telegraph stations. I was so taken with the concept that I built my own with improved aesthetics.
#5 is probably the most technically advanced/difficult of this group. The clock acts as the bob of the pendulum and is not connected to the wall for impulse-it's hard to explain to a non-clock person but to the best of my knowledge it's completely unique. It is hanging in my brother's entry hall. The dial is 12" diameter beveled glass that I acid etched and backfilled.
It displays seconds/minutes and hours. The geartrain was cut from titanium to reduce inertia. It runs for two weeks between winding.
All told, I built 21 clocks. Most of them are in the hands of two collectors/patrons and by request, I am not free to share photographs of them. One collector desired clocks of aesthetic complexity- google "skeleton clock" to get an idea- the other was focused on precision. My final "precision regulator" for this person once achieved accuracy of better than 1 second/month over the course of 12 months.
Cost varied for each project but it's safe to say that each sold for $10k +.
This might seem like a lot but I was only completing one clock about every 8 months, so in fact, I starved most of the time.
The other problem- the one that finally caused me to stop- was that once I did the preliminary design work I could completely visualize the finished product in my head. This was followed by many months of boring/tedious labor just to bring to reality something I already knew would work. It got to the point where I just couldn't force myself to spend the time to produce work to my standard, so I quit while I was ahead.
And there you have it.
Damn man Clocker's Bio. I love it! You freaking genius you. Those look fantastic man. Great work. Why not sell some of your designs? Is this something that's even done?
Not really.
First of all, I never drew any blueprints or spec sheets...pretty much made it up as I went along.
Secondly, part of the "value" of the clock was it's uniqueness (is that a word?).
There were never duplicates, never will be.