Here's my family's Grandfather clock. Hand made in Denmark in 1931 as a retirement gift to my Grandfather's Grandfather from his work mates. The direct translation of "Fra Kollegaer" you can probably work out pretty easily... "From Colleagues".
I actually always feel a bit emotional about it when I think of how much it meant to my Grandfather to inherit this. He cried when it arrived at his place in Sydney in a crate all the way from Copenhagen in the early 1990s. Memories can be a powerful thing. It had been with one of his older cousins until they passed away. Then when my Grandfather passed away in 2010, it went to my Dad. I remember when I was in junior high school, my Grandfather taught me how to wind it. Take up the slack of the counter weights (one at a time) and pull the chain through the winder until the counter weight is at the top and then gently let the counter weight hang. The two counter weights are mostly for the chimes but also provide "perpetual motion" to the pendulum. To set the time and how it keeps time takes a while. The weight on the pendulum has a thumb screw clamp. To slow it down you hang it lower. So you need to leave it a while and see what time it's keeping. Small adjustments are the key. But once it's set it's VERY precise. Even if it's been stopped, wind up the counter weights, start the pendulum swinging and wind the hands to the time and off she goes again!
My Dad and I actually dismantled the head and chimes unit from the cabinet a couple of years back as the chimes were out of alignment from the hammers so it wasn't chiming as nicely as it should any more. VERY VERY carefully we lightly heated the chime tubes and caressed them back into alignment. It's not 100% perfect, but it has sounded magnificent whenever it chimes even since - one on the half hour and however many for whatever time it is on the hour. And it really is a nice "GONG" sound.
It's titanium and carbon fibre, has a touch screen and I love it. It's seen better days (apparently titanium shows marks more than stainless steel but is stronger and lighter) but still going strong. Had only one service/clean back in early 2014.
