Schatz Ship's Bell Clock (1980)



Here is the last Schatz ship's bell clock, and, in my opinion, the best. I have not seen one of these clocks for years, so these are obviously quite rare.


1980 Schatz Ship's Bell Clock movement back


Fig. 1

The layout is simple and elegant.

1980 Schatz Ship's Bell Clock movement front


Fig. 2

The mainsprings are smaller than what you find in most clocks. This clock requires less power to run. The mainsprings can be removed easily, without taking the entire mechanism apart, a terrific design feature found in most modern clocks.

1980 Schatz Ship's Bell Clock mainsprings removed


Fig. 3

The gears are smaller than in most clocks, and are clustered together in a very small space.

1980 Schatz Ship's Bell Clock gears shown


Fig. 4

What makes this Schatz one of the best clocks is its escapement platform. Few escapements are better in design or quality of construction.

1980 Schatz Ship's Bell Clock escapement platform


Fig. 5

I decided to take photos of the platform in various stages of disassembly, so that everyone could see it.

1980 Schatz Ship's Bell Clock escapement platform balance wheel removed


Fig. 6

This platform is as good as a Chelsea, in my opinion, for a fraction of the cost.

1980 Schatz Ship's Bell Clock escapement platform escape wheel shown


Fig. 7

This platform was designed to be cleaned without disassembly in an ultrasonic cleaning machine for watches. I disagree strongly with this approach because the oil may solidify and not be loosened in the cleaning machine. In this particular platform, for example, the jewels for the escape wheel and pallets could not be cleaned with a wooden toothpick because the oil residue was so hard and stuck in place. I had to scrape the residue away with a small screwdriver. There is no way an ultrasonic machine could clean this.

1980 Schatz Ship's Bell Clock escapement platform pillar plate


Fig. 8

You could leave the platform in the cleaning solution for a long time to loosen the hardened oil by chemical action. In about 48 hours, the platform would be clean. However, the cleaning solution would dissolve the shellac and so the roller jewel would fall out, a very undesirable outcome.

1980 Schatz Ship's Bell Clock escapement platform balance wheel


Fig. 9

The same is true for the oil in the rest of the clock. Every clock needs to be taken apart to be serviced properly.

Schatz was acquired by the Delite instrument company in Denmark in 2012. You can look at pages of their pdf catalog here. A mechanical ship's bell clock cost 845 Euros.

Chelsea Clock

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