For anyone who doesn’t know, a clock movement is the mechanism that causes the hands of an analog clock to move around the clock face. The “with pendulum” part means that it also swings a weight back and forth to act as a fancy second hand:
Now, there exist clock movements that are “smart” and are network enabled to adjust the time automatically. I’m also okay with an atomic movement. The idea is to adjust the clock twice a year for DST. However, I am having a difficult time (no pun intended) finding a smart/atomic movement that also supports a decorative pendulum.
I was hoping to enlist y’all’s help to see if one exists and where I might find it.
Edit: add comments about atomic clock movements.
Good timing on this question: thanks. I’m also trying to figure out how to have a mechanical looking clock that doesn’t need setting.
Unfortunately not enough to DIY, and chances are slim of finding an exact fit to my existing clock (I like the look but it’s actually an inexpensive plastic clock that I could replace if I Found something comparable or nicer).
I was surprised how few atomic clock options there actually were, and none sufficiently “retro”. WiFi seems even more limited, predominantly modern styles
I feel like you could do this with some arduino and a pendulum of your choice
Please edit your title in the form of a question. I almost removed this as spam. In fact, there’s not a single question in your post, but I’m sure you’re trying to ask one.Thank you. Have a magnificent day.
That’s fair. Going forward I will be more mindful of the rules. Thank you for not removing my post.
Reasonable posts generally don’t result in me deleting anything. Most posts have an interested audience even if something is technically against the rules, and as such it is very rare that I hit that delete button.
I don’t really know what’s out there, but FWIW, I’d point out that there is nothing functional about the coupling between the pendulum and the clock in such a movement, so if you could find a separate “pendulum swinger” you could perhaps use that with a regular DST capable movement.
There’s an idea I didn’t think of; thanks!
Um the idea of a pendulum in an old fashioned clock is that it is actually the clock’s frequency reference. It’s purely mechanical, no electricity or radios. The length of the pendulum determines the frequency (usually 1 hz). You can slide the weight up and down a little bit to adjust the speed. The spring unwinding gives the pendulum a little kick on every swing so the clock doesn’t stop. You wind up the spring every so often so it doesn’t unwind completely, and the swinging pendulum advances a little ratchet that moves the hands a little on every swing. If you lived in a town in the pre-electricity era, the local church would ring its church bells at noon, 3pm, etc. and you would use that to set or adjust your clock as needed. The church clock itself was directly or indirectly set using solar noon (as observed with a transit telescope or dipleidoscope) as a reference. Fancier pendulum clocks had various sorts of thermal compensation and could be very accurate. It was a highly developed technology that is now mostly forgotten.
Connecting wifi to this would be at best purely decorative. I guess it would be a cute hack but meh. You could look on hackaday.com which is full of projects like that. I’ve mostly found them kind of pointless, but that’s just me being a grouch.
That’s true for mechanical clock movements, but I think OP is looking for a quartz movement that includes a simulated pendulum for aesthetic purposes, which isn’t particularly uncommon, unless your circles include a lot of antique enthusiasts, people who inherited an old grandfather clock, or people who just really dig mechanical clocks (and I won’t knock that, I certainly think they’re neat) odds that a lot of clocks you’ve seen with a pendulum are that type, powered by a AA battery and stuffed into a fancy wooden case
Clockwork is definitely fascinating. One of my fond childhood memories was taking apart an antique clock my dad got as a project - he was never able to put it back together and must have been so pissed.
While I could get behind that as a diy project, I have too little motivation on this one to prioritize the time
Old-school clockwork is very interesting, I get that.
I just have no personal desire to try to build something like that, lol. Then again, due to a neurological issue, I have slight tremor.
Working on laptops can be difficult some days. Clockwork gears? Eesh.
Here ya go: https://www.ebay.com/itm/176632637521
Be it WiFi or atomic, being able to automatically adjust the time (daylight savings) is more than “purely decorative”; at least to me. Until the PtB come to their senses and abolish DST, it’d be one less clock I’d have to adjust twice a year.
As for the rest of it, thank you. I mean that. I love knowing how things work and how they came to be.
Fwiw v clocks don’t need to have WiFi to auto adjust for dst. Just being date-aware and having a method to configure dst is all it takes.
I used to think this too. Now I have a programmable porch light that adjusts the time on the wrong week, because it does change. Not too big a deal for a porch light, but would be if I had to rely on the time. This really needs to be something that gets updated
Aside from not needing to adjust the time, is there any particular reason it needs to be WiFi enabled?
Because that kind of feels like an overly complicated solution to a problem that was solved decades ago with “atomic” clock movements.
Which aren’t actually atomic in any way on their own, but contain an antenna to pick up the signal from an NIST atomic clock to set the time (and I believe other countries and regions have their own equivalent if you’re not in the US)
As far as finding a pendulum movement, I don’t really know what is out there, but it may be another avenue for you to look into.
I d love a wifi option, because I don’t have good reception for an “atomic” clock. while its amazing under-appreciated technology to broadcast so widely with useful coverage, some of us live in the shadows
I don’t know what actual products are out there, but there are other time signals that could potentially be used, for example GPS.
Off the top of my head I don’t think I’ve seen a gps-synced clock, let alone one with a pendulum, but I’ve also never really looked for one either. It certainly feels like a product that probably exists somewhere to me, I’m sure there’s someone out there who would appreciate a clock that can automatically detect the timezone, whether the region your in observes daylight savings time, etc.
signal from an NIST atomic clock to set the time (and I believe other countries and regions have their own equivalent if you’re not in the US)
TIL that Usa has one, too :)
