Sankyo is well known for its cyclometers, but flip clocks? I did not know of any Sankyo flip clock until I found this Sankyo 240.
Not sure though whether they really made it themselves. Online I found the same clock branded Bulova. And the mechanism looks a lot like the one in the Rhythm 7RD001.
The motor is quite interesting. At first sight I mistook it for the escapement mechanism that I had seen with some other battery powered clocks. This one is different. There is no motor and no spring. Instead there is some electronics and a coil that keeps the balance wheel swinging. This swinging motion is then used to propel a gear in one direction through a tiny worm wheel or spring like thing. That bit I don’t fully understand. I would like to take a better look at that, but then I would need to take it further apart than I currently dare to risk. It works nice and quietly so better keep it that way.
It’s main party piece though is of course the alarm bell. A motor spins some rings that hit a real metal bell. It makes a lovely ringing sound! A nice change from the usual obnoxious buzzer.
As I got it it needed two minor repairs. The “tine” for the minutes apparently had broken and someone “fixed” this by bending it further inwards. This worked but the minutes were now shown notably higher than the hours and the sharp end of the tine scratched the surface of the tiles. I could not find a good metal material to replace the tine with, so for now I replaced it with one made out of plastic.
The battery cover was missing it’s closing lip. Tried to recreate one from Gorilla Plastic, but this is not flexible enough. So then I created something from a bit of copper. Not original, but it works.
Not sure though whether they really made it themselves. Online I found the same clock branded Bulova. And the mechanism looks a lot like the one in the Rhythm 7RD001.
The motor is quite interesting. At first sight I mistook it for the escapement mechanism that I had seen with some other battery powered clocks. This one is different. There is no motor and no spring. Instead there is some electronics and a coil that keeps the balance wheel swinging. This swinging motion is then used to propel a gear in one direction through a tiny worm wheel or spring like thing. That bit I don’t fully understand. I would like to take a better look at that, but then I would need to take it further apart than I currently dare to risk. It works nice and quietly so better keep it that way.
It’s main party piece though is of course the alarm bell. A motor spins some rings that hit a real metal bell. It makes a lovely ringing sound! A nice change from the usual obnoxious buzzer.
As I got it it needed two minor repairs. The “tine” for the minutes apparently had broken and someone “fixed” this by bending it further inwards. This worked but the minutes were now shown notably higher than the hours and the sharp end of the tine scratched the surface of the tiles. I could not find a good metal material to replace the tine with, so for now I replaced it with one made out of plastic.
The battery cover was missing it’s closing lip. Tried to recreate one from Gorilla Plastic, but this is not flexible enough. So then I created something from a bit of copper. Not original, but it works.
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