Greetings from Dallas, TX!
Hello all! I’m Luke. Been meaning to join this forum for ages!
I’m a programmer by day, but I’ve been into clocks and watches of all types since age two – and over the years I’ve inadvertently become a bit of an amateur specialist in large flip clocks. This started with a few garage-sale Copals, especially a few 209s and a lovely 707…
…but really took off when, about 10 years ago, I managed to snag a Solari di Udine Dator 5 off eBay France in very poor shape. It took about four months to restore, a process I documented here – and which has earned me the pleasure of helping a handful of Solari owners who have contacted me looking for help with their own clocks.
Since then, I’ve also come to own several other Solaris (Dator 6s and Cifras 3, 5, 6, and 12), a couple of Bodets and Twemcos, and a fabulous Seiko DZ701 I’ve never seen anywhere else.
I also got into 3D printing, which has proved very useful for reproducing missing flaps and broken parts (particularly in the Solari 6 series clocks, where plastic part shrinkage and cracking seems endemic), and retrofitting some clocks with more modern, independent drive means (quartz motors or impulse circuits – but never in an irreversible way!).
Most recently, a friend and I acquired an entire lot of old, disused Solaris, Bodets and Bosellis, which I’ve begun to slowly restore. Many of them I haven’t had the pleasure of handling before, including some Solari Cifra 120s and Boselli Calenda/Icon 20s (which, in my opinion, are the best-engineered of all of them – a real delight to work on).
Looking forward to participating on this forum as I can!
Cheers
Luke
I’m a programmer by day, but I’ve been into clocks and watches of all types since age two – and over the years I’ve inadvertently become a bit of an amateur specialist in large flip clocks. This started with a few garage-sale Copals, especially a few 209s and a lovely 707…
…but really took off when, about 10 years ago, I managed to snag a Solari di Udine Dator 5 off eBay France in very poor shape. It took about four months to restore, a process I documented here – and which has earned me the pleasure of helping a handful of Solari owners who have contacted me looking for help with their own clocks.
Since then, I’ve also come to own several other Solaris (Dator 6s and Cifras 3, 5, 6, and 12), a couple of Bodets and Twemcos, and a fabulous Seiko DZ701 I’ve never seen anywhere else.
I also got into 3D printing, which has proved very useful for reproducing missing flaps and broken parts (particularly in the Solari 6 series clocks, where plastic part shrinkage and cracking seems endemic), and retrofitting some clocks with more modern, independent drive means (quartz motors or impulse circuits – but never in an irreversible way!).
Most recently, a friend and I acquired an entire lot of old, disused Solaris, Bodets and Bosellis, which I’ve begun to slowly restore. Many of them I haven’t had the pleasure of handling before, including some Solari Cifra 120s and Boselli Calenda/Icon 20s (which, in my opinion, are the best-engineered of all of them – a real delight to work on).
Looking forward to participating on this forum as I can!
Cheers
Luke
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