Location: Zurich, Switzerland
Date: November 19, 1993
You can’t imagine how exited I was when I got the chance to work with Paul on perhaps the only «real» mystery clock existing on the market. Usually they feature a center axe in the middle of the dial around which the minute and hour discs are turning.
For the clock to perform at best, the movement was equipped with 3 barrels and an escapement with a constant force, a device that always transmits the same amount of force to the escape-wheel, resulting with a power reserve of two weeks.
Most of the components were manufactured the traditional way. The shape of the barrel bridge for example was scratched in a brass plate and then cut out with a saw. The inside turnings have been made using a face-plate on a 102 Schäublin lathe.
The positions of the wheels were marked using a wheel penetration compass. In order to insure a perfect alignment of the bushes, the holes were being drilled while the bridges were mounted onto the main plate.
In order to guarantee a perfect transmission between the mounted movement and the time indication mechanism located in the massive gold case, a lever serves to perfectly adjust the penetration depth of the involved wheels.
Some of the smaller components such as winding spring were manufactured using a pantograph. In other words, the component was printed in 2D at a scale of 10:1 on a paper, glued onto a piece of brass and cut out. Finally these plates are used as the master on the pantograph and used to reproduce the component in a reduced size.
The clock’s mystery is only as good as the watchmaker who is crafting it!
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