REPAIRING A GERMAN REGULATOR CLOCK

(and practicing my photography)

July 2009

The clock has not worked for years and on inspection the chime was not functioning correctly at all.

I removed the essential parts for repair and left the case  and the winding Key with the customer

The Dial.  Pendelum and the movement of the Kienzle Clock

It is a German Regulator clock made by Kienzle
A bit of history on Kienzle is below

History:
1822 Johannes Schlenker began to run a clock shop at Schwenningen. He made typical Black Forest clocks with wooden works and a lacquered shield, the so-called “Lackschilduhren”. Johannes Schlenker, born in 1782, died in 1864, He had three sons who were involved in the clockshop.
On April 18th 1883 the grandson of Johannes Schlenker Karl Johannes and the husband of his daughter Jakob Kienzle became directors of the family run business.
They started producing clocks in an industrial way. The brandmark of the famous Schlenker & Kienzle clocks was a wheel with two wings. In the first years they sold their clocks mainly in Germany and Austria.
In 1887 they founded another factory in Komotau (Austria). Before 1908 several other factories and sales offices in Germany, France, England and Italy were built.
In 1908 three quarters of all clocks were exported. Until 1893 the factory only produced clocks with massive plates. Then they started to produce also cheaper clockworks with skeleton plates in the way most American clocks were made, the so-called “Amerikaneruhren”.
Between 1883 and 1907 they made 2,301,240 clocks with massive plates, and between 1894 and 1907 they made 5,327,450 clocks in the American way.
The company was founded by Johannes Schlenker, then passed down through the family. In 1892 production was 162,000 clocks. The name was changed in 1919 to Kienzle Uhrenfabriken and the company merged with Thomas Haller in 1929
In 1939 it had 3500 employees. Transferred to China in 1997. Now it is part of Highway Holdings Ltd

The sequence in pictures:…………..

The movement disassembled and ready for cleaning

The clock was taken completely apart.

The Barrels containing the mainsprings

Various parts were checked and repaired: the barrels, the escape wheel and all the pivots. The ones that needed polishing were polished and all the centres were checked and adjusted.

The tension and friction on the minute wheel was adjusted. All the wheels were checked for wear and tear and adjusted as necessary.

The Movement plate

Once all the repairs were carried out all the parts were cleaned and checked again and then assembled

All the timing and chime was then setup and checked

The Kienzle stamp can be clearly seen on the movement

The movement was completely assembled, oiled, wound and set in motion for timing

The assembled movement

The Hands Dial and Pendulum were now added and the timing done……….

The clock was now setup on my veranda, on a stand to run for a few days being observed and adjusted before returning to the customer

A beautiful clock …….…….

The Working Clock