Expert: Martin Meyer - 4/29/2008

Question
Good morning Mr Meyer.  Perhaps you can direct me to an individual willing to figure out why the above clock doesn't work and repair it.

I have taken the clock to a couple of local clock repair shops and neither one is able or willing to do anything.  It is very discouraging.

Am I correct in that these clocks were fairly common in the '50's and '60's?  You would think there would be spare parts available.

The mechanism looks great.  I suspect the coil assembly is bad in the battery operated electro-mechanical pendulum, but what do I know?

Answer
Hi Paul,

I think you are referring to the old (1950's) Kundo Electronic (Electronique) 400-Day clock. This clock has a coil mounted on the base, and a pendulum with an arc-shaped rod which passes through the center hole of the coil.

The coil assembly in this clock actually contains two coils, a driver coil and a sensor coil, as well as a simple electronic circuit, which includes a transistor and a resistor.

There are no replacement coils available for these clocks, and replacement would be difficult anyway, as all the above circuitry is packed into the cylindrical coil housing.

Repair of these clocks is a specialty, and often requires rewinding the coil. If you web search, you can find numerous repairers who specialize in these clocks, but the chance of finding one locally is very small.