Expert: Martin Meyer - 11/12/2009

Question
I have a Mason %26 Sullivan battery powered ship's bell clock works. It is marked 3629x made in west Germany.  It has worked flawlessly for many years. Recently I changed the battery and reset the clock for standard time.  It chimes on the hour and half hour as it should, but the strikes seem random relative to the time.  Can anyone repair this works?  Thanks

Answer
Hi Frank,

Quartz (battery) movements are not repairable, and there is no quartz ship's bell movement any longer in production, so if the movement is internally defective the clock will not be repairable, unless you can find someone with a "new old stock" movement. I cannot advise you where to look for that.

If the strike is genuinely random, that is, no pattern at all, then the movement is almost definitely defective. If the strike is in the correct pattern, but strikes the wrong number of bells relative to what the hands read, then the hour hand has simply been moved so that it points to the wrong hour. Please browse my previous answers for the solution to this problem, where I have explained the procedure numerous times. The ship's bell strike pattern is very different from the ordinary strike pattern, and so can be quite confusing.  http://www.clockmasteronline.com