David Walter’s name came up the other day and I was requested to post a few pics of my David Walter clock. So here are a few shots of my DAVID WALTER clock that I commissioned from David in 1987.
This clock is very hard to photograph due to all the glass and highly polished gilt brass movement, so bear with me.
My clock is a skeleton DOUBLE GREAT WHEEL REGULATOR with Regulator dial (seconds at top, hours at bottom, and minutes in the middle.
It has a triple frame (hand cut gilt brass) with two mainsprings wound on the same arbor, except the mainsprings are mounted in the base of the clock. The twin chain driven fusees are wound through a bevel gear system with a key (note the winding shaft between the two spring barrels). It has a maintaining ratchet on the time train and has a large red garnet thrust bearing fitted on the front plate (visible in the above picture just below the dial). All screws and fasteners, including the hands, are blued steel and the entire frame and gears are mirror polished gilt brass.
The lever shown on the right side of the above pic is slid to the left where the ramp (shown below) engages a conical piece on the vertical winding rod which moves up and engages the two fusees through another bevel gear system. Then the winding key is turned clockwise to wind the strike train and counter clockwise to wind the going barrel. Both fusees are naturally fitted with stopwork to prevent over tensioning and overwinding the fusee chains during rewinding. Then the lever is slid back to the right and the fusees are disengaged from the winding system. I think this design is unique among clocks as I've never seen it used anywhere else. The movement is eight day going.
Escapement is a Graham deadbeat (no recoil) with a 60 tooth escape wheel and half seconds pendulum. Striking is via a vertical countwheel on the back of the rear frame with striking on the hour on two chime rods mounted on a stanchion at the rear of the case.
The clock is encased in a beveled glass and native Western Australian jarrah wood case. It sits on gilt brass feet that I chose as being reminiscent of those used by Breguet on his humpbacked carriage clocks. Dimensions of the clock overall are approximately 27 ˝” high x 17 ˝” wide x 11” deep. The main door and the lower door are hinged for access to the movement and winding system.
I ordered this clock when I was living in Saudi Arabia in 1987. I was able to choose hand style, case finishing, and other details when I visited David to order the clock. It was made in Perth, Western Australia where David maintained “David Walter Timepieces”, along with an antique business, for many years before relocating to California last year. The clock has seen the world, having traveled from Perth to Saudi Arabia to St. Louis to New Jersey to California to Australia to Houston in its 15 year life. Except for one broken pane of glass in the lower case, and a broken chime rod suffered during a clumsy move some years ago the clock has traveled fine in its own foam lined case.
It has seen minimal maintenance in its life and was fully torn down and cleaned and lubricated approximately two years ago. Accuracy is about 10 seconds per week the last time I checked. I could tighten the accuracy up by adjusting the pendulum but it is in an awkward place to do much maneuvering so I just let it run. The chime is very soft and does not intrude like many rod chimes do.
Thanks for reading. I’m glad to see David’s work is getting some attention on The Purist.
I want to thank those who noticed my clocks that Curtis and Frank posted.
Frank took good shots of his Double Great Wheel Clock. These are very hard to photograph due to polish and reflection.
Its has been several years since I have seen Franks clock and it always gives me pleasure in seeing it again.
I was not even aware that the last clock was being posted.
This looks similar to the Double Great Wheel clock of Franks but it is a single train movement.
This was shot at the NAWCC National in Annaheim where it recieved a Blue Ribbon, the Perpetual Regulator also recieved a Blue Ribbon and the People's Choice Award.
The clock shown has its design roots in the Double Great Wheel but it is slightly larger, with a single train movement and is one of 2 special orders which are year going.
I make the same style in month going.
The Escape Wheel and Pallet pivots are jewelled and the clock is fitted with a Asymetric crutch that I have been using for several years now with great sucess.
The dial on the newer clock is much larger to incorate the Moon and large seconds dial.
David
Yes, I do have plans for something I have wanted to do for some time.
This clock will be in the form of a carriage clock about 100mm x 150mm high, I have not determined the case style as yet but will most likely be made of Silver.
The movement is 8 day and will show Solar and Sidereal time on 2 seperate dials, one above the other. The upper dial with the standard 12 hour Roman Numerals and the lower will be a 24 hour dial with Arabic numerals. There are 2 seconds hands to to indicate the different times.
The trains willl all be jewelled.
There is also an Equation of Time sector and Moon Phase sector.
Both trains are driven from a single escapement and with the help of John Kirk, (who has a web page at www.geartrains.com) very accurate trains have been calculated for all the required indications.
The escapement will be placed at the 12 o'clock position and be visible through a dial opening.
I am planning to use a fairly large Tourbillon and a George Daniels, Co-Axial escapement.
I had initially planned to use a Chronometer spring detent escapement, but when I saw the Co-Axial I knew that was what I was going to make.
Yes make, I do not wish to transplant factory parts.
There are many problems, one of which is the large ammount of wheels with high prime numbers that are necessary for the accurate performance of this type of clock. This is made easier today with electronic indexing heads.
As the trains will clash in plate location I am putting the lunar and equation trains under seperate bridges to get it all in.
While there is a lot of space in a clock compared to a watch, space is still at a premium and it will all be visible in a Carriage clock case.
I would like to add little personal history if I may.
I realise few people have heard of me, this is largely because I have been working in my birthplace,
Perth, Western Australia, (the most isolated city on the planet), since I returned to there, in 1980 after living in Europe for 10 years. I have this year moved to California.
I am a qualified watchmaker and worked as such for many years. I always had the desire to create my own Horological devices and by the end of the '80s discovered some spectatular clocks which belonged to a collector whose pocket watch collection I was restoring.
I had, like many watch people ignored clocks as cumbersome things and not as sophiscated as watches !
How wrong I was.
After that I immediatly set about making clocks in the way they should be made.
I believe the varied design of clocks that I have made indicate what is possible and I have by no means exhausted possibilities.
I strongly believe there much new ground to be covered in clocks and am very happy to be a part of the horological world at ThepuristS.com
I want to also thank you for posting some information about yourself and your timepieces. It looks like truly top-notch stuff, full of innovation and dedication.
I can't wait to see the clock your planning come to life. Please keep us apprised of your progress and don't hesitate to join in all the horological conversations on ThePuristS! Welcome!
I had heard about your work and the fact that you moved to California from a Los Angeles based collector.
Look forward to seeing you around here more often, and if you are in Los Angeles or So Cal, hope you'll be able to join our get togethers which are planned about twice a year or so.
It's always a pleasure to read the creation process of a new work of art.
I have a question regarding the making of clocks vs. watches. Some time ago, on this same site, there was a discussion about another table clock, and about why there was so little interest in clocks from watch lovers.
My guess was that people might consider making a clock is much much more simplier, as there is not the constraint of size. Adding one inch to the size of a clock doesn't change much the general aspect of it, and you can still put it on a table. Adding an inch to a watch, and it's not a watch anymore !
You say : "I had, like many watch people ignored clocks as cumbersome things and not as sophisticated as watches "
The Co-axial clock project sounds wonderful - good luck with it. Do you know whether George Daniels' agreement with Omega covers just wrist watches? If so it would be wonderful to see more one off pocket watches and carriage clocks using the escapement.
As with every subject if you want to use a device that someone holds a patent or copyright on then you must contact that patent holder and request permission to use that device, offer recognition to the patent holder and ask what royalties may be required.
Existing agreements may not permit further use, however if you don't ask you will never know !
I recall reading in the Horological Journal, 1997-8 ?, of a clock made using the co-axial escapement. If memory serves me, it was nothing on the order of complexity that David proposes.
As far as I know no one has used the Co-Axial in a clock to date, am not sure if anyone other than George Daniels and Omega have used it in watches.
To my knowledge no one else has used the George Daniels Perpetual Calendar either.
This is very surprising as it is VERY functional and not at all difficult to make.
The calendar is wonderful to see in action, it is very precise and blindingly quick in action.
When I have demonstrated it to people they have always missed it the first few times. The usual comment is "wow".
If you can't get permission for the co-axial, maybe you could use Daniels' Double Wheel escapement instead? That would be cool, too. And if it must be in a tourbillon, Derek Pratt has paved the way for using the Daniels' Double Wheel in a tourbillon.
Whatever direction you chose to go, I know it will be first class.
What an interesting niche Mr Kirk has found to make a living! This has had me thinking all day, someone actually figures out gear ratios for watch and clock makers! ~ Cool!
His mission statement says it all ~ Thanks for the link.
"The Mission of GearTrains is to provide its principal the intellectual pleasure of devising highly accurate gear trains for representing astronomical or other phenomena for horological purposes and the opportunity to work with and visit interesting people, skilled watch and clock designers and makers, and the interesting places where they work."
