Happy New Year! From all of us at Chelsea Clock, we extend our sincere wishes to you and your family for a very happy, healthy and safe 2012.

As we look ahead to an exciting and promising year, we’d like to take a moment to share just a few notes and stories from friends of Chelsea Clock that helped to make 2011 a memorable and very special year for us and for them.

This letter came to us from a new Chelsea owner in Harvard, Massachusetts:

“At the age of 60, I gave myself a Christmas present of your 8 1/2″ Ship’s Bell Clock in brass. This is something I have admired and desired since I was a teenager. Now that it is in our home I can say it was worth the wait. I am sure you receive many well-deserved praises, but wish to add a comment you may not hear as often. An overriding factor in my willingness to purchase is your continued manufacture of these clocks in Chelsea, MA. If this clock were manufactured outside the United States, I would not have purchased it at any price. It is more than a clock. It is a symbol of the quality and craftsmanship that has made our country great.”

New York City-based DeNatale Fine Jewelers, one of our valued authorized Chelsea Clock retailers, shared this wonderful story with us:

This past November marked the 20th anniversary of the election and enthronement of His All-Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew,

Worldwide spiritual leader of the Orthodox Christian Church. In celebration of his ministry, Archbishop Demetrios of America and National Commander Anthony Limberakis, MD, presented the spiritual leader a special edition Andover Classic Ship’s Bell Clock. The commemorative timepiece, whose dial was customized with the Patriarchal 20th Anniversary emblem, was presented to His All-Holiness on behalf of the Order of St. Andrew the Apostle at a special banquet in Istanbul, Turkey.

And this happy message from Tom Piraino, a proud father and one of our long-time distributors of Chelsea Clock timepieces and barometers to companies and organizations across the country:

“I just wanted to share some wonderful holiday news: my son, who is in the Delaware National Guard, just arrived home from basic training in Fort Benning, Georgia. It’s the best Christmas gift we could hope for! With basic training behind him, it’s now on to twenty six weeks of technical training in Satellite Communications at Fort Gordon. We are so proud of him, and of all of the many dedicated men and women who are serving – or preparing to serve – our country.”

It’s so nice to share good news. And we look forward to sharing much more with you in the days and weeks ahead. Please feel free to share your stories and thoughts with us, too!

Chelsea clocks use a hammer and gong to produce our trademark sound. The strike hammer rises and falls onto a circular gong in the back of the case. If the sound is not a clean stroke, with a clear ringing tone, it can be adjusted as follows.

On the back of the case you will see a circular plate, held in place by three screws. Removing this plate allows a clear view of the hammer and the gong. At rest, the hammer head should be poised about 1/8″ above the circular gong. This allows the hammer to fall onto the gong and bounce clear, allowing the bell to ring after being struck. A slight adjustment of the wire that the hammer head is mounted on is all that is necessary to improve the sound quality. With a little patience and care, you should be able to restore our trademark Chelsea Clock sound to your clock’s strike. Move the hands ahead and allow the clock to strike several times while the plate is off, observing the action of the strike hammer. On the half hour strike, you should note that the strike hammer remains up in the air at the completion of the cycle. Move the minute hand ahead to the hour position. After the clock strikes the hour, the hammer will be at rest above the circular gong.  Make a slight bend on the brass wire that the hammer head is mounted on to affect the change in the sound quality. When you are satisfied with the sound, replace the inspection plate with the three screws. Check the strike sound one or two more times, making sure that the hammer doesn’t rub on the inside of the inspection plate.

Enjoy the sound of your Chelsea clock.

The history of timekeeping, called the science of horology, is a lens through which we can view the advance of scientific inquiry and some of the influential people and ideas associated with these developments. In future postings I would like to continue to explore the historical advances of timekeeping technology.

The story of timekeeping reflects the efforts of humankind to understand the natural world. Early humans were aware of the cycles of light and darkness, day and night, and the changing seasons. They observed the stars and planets as they moved through the night sky; they mapped the heavens, and learned to anticipate the nightly and seasonal changes in position of the constellations. In more recent history there is evidence of efforts to measure the passage of time on a daily basis.

The first truly natural, standard and predictable timekeeper is the sun itself. At some point, some wise person drove a stick into the ground, and the sundial was born. This stick, which became known as the gnomon, was observed to cast a shadow of varying length as the sun moved across the sky. Daily marking of time was first seen in the earliest sundials in the form of ancient Egyptian obelisks dating back to 3500 BCE. An original Egyptian obelisk of this period can be seen in Central Park in New York City today.

There are many ways that people measured time. In 1200 BCE, 2300 years after the Egyptian obelisk sundials were in use, the Phoenicians burned knotted ropes to budget the time allotted to a given task. The rope was lit, smoldered, and as the rope was consumed between knots – the time was estimated. They also used oil burners with markings on the side to indicate the amount of time a given amount of oil would burn. The Greeks invented the Clepsydra – “the water thief”. Water dripped through an orifice collected in a cistern with a float that would rise up to scale marks on the side of the cistern.

We will explore more developments in horology as this series continues.