When you own a mechanical timepiece, knowing how to wind a clock is important. These clocks will eventually “wind-down” — and if you don’t wind them up again, all you’re left with is a refined statue or paperweight.
Every Chelsea clock leaves our factory fully wound. However, if you live outside of the Eastern Standard time zone, have purchased a vintage clock or have inherited a family heirloom, you may need to initially set the time yourself. Therefore, let’s start with how to correctly wind chime clocks for the first time.
Winding a New Ship’s Bell Clock
If your clock is new, first remove the black tubing from the winding arbor in the front of the clock. Make sure to save the tube for future use (you may want to use it if you ever ship the clock or are away from it for an extended period). To set the time, gently turn the minute hand clockwise to the correct time, stopping at each hour and half-hour point to allow the bells to strike their full count. Never move the hour hand manually — all adjustments should be done by carefully moving the minute hand. Take caution not to force the hands when setting the time. If the hands appear to lock at any point, move the minute hand backward through one striking position, then continue as described.
Keep in mind that, ten minutes before each chime striking point (20 minutes past and 10 minutes ’til the hour), the gears and levers of the striking mechanism begin to fall into the correct positions. Therefore, clock adjustments should never be made in the ten minutes before a strike. It’s also imperative that the minute hand be slowly rotated clockwise approaching each striking point, and the clock must be allowed to strike its full count before moving forward with adjustments. For safety’s sake, it’s best to do all adjustments when the clock reads 5-to-15 minutes past the hour or 25-to-15 minutes before the hour.
Now let’s look at how to wind a clock regularly:
Winding Your Clock
You’ll want to wind your clock carefully each week at approximately the same time. The left keyhole is for winding the strike mechanism and the right one is for the clock’s mainspring. Start on the left and wind both completely. If the clock has run down all the way, it’s extremely important to wind it before touching or moving the hands. If, after you wind it, the minute hand is locked, this means that the mechanism has jammed. To fix the jam, re-wind both sides fully before moving the minute hand backward one hour or more. Then reset the time as described above.
One of the most common questions we get is: is it safe to wind a clock all the way? Not only is it okay, but it’s the only way to do it! Under-wound clocks sometimes have inconsistent chimes or aren’t accurate. So always wind both keyholes fully on every clock in our Ship’s Bell Clock Collection.
June 16, 2016 at 9:58 pm
How do I wind the clock if fully rundown and hands are blocking winding arbor?
June 17, 2016 at 3:23 pm
Hi Scott,
In this case just move the minute hand gently counterclockwise until the hands are out of the way of the arbor. Then you should be able to wind the clock as you normally would. If the clock is completely run down, it’s likely that the strike may be jammed, so moving the minute hand in reverse will release the strike safely and allow you to wind it once it’s free. Let us know if we can help with anything else!
Lindsay
January 6, 2017 at 1:16 pm
I am helping out a friend of mine who has this Chelsea clock serial number 309051. I wound it and am letting the clock totally unwind. My question is, does the winding arbor retract once it is fully wound as a safety precaution to prevent over winding? It seems now that the key won’t engage the winding arbor. Does this arbor pop back out once the clock it totally unwound?
July 27, 2017 at 9:20 pm
My clock chimes 5 times at the top of the hour, each hour. How do I set the clock to chime the correct number of times at each hour ?
December 8, 2017 at 6:14 pm
I was out of town for a month. My ship’s clock ran down. I wound, but the clock has not begun to run — no ticking audible. I can easily move minute hand, and strike sounds the hours and halves correctly. Any hint as to how I can get the clock started again? Thanks.
March 23, 2018 at 8:40 pm
We have the same question, but I don’t see a response yet!
April 6, 2018 at 10:10 pm
we purchased our clock in Maine about 15 years ago and it has stopped working on two occasions – however rewinding it backward as per instructions worked and the clock went back to being its timely perfect self until recently…
In winding it, the spring suddenly made a loud noise, sprung back forcefully knocking the key out of my hand and I was certain, this was it and I was going to have to ship it to the company from here in NYC.
I watched the dormant clock day in and day out for the remaining weekdays… too busy going to work to pack and ship it – and when the weekend came I had the sudden idea that the spring hadn’t broken but had just become so tightly wound that it was frozen….
So i rewound it backwards 24 hours – and BINGO its working again…Old Faithful and its lovely chimes.
July 26, 2018 at 10:48 am
So glad to hear that it worked. . .and is still working! Thanks for sharing your story.
October 25, 2018 at 3:44 pm
Dera Sirs
I have a ships striking clock which was purchased new 6 years ago. The cost was $1000 if that helps to identify the clock model. Recently the clock escapement was replaced due to a worn plastic gear. After return, the clock ran for 2 weeks at which it wound down. Once it was rebound , the clock hands were found to be jammed and remain so. Before I send it to Chelsea clock repair do you have any suggestions.
I have been on your web site, followed your suggestion of winding both springs, move minute back at least an hour then reset. After doing so the hands remain jammed.
Respectfully
Pete Dodd
November 5, 2018 at 1:19 am
I have a 4″ ships bell model All worked well until I tried to hold it for the change for daylight saving. I did so by putting a piece of plastic straw over the keyhole rather than turning the hands backwards. I was told turning a mechanical clock backwards is a bad idea. The bells work well, but the timekeeping function does not work.
How do I restart the time -keeping function?
April 9, 2019 at 1:11 pm
I have a 1911 Ship’s Bell. Can I silence the chime? How? Is it advisable to let the left spring just wind down? Thanks.
April 19, 2020 at 2:45 pm
I just got a wind up wall clock from a thrift shop. It looks to be from the 50’s or 60’s. It works great when I wound it up. I don’t know if it is a 1 day or an 8 day wind up. How do I tell?
April 24, 2020 at 1:47 pm
I like how you said that when you own a mechanical timepiece, knowing how to wind a clock is important. My grandmother owns a beautiful clock that she has in her living room but it doesn’t work. I will definitely help her to contact a clock repair company so that they can properly fix it.