Clock of the day (7)

I think this can be my last upload for tonight. I actually bought this one brand new. It was made in China by an unnamed company. It is a strange mixture of qualities. The 15 day platform-lever movement is of exceptionally high quality, and bears a great resemblance to the British Coventry Astral, although I don't believe there is any direct connection. China has been building ship's clocks with 24 hour dials since... well, perhaps before World War 2. This may simply be a new production run of that same movement.

The case is spun brass and the bezel appears to be cast brass. The whole case is lacquered, and the quality is not consistent throughout. There is a tiny flaw in the bezel, but this is not normally noticeable. The glass is actually perspex, which is a bit of a shock given the quality of the movement. However, the worst thing was the dial. The dial you see here is a replacement... the original was an inkjet printout on some kind of translucent plastic, stuck onto a metal dial-back which had two profound creases in it. The printed dial had streaks where the print head was dirty, and the image of the dial (probably a photocopy of an old clock dial) was blurred and too dark. On a brand new clock! So I decided to make my own replacement dial! It involved a photocopy of a normal clock dial, some Tippex, Microsoft Word, a font called Haettenschweiler, a pair of scissors, and some Pritt stick... oh and a photocopier! The finished dial is on silver card, and the only fault is that the numerals are slightly grey. I presume this is beacuse of the type of surface on the cardboard. But I'm pleased with it! I can't remember how much I paid for the clock but I remember thinking it was a bargain.