The curious story of an Omega Tower Clock 1928 in a remote village in Greece

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Given that you're already zero-ing in on the clock maker, this information is somewhat superfluous now ("mustard after dinner", as we say in Dutch), but here goes.

I spent an interesting few hours on the website of the Dutch Tower Clock Conservation Society (http://www.torenuurwerk.nl/) who keep a surprisingly comprehensive database of tower clocks in the Netherlands, in attempt to check the possibility you mentioned earlier that it might be Dutch. The clocks in the database can be sorted by location, period etc., and almost all have good pictures of the actual mechanisms.

Just to remind you, I know literally nothing about tower clocks. Nevertheless, I examined close to 500 tower clock mechanisms from the 20th (and, to be sure, also the 19th and 18th) century - the image of 'your' clock on one monitor and the database pictures on another for comparison - and came to a few conclusions.

1. There's a lot of people that care deeply about tower clocks.

2. 19th century tower clocks are by far the prettiest ones - often elaborately ornated and curvy, in sharp contrast to the boxy and relatively simple designs of the 18th century. 20th century tower clocks are obviously more complex than the 18th century ones, but very functional in appeareace and nowhere near as pretty as their 19th century counterparts (see images below).

3. Most of the clocks were made by Dutch clock makers, but there are imported ones as well.

4. I found the variety of designs and brands frankly staggering. There are a few well-known brands (e.g. Eijsbouts) with popular and recurring models, but I'd say at least half of the ones I saw (...and that's a conservative estimate) appeared to be unique pieces.

5. In spite of this great diversity, I found not one clock that even remotely resembled the one you're interested in. Well, maybe very remotely since they all operate in generally the same fashion, but not one time did I think 'hey, there may be a link here'. I kept an eye open especially for the secondary, time-setting dial and found zero instances that looked even remotely like yours.

Now I realise it's difficult to prove a negative, but given that the database is fairly comprehensive, I would say the odds of yours being a Dutch clock are low.

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Ok. I have two wild ideas (it wouldn't be fun without wild guesses, wouldn't it?):

Bourla is a sephardic Jewish name of a prominent Sephardic jewish family in Salonika, Greece.
Bourla is the 1928 Omega representative in Greece, but cannot complete an order for a electric/mechanical tower from Omega.
Where does he turn to? Business partners? Sure. Acquaintances? Maybe.

So, I had an idea. And checked if the company Turmuhrenfabrik Mäder AG had anything to do with Sephardic Jews. And bumped into this from the company website:

Aus einer alten Uhrmacherfamilie im unteren Thurgau stammend, ebablierte sich Jakob Mäder 1845 in Andelfingen. Schon lange Zeit vorher hatte sich die Familie Mäder mit dem Bau von Turmuhren beschäftigt. Anfangs des 20. Jahrhunderts fanden wir an einer alten Turmuhr im Klostergut von Ittingen ein Messingschild des Herstellers mit der Inschrift: «Johann Mäder & Sohn, Illhart 1798».

So, a Jakob Mäder.

I'm no expert in genealogy, possibly a red herring, but the name does appear in sephardic ancestry sites: http://boards.ancestry.com/thread.aspx?mv=flat&m=175&p=topics.religious.jewish.sephardic

Now, for wild idea number 2:

The same company Turmuhrenfabrik Mäder AG lists as a restoration project in http://www.turmuhren-schweiz.ch/bibliothek/ref/ref-albanien.html work they did on a clock tower in Gjirokaster, present day Albania. Do you know how far is the remote village of Nymfaio from the remote village of Gjirokaster in Albania. Less than 160 km or 100 miles!

And guess what the 19th century clock has: 4 dials of a diameter of 2m, a bell with belfry and hour hammer. (stock photo from www.123rf.com)

The thought of Bourla having heard around 1928 of a tower clock made by a certain Swiss company nearby cannot be ruled out, can it? Close by to visit too, with a Greek population actively present.

Some info on the town from http://ozoutback.com.au/Albania/gjirokastra/index.html

As the region has a substantial Greek minority, the city was claimed by Greece during the First Balkan War of 1912-1913, was occupied a number of times by the Greek army but eventually returned to Albanian rule in 1919. During the Second World War, when Albania was under Italian occupation, the Greek army occupied "Argyrokastron" again for six months, but, after capitulating to the Germans, had to return it to Italian and later German control; it was under Albanian control again in 1944 [...]. Its old town is inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List as "a rare example of a well-preserved Ottoman town".

Here is a post-restoration photo. Reminds you of something? ;-) Wish I could find a pre-restoration photo.
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Given that you're already zero-ing in on the clock maker, this information is somewhat superfluous now ("mustard after dinner", as we say in Dutch), but here goes.

I spent an interesting few hours on the website of the Dutch Tower Clock Conservation Society (http://www.torenuurwerk.nl/) who keep a surprisingly comprehensive database of tower clocks in the Netherlands, in attempt to check the possibility you mentioned earlier that it might be Dutch. The clocks in the database can be sorted by location, period etc., and almost all have good pictures of the actual mechanisms.

Just to remind you, I know literally nothing about tower clocks. Nevertheless, I examined close to 500 tower clock mechanisms from the 20th (and, to be sure, also the 19th and 18th) century - the image of 'your' clock on one monitor and the database pictures on another for comparison - and came to a few conclusions.

1. There's a lot of people that care deeply about tower clocks.

2. 19th century tower clocks are by far the prettiest ones - often elaborately ornated and curvy, in sharp contrast to the boxy and relatively simple designs of the 18th century. 20th century tower clocks are obviously more complex than the 18th century ones, but very functional in appeareace and nowhere near as pretty as their 19th century counterparts (see images below).

3. Most of the clocks were made by Dutch clock makers, but there are imported ones as well.

4. I found the variety of designs and brands frankly staggering. There are a few well-known brands (e.g. Eijsbouts) with popular and recurring models, but I'd say at least half of the ones I saw (...and that's a conservative estimate) appeared to be unique pieces.

5. In spite of this great diversity, I found not one clock that even remotely resembled the one you're interested in. Well, maybe very remotely since they all operate in generally the same fashion, but not one time did I think 'hey, there may be a link here'. I kept an eye open especially for the secondary, time-setting dial and found zero instances that looked even remotely like yours.

Now I realise it's difficult to prove a negative, but given that the database is fairly comprehensive, I would say the odds of yours being a Dutch clock are low.



An excellent overview, extremely helpful to me, who can claim to be the one that knows the least about clocks in this forum! Thank you for ruling Dutch clocks out. I'm a bit worried about what you said about 'unique pieces'. I'm hoping that the Nymfaio clock will not turn out to be one of a kind...
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Another interesting fact I did not know about. What I have described as 'knob and tube' cabling (see photo) is probably not cabling at all, i.e, doesn't have anything to do with the functioning of the (formerly) electric clock. This information comes courtesy of a very friendly German expert, Mr. Christian Borck, a regular contributor to a specialized newsletter (http://www.horologium.at/typo3/fileadmin/Newsletter_pdfs/newsletterApril2016.pdf) :

what you see as open wire is no cabling, that is the lightning protection installation build by several horizontal and vertical wires to guide the high electric power as soon as possible and on the shortest way as possible through the tower into the earth. In wooden construction this is essential not to start a fire

I must confess that I did wonder at some point, "what on earth for did they need wiring up there on the ceiling..? The clock is down here..."
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Reposting a photo of the Nymfaio clock secondary dial, so that you do not have to go back, searching for the photo 😀
For comparison purposes, obviously.

So from this one we can see the terrible work done to fit the pendulum escapement.

At the front we can see where the frame was chopped out (red dash cuts) and an additional bar of iron or steel was bolted to the front frame to support the end of the escapement axle (yellow outline).

So I would imagine the front frame would have had another lobe on the right side, equidistant from the centre pillar as shown by the blue circles.

The rear frame is much the same but as the photos are on an angle it's not as easy to replicate my limited photoshop work.

 
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From the loving hands of 1928 Swiss master clockmakers to the local repairman who butchers the clock and adds a frying pan!
(In the villagers' defense, 1968 was a terrible time for Greece, just one year into a brutal Argentine-style military dictatorship and with rampant poverty in all mountain villages that were losing their young men and women to immigration).

But... how interesting. I had a feeling that the bluish colour on some areas indicated a later-date part. Now that I'm zooming in on the photos I can see how very right you are. Thank you for letting me see that.

I'm attaching a few photos where the cut job is clearly seen (an iron stub and saw markings on the original frame), as well as a photo from above that shows the added axle that I suppose supports the pendulum on the other side.

A photo from the back clearly shows the additions in the distinctly different colour.

Thank you JimInOz (again!)
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And now that I watched this easy for me to understand video
I also understand why the repairman had to cut off the original frame. He had to position the anchor escapement on top of the escape wheel, so he had to insert an escapement axle, which also held the pendulum. Ah...what a nice feeling, finally beginning to reconstruct the history of the clock!
 
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Can anyone come up with photos of electric tower clocks made by Mäder of Andelfingen and A Bär, Gwatt Thun, Switzerland around that period (1925-1930)? Or knows of places such electric tower clocks (by said companies, same period) were installed?
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Acorns!
Let's talk about acorns. They are the latest rave!

Andy Burdon from www.TheTimeWorkshop.uk has discovered something quite interesting on the count wheel of the Nymfaio clock which narrows the possible candidates (clock manufacturers). As he owns and has restored a A Bär clock he says that these clocks had one very particular feature, an acorn at the end of the shaft the count wheel is on. You can see the acorn in both clocks.

Another interesting detail is the taper pin on the count wheel, which in the Nymfaio clock is bent downwards. Here is what Andy Burdon has to say: The taper pin is there to stop the count wheel coming off the shaft and should be a tight fit in the hole in the shaft. Often they were removed during maintenance and lost. The engineer found he did not have one that fitted properly and so he used whatever he had and bent the end over to stop it falling out. I have even seen nails used to do this.

He is correct in saying that the Nymfaio clock has a similar acorn on the same position and also the taper pin on the same spot (photos attached, acorns marked by a red arrow, taper pins marked with a blue arrow).

Could this be the clincher? Is this a A Bär clock (or A Baer clock) manufactured by A Bär, Gwatt Thun, Switzerland?

So can we eliminate other clock manufacturers? Does anyone known of another manufacturer who used acorns in that way, for similar period pieces and clock mechanisms?

Forward!
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And for those of you who like the colour yellow, here is another thing the two clocks have in common. A yellow border on some parts.
Attaching a couple of photos of the Nymfaio clock mechanism and the A Bär clock.

Another point for A Bar.
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Success!

Thanks to the efforts of many of you, and particularly two experts to whom I am much indebted, Mr. Andy Burdon and Mr. Michel Viredaz, the candidates companies were finally narrowed down to two. The two companies essentially derived from the same family, the Bär (alternate spelling, Baer) family. One was located in Gwatt-Thun, belonged to Adolf Bär and was named "Turmuhren Fabrik A. Bär". The other belonged to the wife of the late Jacob Gottlieb Βär, who had founded a company in 1903, named "Sumiswalder Turmuhrenfabrik" (after the death of her husband she run the family company together with Wilhelm Moser). Both are within striking distance of Biel (where Omega, the company S. Bourla was representing, is located), Aarau (where Ruetschi AG, the bell company is located) and the Jura (where the dial was presumably made).

Other than the family name, the two companies shared a lot, something that made (and makes) a positive identification harder.

Here is what Andy has to say:

The problem is that they all copied each other's features and unless there is one feature that positively identifies the maker it is almost impossible to tell.[...]The setting dial is not positive identification because it is likely that all the manufacturers purchased these from another company instead of making them themselves. The same problem exists with many German makers who copied each other's styles and often bought the same frames from the casting foundry. Unless the original name plate is on the clock it is very difficult to know who made it.
"

BUT, today we received positive confirmation from the Muribaer company (the successor company to the Sumiswalder Turmuhrenfabrik company (later J.G. Baer AG) that the clock is indeed of their own design, most probably manufactured by Jacob Gottlieb Baer, senior!

Can we rule out that it's also a Turmuhren Fabrik A. Bär design? No we can't. However, the hunt to identify the clock is essentially over.
Let's call it a Bär clock!

Being a historian (and not a clock expert) I will keep looking for records, old letters, import/export documentation, in Switzerland and Greece and keep you posted for developments on the beautiful Tower Clock of Nymfaio. Hopefully I will convince people here to take care of the beautiful clock, repair it, service it and keep it ticking for many years to come.

So, to all of you, thank you, thank you, thank you! It was an honour and joy to talk to you all. Over and out.

Andonis Godis, Thessaloniki, Greece
(amateur historian)
 
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Excellent work! I looked forward to your updates, and while I'm happy you found your answer, I am sort of sad that the search now over. Please post any updates, or come back with new mysteries in the future 👍
 
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I just discovered this fascinating saga from a post on the NAWCC (National Association of Watch and Clock Collectors) tower clock forum. I have one question about the conclusion that this tower clock was originally a pulse-operated slave clock that was operated from a master clock within the building. It seems to me that the design of the tower clock movement is nothing like what would be expected for a slave clock. For one thing, the winding drum would have been unnecessary. Also, the escape wheel looks like an original part of the mechanism. Is it possible only the original anchor and pendulum were replaced? The escape wheel teeth are shaped like those typically found on a Brocot escapement with round pallets. Perhaps this was damaged and the repairer had to alter the clock frame in order to fit a standard type anchor to the escape wheel.
 
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In reply to Jeremy's comment above, there is a difference between a pulse operated slave clock and a pulse released turret clock. My proposal was that this was a pulse released clock where it still required a winding drum as the source of power and the slave mechanism is just used to release the escapement instead of a pendulum. This is quite a normal option on turret clocks in Europe, especially in Germany. The escape wheel is definitely not the usual form seen in this type of turret clock. I hope this clarifies things.

The picture below shows a German Hörz turret clock made at the factory with this exact feature. It had no pendulum but had 2 winding drums to drive the mechanism.


Andy Burdon
The Time Workshop, UK
 
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Well done Adonis 👍

Going back through all of the posts and then reading your article was a thoroughly enjoyable Sunday morning read.

I see that you started this quest with the words "I am a Greek amateur historian".

If your persistence and research abilities continue as they have done with this project, I think you could upgrade the "amatuer" appelation.

Cheers

Jim
 
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I wrote it once before in this thread - but I will write it again. I am not into tower clocks...But the approach and writings of its author and how the story has evolved makes this one of the most refreshing and interesting threads on OF. Thanks Adonis!
 
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a golden nugget of a thread - without any doubt!