Just got this delivered to me today a WW1 era Chelsea US Navy No3 Deck Clock. got it for a fair price due to it does need a service and a new mainspring. Was thinking of sending it to Chelsea but I sort of like the aged brass case would be 1000 bucks for a service, case refinish and resilver the dial and paint the hands. Or have a local guy service it for less only have the movement serviced. Does got a cool look as is like a pair of old aged Levi jeans. The movement never look like a screwdriver ever touched the screws might have never been serviced before. And the case and movement serial numbers match a plus they get switched around sometimes when the Navy had the movement serviced. This clock was made around 1916.
Another thing I notice the hands are blued not painted. Something I think Chelsea did not do in later deck clocks like during WW2.
Just bought this online. Will put it on the wooded plaque under the clock a cool touch. Would have liked to find a Pilot House one but Wheelhouse about the same. Spent a lot of my active-duty time in the wheel house on watch. we had a lot of names for this the Bridge, Pilot House or Wheel House.
The Plaque I got off flea bay might be a while coming from India where they scrap a lot of ships why they have so much of this stuff. But will post photo's when the project completed.
Here is one I wish was mine but it's in a Navy Museum. But the US Navy Observatory serial numbers are close mine seems older but in better shape. Wonder since the numbers are so close, they came from the same ship. https://www.history.navy.mil/content/history/nhhc/our-collections/artifacts/Navigation/chronometers/chronometer-uss-new-york--bb-34-.html#:~:text=One ship's clock for the USS NEW YORK,dial. The clock face reads: "CHELSEA CLOCK CO. Link to the Navy Museum. Definitely not a chronometer I guess we could teach the museum a little. Just glad someone saved the clock before the ship was used for target practice with a nuke.
Here is a British Navy issued clock where I did the same thing with a brass plaque on the wooden plaque. Looked cool there so thought it would look great on this one.
Found a interesting fact on this clock. In a new book I got on Chelsea clocks the first batch of deck clock no 3 was serial numbers 14554-14705 sent to the US Navy my serial number is 14572B so mine was the 18 one of these models sold to the US Navy kind of a low serial number in a way. There were 3 batches of this type of clock sold to the US Navy with 2 dial types.