Internals of Quartz Clock Mechanisms

In this video I get a regular Quartz Wall Clock and open it up in order to better understand how it works. I go through every part of the mechanism and attempt to explain how it works.

[williamhogue]

This is the only detailed explanation of the inner workings of these clocks I've seen. This is done superbly well! I have discarded so many clocks because the clock mechanism wasn't working. Now that I understand how it works, I can fix.
My sister brought me an older clock that made the sound of a different bird every hour. It wasn't working and had belonged to my dad, so it was worth fixing. I took everything apart and found that the battery contact strips weren't making contact with the main board. I had to solder jumper wires to get power to the clock innards. After a lot of time and patience, I finally got it back together and it works! I would never have attempted this with the knowledge this video provides.

[Doctor_Haeresys]

This video was made 9 years ago... but oh my THANK YOU DEAR FELLOW, thank you SO MUCH, I watched so many tutorials but you happened to be the only one who saved me and teached me to repair such t68 mechsnism! And to repair it I had to watch WHOLE video, trying to assemble it wrong way all along ahaha... but finally! It's an amazing feeling! I was really in a despair but - finally! It's a miracle! Thank you and bless you!

[leef_me]

I thoroughly ENJOYED this video 7.5 years after it was published. Thank you for taking the time to do the research and doing the video.

[cspann]

Thank you so much! I have built quite a few clocks, many with mechanical movements and I am working on building a wooden gear clock when in my retirement someday. When I felt lazy or cheap I built clocks with quartz movements such as the one you demonstrated. In all my years calculating gear ratios, pendulum lengths and oscillation periods, pallet spacing, etc, I never bothered to look inside one of these neat little gizmos. They are ingenious! .All this time I gave a guess that the quartz oscillations timed a small electro-mechanical escapement that advanced a seconds gear. Leave it to an engineer to complicate such a simple device. This is one of those videos that will be relevant for a good long time, as shown by the fairly recent comments.

[smoleyhokes]

Thank you for a great description of how it all works. I found a beautiful wall clock in the dumpster where we live and brought it home. After cleaning it all up, I was able to get the motor working again by watching your video. I feel so smart now.

[johnbradley]

Thank you Robert, I have a little known tip! If you have a clock of this type that has been working for better than 15 years and is loosing about 5 min in a week, turn it over, 180 so the 6 is at the top, watch it for a week and if it keeps correct time you can rotate the mechanism in relation to the numbers and get another 15 or so years out of it. Gravity only wears the plastic on the bottom.

[howtodoit]

After searching for a video to explain how clocks work for an hour, I found this video, and now I know what I wanted to know. I think I'll stop looking for more videos on how clocks work now. This had such a great explanation, thank you so much.

[thegrooveable]

Hi Robert, I do not care whether it is a soleniod or armature. The fact that your video saved me some cash is what I am gratefull to you for the clear instructions

[cphank]

I would like to add a little detail about how the motor works. Each pulse to the coil results in both the pole pieces at the bottom being of the same polarity while the two pole pieces at the top are of the opposite magnetic polarity. The large electromagnetic poles are 180 degrees apart and the small poles are also 180 apart and 90 degrees from the similarly polarized large poles. The pulses repel the permanent magnet on the gear such that the permanent magnet is always pushed away from the similarly polarized small pole and toward the oppositely polarized small pole at the other end of the U shaped core. After the pulse, the pole pieces are no longer electromagnetically magnetized but the permenent magnet on the gear will latch itself into place aligned with the larger poles of the electromagnet due to their larger size and greater attraction. They are then ready for the next pulse of opposite polarity. This all ensures the motor always turns in the same direction with alternating pulses. It is essentially a permanent magnet AC motor.

[carolyngreene]

Thank you! My entire clock fell apart when I was trying to "redecorate" the face! I had to watch your video several times but it's back together and it's working!!!

[patrol]

A very well described video that took us into the inner secrets of a regularly used item that we may never have known about. Thank you for a great lesson.

[jsewhoy]

Awesome video, our clock fell off the wall and the mechanism shattered into every single component on the floor. I didn't think I had a hope of assembling it all back together but it's now back on the wall and working thanks to you!

[clockfan]

My 5 year old son has watched this video about 200 times! He loves clock mechinisms :)

[johnfox]

fantastic out, a really good walk through on how these work. Simple omg how clever are the people who invent and MAKE these things!!

[urielo_]

THANKS!! I'VE BEEN TWO HOURS TRYING TO RE ARM A QUARTZ CLOCK, THIS WAS THE UNIQUE VIDEO I FOUND <3

[donnabeard]

Thanks for the great video. I took a thrift store clock apart to paint it and change out the faceplate and the internal gears fell apart. Your video helped me figure out how to put it all back together again. Thanks!

[keanini]

Awesome! So cool to see the genius of normal everday mechanisms that we take for granted. Old clock works now! Mahalo nui (much appreciation) from Hawaiʻi!

[godfreyhamshire]

A heartfelt thank you, for your detailed how to, I had one of these mechanisms get acid in it and after that it stopped working, I decided to take a chance and open it and give it a clean, after I opened it the whole thing fell into pieces on my desk. I was mystified as to how to put it back together. I managed to reassemble it, with the help of your video after cleaning the contacts. Again thank you very much for your explanation and the how to. Regards.

[classydays]

Finally, an explanation I can get behind.

As much as clockmakers and watchmakers hate quarts movents, it's hard not to acknowledge how elegant these simple mechanisms really are. I especially love that these things can run continuously for twenty years or more without any maintenance, and longer if it is, and still keep relatively accurate time for less than a few dollars.

[rammohang]

Dear Mr.Robert, Thank you very much for posting this video. I was able to fix a opened mechanism and get a clock going. After opening, I could not figure out how to fix one of the gears, this helped me a lot. Thank you once again. Ram mohan G Bangalore India