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A sundial has the fewest moving parts of any timepiece.
I read that they had to move the stones at stonehenge last week to make the shift from daylight savings time. (The Brits change a week or two before the U.S.)
What if a round analog battery wall clock looking like this, 10-12" diameter, could be offered with solid-state LCD hands and a solid-state electronic bell sound on the hour and retail on the American market for $50 or less? One would have a cheap, long-lasting, reliable, practical and charming home wall clock indeed. Electronic timepieces with absolutely no moving parts can be mass-produced to be both reliable and accurate and be made very cheaply.
I am one of those women that feels that form is just as important as function. It needs to be pretty. That is not pretty.
I do have two black kit cat clocks that work like a charm. They run on 2 C batteries, and they need the extra power to make the tail go back-and-forth and the eyes go back-and-forth. As the batteries die, the tails and the eyes stop working, but they still keep time perfectly. Which I find interesting.
I have a very small house, and I have a clock in each room, except the back bedroom which I use for an exercise room and I’m only in there for about a half an hour 45 minutes a day. And I can see the hallway kit cat clock.
The living room clock is a large clock that looks like something out of a circus, from target. I think it was $60 maybe 50. I’ve had it for several years, it works well, however, it is very very delicate. The hands are very bendy. Once a year when I take it down to change the battery, I end up having to reflex the hands. My kitchen clock is also from target, it looks like one of those metal advertising signs, it’s cute, keeps perfect time. As does the oven and the microwave.
I really only have about 1000 ft.², and I think in my opinion I might be over clocked. But I think it’s a reaction to my mother who never had clocks anywhere because she wore a wristwatch. I need a clock on the wall, it just tends to be where I look for a clock. Even if I have my phone in my hand, or I’m wearing a watch.
The LCD HANDS clock concept I posted is the best home decoration timekeeping compromise between prettiness, economy, accuracy and practicality. No manmade clock is perfect especially at under $100 retail. My idea, if materialized, would work with sunlight or even no sunlight to boot! Sundials don't work indoors too well anyway. Having the electronic chimes sound would make it even more charming yet cheap. Clocks and watches with mechanical hands with mechanical works are subject to wear and friction and unless they are rather expensive they will never be good timekeepers. These cheap mechanical analog "Walmart-quality" clocks don't even have a provision for regulating speed should the clock run fast or slow like the older such clocks did. It's one of those YGWYPF kind of deals. Better mechanical timepieces have jewel movements.
Solid-state electronic timepieces, devoid of any mechanical moving parts like motors, gears and springs, are the most practical design for dependability on the cheap. They just need to make them more elegant and charming, yes indeed!!
Well, I think the term "analog" is getting misused a bit here.
first of all, I have no idea why your quartz clock is losing time. The only thing I can think of is low battery.
Second, "analog" in clocks refers to the display. Hands = analog. Numbers = digital. The correct terms for the different mechanisms are "Mechanical", "Electric" and "Quartz". There are also "atomic" clocks, which are not themselves atomic clocks, but rather they use a radio link to the US Atomic Clock to reset themselves periodically.
Mechanical clocks are wound up and they have mainsprings or weights and their accuracy depends on the detailed design and precision of the mechanism. Nowadays there's no mechanical clock that approaches the accuracy of a cheap quartz mechanism.
Quartz clocks, today the most common, use the microvibrations of a quartz crystal under voltage to activate a mechanism which might be analog or digital. It's like the piezoelectric phenomenon in reverse. They are highly accurate, which is why the OP's issue is a bit baffling.
Both mechanical and quartz clocks depend on a vibrating object to tell time - basically they are counting vibrations and adding them up to seconds, minutes, hours. The higher the frequency of vibration, the more accurate the clock.
Possibly the most accurate clock available commonly, however, will be the ELECTRIC clock - at least in First World countries. These clocks, which are getting hard to find, use a synchronous motor to run the mechanism. Now the frequency of "vibration" if you will is 60 Hz (in North America) which isn't that high, but because it's generated by the power company, it's extremely tightly regulated. Power companies control the frequency of their output to an extremely high level of accuracy, plus, they adjust the generators to make sure the total number of cycles in a day is correct.
Now if you're in a Third World country with dubious electric power, or you're running off a conventional (non inverter) generator, an electric clock will be all over the place.
The best thing about the electric clock is that it's almost completely silent, no "Click!" every second. There's just the faintest hum from the little motor.
Well, I think the term "analog" is getting misused a bit here.
first of all, I have no idea why your quartz clock is losing time. The only thing I can think of is low battery.
Second, "analog" in clocks refers to the display. Hands = analog. Numbers = digital. The correct terms for the different mechanisms are "Mechanical", "Electric" and "Quartz". There are also "atomic" clocks, which are not themselves atomic clocks, but rather they use a radio link to the US Atomic Clock to reset themselves periodically.
Mechanical clocks are wound up and they have mainsprings or weights and their accuracy depends on the detailed design and precision of the mechanism. Nowadays there's no mechanical clock that approaches the accuracy of a cheap quartz mechanism.
Quartz clocks, today the most common, use the microvibrations of a quartz crystal under voltage to activate a mechanism which might be analog or digital. It's like the piezoelectric phenomenon in reverse. They are highly accurate, which is why the OP's issue is a bit baffling.
Both mechanical and quartz clocks depend on a vibrating object to tell time - basically they are counting vibrations and adding them up to seconds, minutes, hours. The higher the frequency of vibration, the more accurate the clock.
Possibly the most accurate clock available commonly, however, will be the ELECTRIC clock - at least in First World countries. These clocks, which are getting hard to find, use a synchronous motor to run the mechanism. Now the frequency of "vibration" if you will is 60 Hz (in North America) which isn't that high, but because it's generated by the power company, it's extremely tightly regulated. Power companies control the frequency of their output to an extremely high level of accuracy, plus, they adjust the generators to make sure the total number of cycles in a day is correct.
Now if you're in a Third World country with dubious electric power, or you're running off a conventional (non inverter) generator, an electric clock will be all over the place.
The best thing about the electric clock is that it's almost completely silent, no "Click!" every second. There's just the faintest hum from the little motor.
Great explanation. From what I've read, Laurens Hammond gifted his synchronous electric clocks to power companies as an encouragement for them to keep greater accuracy in their 60 Hz power production.
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Solly says — Be nice!
