
1933 Junghans/HAC Westminster & Trinity Chimes Wall Clock
#Vintagewatch #AntiqueClock #HistoryDesign #VintageClock
Junghans/HAC (Hamburg American Clock Company) wall clock with Westminster and Trinity chimes, made in Germany circa 1933.
I may have mentioned in the past that it was the HAC Celebrate mantel clocks, with their hauntingly beautiful Trinity chimes, which first got me interested in collecting chiming clocks. Over the past four years, I have been fortunate to acquire three Celebrates, and they are some of my favorite clocks in my collection. Well, as of a month ago, I am absolutely delighted to have added a Trinity chiming wall clock to the collection as well!
This example is quite a beast of a clock, made in the French style, and has some of the most grand, stately and purely elegant chimes I have heard in a wall clock. In terms of innards, it's basically a larger, wall clock version of a Celebrate movement by HAC, the inventory of which Junghans acquired when the two companies merged in the late 1920s.
The clock runs for the expected eight days or more on a winding. It features a quarterly chime train, which plays progressively longer segments of either Westminster or Trinity chimes every fifteen minutes, on four or six long steel chime rods. At the top of the hour, it plays the full chosen melody, then strikes the number of hours on a separate set of rods.
I have to say, this clock sounds quite different from other Trinity chiming wall clocks. Most others I've heard have a very bright, shimmery quality to the rods. By contrast, this one has a richness and slow, expansive bloom to its timbre, with a strong and stately quality that absolutely fills the room! The hour strike is particularly potent... From certain angles, especially with the door closed, you can just about feel the sound thrumming in your chest.
Overall, one of the most exciting new clock acquisitions I've had in a while!
