Hermle 1050-020 Triple Chime for Vonnie from Washington

I had another clock come in the shop the other day. It's a nice custom designed hand-built black wallet case by James Martin. Even the inlaid bezel is handmade. The dial is made from Hollywood which is known as the whitest wood in the world. The dial is also hand painted by James Martin. The bottom of the dial is dated as 1996, a numbered one of one. This is a one-of-a-kind clock. This lever on the right side of the case is what controls the trickle chimes. The winding shaft on the left side of the case controls a music box inside the case. Bonnie says it's not keeping time and it stops at random times. Removing the hands I see it's missing the screw nut for the minute hand. We'll find a replacement for it before it leaves the shop. The backside has a photograph of myself, the case maker, when Bonnie picked her clock up 25 years ago. I'll get it on the bench where I can take a closer look at it. It's a nice Hermel 1050-20 fitted with a balance wheel escapement. After observing it for a considered amount of time, I'm noticing the escape wheel has the same two teeth that slows down and almost catches. They slow down when they hit the pallet fork pins. If you watch close, every time they come around and engage with the pallet fork pins, the escape wheel slows down for a few moments. Could be an out-around escape wheel, bent escape wheel shaft or pivot, dirt in the escape wheel pinion, or something wrong with the pallet fork. This is where I'll start the troubleshooting. The hair spring seems to be in good shape along with the balance wheel. I only have it slightly wound so I can troubleshoot this issue. I notice the pallet fork horn on the right side is rubbing on the balance roller table. Most of the pinions along with the escape wheel pinion are packed with black dirt. I'll first clean the escape wheel pinion and see if it improves the escape wheel motion. Well, I cleaned the dirt from the escape wheel pinion and it made no difference. It's going to need to be disassembled to get at the source of the defect. The mainspring arbors on these slide out to service the mainsprings. A lot easier than the old movements. Strike side mainspring, time side mainspring, and the chime side mainspring will need the triple chime lever moved to remove it. I'll use some Mylar to protect the front of the plate from getting damaged and scratched while pulling the snail off. These two simple tools work great for this. Time to pull the back plate off. There's a fair amount of oil but it's collected a lot of dust and has turned black. The black color indicates the oil is contaminated with dust. It's a good time to clean this movement. I'll inspect each gear individually one at a time looking for any dirt or defects. Some of them are clean while others are quite dirty. Amazing how the pinions get black dirt packed in them from the gear teeth running in them. All in all, the pivot holes look to be in great shape. One of the support posts on the front plate is loose. No problem, I'll snug it up on the staking tool. Nice, good as new. I'm going to clean the movement then take a closer look at the escape wheel and pallet fork. Well, I got the movement clean, it's time to reassemble. So I believe I found the defect. It's a bent pivot on the pallet fork. It seems to have a tool mark on the shaft. Could it have been this way from the factory? Mounted in a collet with a dead center on the tailstock. It can be checked for runout. Wow, it's really bent. I'll attempt to bend it back a little by little in hopes it doesn't break off. Just a little more and now it looks next to perfect. Nice. The pallet fork is meshing with the escape wheel just as it was designed to do now. It's time to fasten the rear plate and move forward. I'll oil the movement at this stage. Once all the levers and cams get installed, they make it difficult to oil some of these pivots. And here's the snail. It needs to be adjusted just right for the striking part of the movement to work right. Now to set the cams for the chime side of the movement. For myself, if I find this warning pin is located at about two o'clock, timing is just about right with this cam installed in the locked position. Nice. All set up. Nice. All set up and almost done. This lever controls the triple chimes. They're all working together just fine. Last item to clean is the balance assembly. This is one of those Hermel BO-19-80 balance units. They're used on Hermel's larger clock movements. First the hairspring pin is pulled to release the hairspring. They have two ruby bearings on each side of the balance staff that need to be cleaned and oiled. Then the bearing screw is loosened to release the balance wheel. This pivot has some dried oil on it. I'll run this whole assembly through my watch cleaning machine. Each bearing is a ruby jewel. I give them each one drop of oil from a medium-sized oiler. Then the balance wheel can be installed. End shape needs to be slightly over three thousandths of an inch. One tenth of a millimeter is the standard. The hairspring needs to be fastened so the impulse pins are centered between the banking pins. That looks perfect. Now the hairspring pin can be gently pressed into place to secure the hairspring. A final inspection to make sure everything is free and that the impulse pins are exactly centered between the banking pins. Perfect! Oil the pallet fork pins and it's ready for the balance assembly. Nice! It's wanting to run already. It's been running flawlessly for several days now on the test stand. Time to install it in the clock case. These chimes sure have a good sound and the balance has excellent motion now as well. Starting with the lever on the bottom, the first chime melody is the Westminster. And in the second position, the chime melody is the Saint Michael. In the third position, the chime melody is is the Whittington. And the fourth position is the silent position. On the left side is the winding arbor for the music box.