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Patek Philippe Solar Clock
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Patek Philippe Solar Clock
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THE PATEK PHILIPPE
LIGHT-WOUND CLOCK by Walt Odets Credits and apologies to Mr. Odets, author of the description below - - his illustrations did not accompany the text; some are viewable in the photo section. If you are interested, I can email them separately. The clock has been serviced and runs well; case was recently 14K regilded due to over-zealous polishing by past owner. No 'power accumulator' available to me, so I have substituted a Lithium battery until a rechargeable of the right size is located - - clock has run for over a year on PV power and this battery. No case, manual or other items included in sale. Shipping weight 10 pounds from ZIP 94025, will insure as desired. Nearly a half century ago--in 1950--Patek Philippe began marketing an extraordinary invention, the "light-wound" table clock. The clock required no regular winding and, after full charge, was capable of running in complete darkness for a year. Furthermore, Patek claimed a very impressive accuracy of within one second a day. To place the light-wound clock in historical perspective, 1950 was also the year that Patek introduced the Gyromax balance wheel, which at the time seemed an important development for the future of the wristwatch. It would be only two years later that Patek would introduce a "fully electronic clock, i.e. without moving parts," and still another year--1953--before Patek introduced its first automatic wristwatch. Just a year after the automatic Patek introduced the first "nuclear-powered" timepiece, "deriving its energy from a radio-active isotope." And finally, in 1958, Patek produced its first quartz-controlled clock. This is an interesting history for a company that is, today, so strongly associated with conservative and traditional mechanical wristwatches. A DESCRIPTION OF THE CLOCK By contemporary standards, the Patek light-wound clock is a technological anomaly and peculiarly primitive. It combines what were, in 1950, state-of-the-art electronics (including very expensive photoelectric cells) with a traditional Patek mechanical hand-wound movement, a modified caliber 17'''-150. As shown in the schematic at left , a photoelectric cell (lying under the top dome of the clock case) was used to charge a capacitor ("accumulator"), that, through a mechanical switch, powered a motor that--wound up the watch! As illustrated below right , the components of the clock were assembled on a vertical plate behind the dial and a horizontal plate that carried the movement, the switching mechanism, and a "demultiplication" gear train that reduced motor speed for winding. The movement is indicated at 1 , the winding motor at 2 , the demultiplication gear train bridge at 3 , the motor switch plate at 4 , the storage capacitor at 5 , and the back of the dial at 6 . The hand-setting knob is shown at 7 . THE MOVEMENT The caliber 17'''-150 is a 17 ligne (38.25 mm), 2.90 mm tall, 18,000 beat per hour hand-wound movement. It runs in 18 jewels, without shock protection. While the earlier version of the clock used a micrometric swan's neck fine regulator, later versions of the clock were equipped with a Gyromax balance and free-sprung overcoil hairspring (without regulator). In the light clock, Patek specifies the normal amplitude at "slightly under 270 degrees measured with the minute hand set at 6 or 12 o'clock." This is necessary because the amplitude increased between 2 and 5 o'clock due to the "falling" force of the relatively heavy, vertical-mounted minute hand. The frequent motor winding action also caused an increase in amplitude. Because of both influences, an intial amplitude of 270 to 310 degrees--a normal range for most healthy watch movements dial down--would have produced excessive amplitude and knocking of the escapement. As illustrated at left (with the winding train bridge and mainspring barrel gear removed), the movement is a conventional Patek full-bridge movement. The earlier traditional micrometric regulator is illustrated ( 10 ). In the later Gyromax version, as with any Pat... 
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