Practically Classics Forum

WATCH OUT FOR THAT ICEBERG BY THE DOOR!!!!!!



Very nice liner



John

Some watch collection there! I wear a '55 Omega Seamaster and think It's the best looking watch I've ever seen.

My other hobby is early Mountain bikes,mainly hand made steel ones from the likes of Ritchey, Roberts, De-Kerf, Rocky Mountain. Some random pics of some bikes I've had.

95 Ritchey Softail.



84 Ritchey Annapurna,one of only 5 or so. Now lives in a Swiss museum.



96 De-Kerf Softail with AMP F3 linkage fork.



96 Rocky Mountain Altitude.



85 Ritchey Team with Softride stem.



99 Sunn Exact Disc.

Modelling and exhibiting East European Narrow Gauge Railways (including trips over there to photo the prototypes!)...




I would have to say this is the main hobby, keeping Noggin the Princess is the secondary one!

I could look at decent model railway layouts for hours on end and surprisingly many of the people I know from the classic car scene are also into their railway modelling these days. Oh what fun it is to drop the term "toy trains" into the conversation from time to time.

My other interests include buying, restoring and selling (on eBay, in restored condition and ready to provide many more years of service) these things:





And record players too, such as this, my favourite, a 1965ish Hacker Cavalier, seen there doing its thing with one of my several hundred 78rpm records.

(& yes, the period batteries in the green Roberts portable are working replicas, I make those to suit battery valve sets that need that finishing touch.)

Thats cool John, I had a brief love affair with valve radios but reckoned with the coming change over to digital that they may prove obsolete

So, I don't really have hobbies other than cars and mobikes, I am into restoring antique clocks, which was a BIG hobby of mine, but when the real railway went to the dogs and I ended up redundant a few years back coupled to the wifes health also going to the dogs meaning much more commitment at home they became my work. So not as much a hobby as a way of life now which can make them a bit of a headache at times instead of the pleasure they were before. Still, must beat working at Tesco, so I'll say being Britains most Northerly mainland clock dealer is my "hobby" for want of time to do anything else.

You can see some of my stuff by following the link from my website http://www.highamsclocks.co.uk if you want, definately not trying to flog anything through here though, just the nearest I have to a hobby, at least its doing what I love .

Rest assured that analogue radio won't be obsolete any time soon, especially as the current DAB standard is to be replaced before long in the interests of greater bitrates.
AM stations are still to be found and FM as a high-quality, lossless broadcast medium (apart from Classic FM and other independents where compression is massive and makes their output sound almost as poor as DAB) has plenty of life left to give so go on, get buying.

Clocks are another one of my obsessions. Not just any old clocks but specifically Smith Sectric and similar mains synchronous ones from the 1930s and '40s. I love that these things cannot, by virtue of their regulation by the mains refresh rate of 50Hz, actually be wrong once the time is set correctly, give or take a small swing in either direction at times of national grid load variations.
I also have some American synchronous clocks but the snag with using those in the UK is that they're designed to run on the American, 60Hz mains so they only read 50 minutes for every hour if connected to the UK's 50Hz supply. I hadn't taken that into account when I bought the first of my American clocks and spent many hours trying to fathom out how a synchronous clock could possibly lose before the penny dropped.

I may, just possibly , have a few old Seiko 5 automatic watches too, far better than those wretched qu**tz things.

GOOD to know the old radio isn't dead yet John, I may have to find another valve set yet

I like the electric clocks but steer clear of them due to worries of being a business and the laws around second hand electrical goods, pat tests and the like making them unviable, and chopping the plug off making them unsellable

Quite enjoy the earlier battery clocks though, such as bulle and even the later electromagnectic kundo's etc, got a nice one the other day but the seller left the pendulum on, which took out the suspension, which wouldn't be bad but it took the escape wheels pivots clean off . Now if I can just find a Eureka for the right price thats one I'll never let go

As for American clocks, always undervalued whether electric or wind up, bloody reliable and run on forever where a "quality" frenchy will give up the ghost if the wind is blowing in the wrong direction.

Watches, well I can break them as well as the next man, damn fiddly and delicate as they are I have my grandads retirement gold watch from Leyland motors (my home town), and if it ever breaks I'll have to find a good watch man as I can't be trusted

Oh, nearly forgot, I also have a 1770's John Barwise clock, made by him as an apprentice to his father when he could only have been in his early / mid teens in Cockermouth. 30 hour pine longcase with allusions to a fancy 8 day one, dummy winding holes etc.

He went on later to become head of the british clock and watch makers guild or similar, a famous London clock maker then, but he also patented along with alex Bain the first electric clock, Bain by coinincidence came from a little place called Watten, just about 10 miles from where I am now by coincidence. Anyway, that longcase is another "keeper". £500 cost which for a Longcase aint much, but whats it worth from a historical point of view?

arceye wrote: As for American clocks, always undervalued whether electric or wind up, bloody reliable and run on forever where a "quality" frenchy will give up the ghost if the wind is blowing in the wrong direction.

I'll say! I've got a New Haven drop dial wall clock, c.1880, that belonged to my great grandmother. I was once told that the likes of New Haven and Ansonia, with their cheap mass-produced clocks, brought about the demise of the long case clock in Britain.

suffolkpete wrote:

arceye wrote: As for American clocks, always undervalued whether electric or wind up, bloody reliable and run on forever where a "quality" frenchy will give up the ghost if the wind is blowing in the wrong direction.

I'll say! I've got a New Haven drop dial wall clock, c.1880, that belonged to my great grandmother. I was once told that the likes of New Haven and Ansonia, with their cheap mass-produced clocks, brought about the demise of the long case clock in Britain.

They pretty much did indeed. The Americans brought about the first real mass production techniques, Jerome was one of the big influences, whilst of lower quality in real terms they got it right, large tolerences mean they run on and on and on. The first ones were weight driven due to problems in obtaining spring steel, and the first springers used a brass type spring, this changing around the civil war era to traditional steel springs.

The American production methods took off as they meant affordable clocks for the masses, these techniques where then copied by the Black Forest manufacturers which had largely been a cottage industry until then, in an effort to compete. They even made American style labels to get a share of the market. So yes, you have to give it to them, they changed the clock making scene big time.

As an aside, Jerome who I mentioned earlier and is credited with being perhaps the main player in starting all this, was not that good a business man and died pretty much penniless, ironic isn't it?