As a force of habit I have been resetting the clocks around the house by only moving the hands clockwise. Somewhere along the line I was told a clock could be damaged if you moved the hands backwards. I have no idea of the source or validity of the information. Have I been misled all these years?
I'm sure it depends on the clock -- I have heard the same about some grandfather clocks and similar with very delicate, complicated, mechanisms. But normal watches and clocks with the square mechanisms and time-set knob I'm sure are fine to crank either way.
Josh
It was very true when talking about older wind up clocks but I don't think it will hurt a newer clock. Hmm, well not all new clocks. I wouldn't turn a brand new grandfather clock movement backwards but I've turned the single AA battery type movements backwards for many years and never had a problem.
I've not hear that. Might have been true some generations ago, with older clocks.
I turn mine backwards with no problems. Of course they are all battery operated. In the old wind up days it may have been true. How did they turn a sun dial backwards?
They reversed the orbit of the Earth around the sun.
Hi, I turn the hand backward on our vintage mantle clock. Nothing happened. Still it keeps good time and chimes as long as I wind it up every week.
With older mechanical movements with chimes you are supposed to turn the hands backwards, or with some clocks you can turn the hands forward and stop at each chime interval. With electric and battery clocks it doesn't matter.
R
Since the post above I changed my clocks back an hour. I see the cheap single AA cell battery type shows arrows, turning the time adjustment either direction.
A large pipe wrench...
Okay, but what about an hour glass? Rotate left in Fall and right in Spring?
If you adjust the time with a knob and the know will LET you turn the time backwards, you should be okay.
My grandfather clock came with instructions to adjust the time by turning the hands backwards only. Turning them backwards makes it unnecessary to stop every quarter hour for the chime. Otherwise the chime and the hands get out of sync.
I turn my cuckoo clock backwards.
My schoolhouse clock will adjust the chime automatically if I turn it forward any amount of time. . I've never turned it backward, I just stop it for an hour and re-start it.
Some mechanical clocks were so cheaply built that you risk damage trying to manually adjust the time in either direction. In the fall it's much easier to adjust for the change by stopping the clock for one hour rather than the 11 or 23 hours needed in the spring.
I've always turned the wind-ups backward starting with my first one about 1954. Never a problem. Got my first battery one a few years ago.
Harry K
On Sun 01 Nov 2009 08:49:47a, told us...
It depends entirely on the clock. I have a collection of ~25 vintage and antique clocks. Most can be turned in either direction. Half a dozen can only be turned forward. Of those that can only be turned forward, several literally cannot be turned backwards, as the hands won't move. Of the others, it puts the chimes out of sync with the time the hands are displaying.
You just have to know your clock.
Why bother turning them at all. If in doubt, just stop them for an hour and next spring, turn them ahead.
Bob-tx
Little knob on the back, like the new clocks.
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