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SZR.ET
Grandfather clock
Every quarter hour four gilt dancers come out of the dial and spin, as on Marienplatz in Munich. The Kieninger movement plays three melodies on 16 notes.
A clock that is yours alone. Wood, finish, colour and melody: we start from this model and finish it together, the way you want it.
- Dimensions
- Height 227 cm · width 64 cm · depth 42 cm · weight 90 kg
- Wood
- Solid American tulipwood, carved parts included
- Finish
- Water-based light walnut with subtle antiquing; semi-gloss acrylic
- Movement
- German Kieninger mechanical movement, mirror-polished; cable-driven, weekly crank winding; switchable night silencer from 10 pm to 7:15 am
- Chime
- Three melodies on 16 notes every hour: Westminster, Schubert's Ave Maria, Beethoven's Ode to Joy; one, two and three tones at the quarters; switchable automatic melody change
- Dial
- Engraved and hand-painted with German landscapes by Paul Merkte; moon phase above the 6; seconds; four gilt brass dancers
- Pendulum
- Long brass lyre pendulum with an engraved Bohemian crystal disc; decorated Jaeckle weights
- Other
- Interior light 220/110 V; lost-wax cast brass hinges; hand-bevelled glass; English-style hands
How it is made
It was born in 1984 with the Polish-American designer Ed Karpinsky, after the grandfather clocks made around Boston in the 1930s. The first version was in mahogany and had no dancers. Over the years we changed it: American tulipwood, a Kieninger movement with dancers built for us and an engraved, hand-painted Jaeckle dial. Ed's first sketches are still in our small museum in Sanguinetto.
The whole case is solid wood, carved parts included. Each detail is worked separately and fitted during finishing, down to the “three dots and a line” around the glass. Lost-wax cast brass hinges swing the door clear of the column, and the door fits so closely that the air slows it down as it shuts.
Every hour it plays Westminster, Schubert's Ave Maria or Beethoven's Ode to Joy, and it can change melody by itself. It has a small moon phase above the 6 and a seconds hand: each swing of the pendulum lasts one second.
