Replacement Movements for Chelsea Quartz Radio Room Clocks

[D.J.J. Ring, Jr.]

Some people that have one of Chelsea Clock's R/R quartz time pieces have been annoyed by the difficulty in setting the clock to the precise time.

The clock as sold by Chelsea is furnished with a U.T.S QUARTZ (Germany) movement.

http://www.uhrentechnik-schwarzwald.de/html/u_t_s__1.html

Chelsea Clock's much more expensive TIMEMASTER Radio Room clocks came with a quartz movement that was made by QUARTEX, Lake Geneva, WI.

Both of these movement is sold in the USA by Klockit http://www.klockit.com/ and in addition to the U.T.S. movements, Klockit has some interesting movements that  Patriot R/R clock owners might consider.

First some measurements of the Chelsea quartz clock quartz movements.

Quartz movements mostly require a thickness of the clock dial so that the movement will fit.  The Chelsea clock dial is very thin.

Here are the measurements that I measured with a hand caliper and metal ruler and old eyes.

1/32” dial thickness of R/R clock.

5/16” shaft diameter of the quartz movement.

Shaft length ~ 5/8” approx.

Bushing, 5/16” long metal, threaded
Nylon Hour Shaft 1/8” long, smooth
Metal Shaft 1/16” long, smooth
Keyed (flats on two sides) metal minute shaft, threaded

I wrote these down, when I took apart a Chelsea Patriot R/R clock and a Chelsea TIMEMASTER R/R clock.  The TIMEMASTER clock had the movement replaced, but I got the information as to what movement was used directly from Chelsea and I double checked on the Patriot type as well and the information given here is accurate and checked with the manufacturer.

NOTE that the MINUTE hand is keyed.  The hour hands have a circular hole which passes over the metal shaft onto a nylon or plastic shaft which is NOT keyed and the hands are pressed into place.
The WHITE hour hand is closest to the clock dial, the BLACK hand is immediately on top of the white hand, they both can be moved around and around by hand in either direction by design.

The MINUTE hand however is KEYED - the hole in the center has two flat sides that are 180 degrees apart.  That is if the minute hand points to 30 minutes (or zero minutes) the flats will be at 3 o'clock and 9 o'clock.
You MUST turn the minute hand by the adjusting knob on the rear of the quartz movement, or you will damage the hands or movement.  The R/R clock hands are exclusively available from chelseaclock.com and currently cost $3.50 each from Chelsea.

The first is a continuous sweep version of the movement.

Some owners of the quartz type R/R clocks have been frustrated by not being able to get the exact time on the click of the second hand.
The continuous sweep version of the movement eliminates that problem to a great extent.

https://www.klockit.com/continuous-sweep-quartz-clock-movement-1-8-maximum-dial-thickness-bundle.html

There is also a high-torque version so if you want to make a R/R clock with up to 7-inch long hands, you can.
https://www.klockit.com/seiko-high-torque-continuous-sweep-quartz-clock-movement-bundle.html

The next is an Atomic / Radio WWVB automatic setting clock.  You can turn off the DST feature, which makes it perfect for use for a R/R clock.
Just sent the R/R clock to UTC as you generally would.  When the WWVB signal calibrates the movement and turns the hour and minute hands, just adjust the hour hands to the correct time, black  hand to UTC and white hand to local time.  Remember to have the DST switch OFF unless your using the R/R clock as a local time clock and want it to change when DST comes around.  Indiana users disregard the comments about DST, you don't have that.

The webpage at klockit says that they do not recommend use of this movement if you use a metal dial.  So try at your own risk.  The worst that can happen is that you will have a radio controlled movement that won't update.

Klockit  sells "Atomic Clock" types PERHAPS suitable for R/R clocks, make sure that you confirm that the hour hands are not keyed and that they will accept a round circle type hour hand.:

https://www.klockit.com/quartexr-atomic-clock-movement.html
Which has a case size of 2 9/16"H x 2 3/16"W x 3/4"D

and 

https://www.klockit.com/atomic-clock-movement-1-16-maximum-dial-thickness-bundle.html

Now here is something that might interest most of Quartz R/R clock owners.

Quartex® High Torque Set & Forget® Extended Life Quartz Clock Movement
https://www.klockit.com/high-torque-set-forgetr-extended-life-quartz-clock-movement-1.html


Replacing the battery on the R/R clock is not the easiest job compared with "normal" quartz clocks.  The once a year job of battery replacement is usually easy, but getting the hanging bracket back on the wall is sometimes tricky.

With a R/R clock, things are different.  You have to open the swing door, then unscrew the three machine screws located at 3, 7 and 11 o'clock. Then carefully wiggle the center stem of the clock and gently coax the clock dial to drop out of the case.

Knock out the AA cell, put another in, hold the dial into the case, carefully align the case so that the threads of the mating encapsulated nuts mate up with the holes in the dial, hold  your breath, and start to put in one, two and then three of the machine screws, tightening them a little bit to make sure they don't bind.

But every year, this doesn't become a favorite task.

Enter the EXTENDED battery life quartz movement.  It also  has a set-and-forget DST adjustment that does NOT require a radio  signal.  You may disable this feature with a slide switch on the rear of the movement.

https://www.klockit.com/high-torque-set-forgetr-extended-life-quartz-clock-movement-1.html

This unit takes three AA cells and it says that replacement life is "up to four years."

Then lastly there are the plain vanilla replacement version.

Quartx https://www.klockit.com/q-80-quartz-clock-movement.html
Chose the 1/16 inch thickness for Chelsea R/R clocks.

I just ordered the Extended Battery Life version for a friend.  It's a nice feature to not have to change the battery every year when you have to unscrew, tip out the faceplate, remove battery, insert battery, put back faceplate, align faceplate screws, put in a screw, then the next, etc.

73

DR

[Radio KH6O]

If you would like to try building your own clock from scratch:

https://wooden-gear-clocks.com/

I have the Ascent. Make sure you use a good scroll saw and the proper
type of wood.

73, Jeff KH6O