Movement from Rythm Watch Co Ltd, Japan

Posted: Mon Oct 05, 2009 4:07 pm     Post subject: Movement from Rythm Watch Co Ltd, Japan

My Seth Thomas clock has a bim bam mechanism made by "Rythm Watch Co" Japan. Circa 1975.
When Searching online I find all sorts of financial records about the company, but no one selling parts.
I am replacing it with a Quartz bim bam movement, but I was curious about what happened to Rythm Watch, It looks like it is still a big company. Do they go by a different brand.

Thanks.

Posted: Mon Oct 05, 2009 6:29 pm     Post subject:

Rythm is still around... They predominantly manufacture animated, musical clocks that can be seen on all sorts of sites/retailers on the internet. I believe that they also still manufacture pre-finished clock/clock case assemblies as well. To my awareness... Rythm is a direct to retailer company, selling only finished products. They may even brand some of those finished products for larger companies (as with Seth Thomas in the past). They will not typically sell replacement parts.

The other factor is that movements (specifically battery-operated) have gone through some design/production changes over the last 30 years. What was "in" 20 years ago may no longer exist today (replaced by a counter-part that is cheaper to produce, yet updated with current movement technology, etc.). More than likely, the movement you have in your clock assembly is obsolete (which could be why you can not locate any replacement parts).

Posted: Wed Nov 04, 2009 7:11 pm     Post subject:

Finaly got the Quartz movement.
Turns out it was made by RythmWatch after all.

Quartz Mechanism fixed it with some caveots.
Old movement struck both rods at the same time.
The hammers were on a single bent wire.
It turns out the the simultanious chime combines to make a nice "bong"
The new quartz movement, Which is also made by RythmWatch company
struck the rods independently at about .5 sec intreval It sounds like a doorbell. This is not what I expected. I chose the bim bam because it looked like the movement in the existing clock with the 2 rods and the pendulum.

I did not want the melodic multi-chime of a wesminster, just a single bong at half past and a bong to count off the hours. I did not see the single bong chime availible as an option in the websites I searched. The double chime made it hard to count the hour when lying in bed.

After trying changing the rods with the original etc. I was able to screw the 2 hammers together and have something like the original, although the sound is still different. I guess the hammer material is different and the rods are struck in a different place. I guess we will get used to it.

Posted: Wed Nov 04, 2009 9:56 pm     Post subject:

While I am not familiar with this movement, you may be able to make bend adjustments to the hammers to improve the sound. Definately consult the instructions (or movement retailer) to see if this could be an option.