North Coast Imports, Inc.

 Here's a great piece on accurate clocks. Give a listen! "My own personal opinion is that time is a human construct," says  Tom O'Brian . O'Brian has thought a lot about this over the years. He is America's official timekeeper at the  National Institute of Standards and Technology  in Boulder, Colorado."

It was a HUGE success last year, come celebrate with our dealer Suburban Clock again on August 16. There will be beer, food, live music, invitational classic car show, fun for kids, popcorn, and a special surprise of live organ grinders! www.clocktoberfest.com There are special prices, also for NCI dealers!

 The artists at work! You can see the creators at Romba and Christophe's creations!

I was on the plane yesterday, and had an interesting conversation with the man next to me. He brought up the Kimball Electronics Group  which is a global electronics company which he represented at one time or another. KEG was once Kimball International , which was one of the largest manufacturers of home organs. He remembered a conversation he had with the CEO which described their transition from organs to a giant electronics firm. The CEO said that from the '50s through the '80s every newlywed bought an organ for their home. By the time the '80s came and went into the world of electronics, no younger person was interested in having one in their living room. They were no longer a status symbol. To be sure, I remember them as a kid. Those home organs were everywhere. We used to have a stand at the county fair, selling Grandfather clocks next to those heavy organs thumping out "Oh When the Saints Go Marching In..." in every beat from a rumba to a disco gro...

Here's a nice find on YouTube... from the description: Implementation and early development of a fully detached, gravity impulsed, mechanical escapement inspired by the designs of James Arnfield. Prototype built for kinematic amusement with the possibility of satisfactory timekeeping. The pendulum should at no time be connected directly to the going train and only impulsed by a falling tumbler which, after leaving contact with the pendulum, releases the escapement.  If you know more about this, I'd love to hear from you. Looks fascinating.

Here's a great video. Beautiful clock! A description of an E. Howard and Co. Clock Tower Clock (anchor escapement) and how it functions by breaking down the mechanism into 4 categories and explaining each section. The clock is at the First Congregational Church in Williamstown, MA.

We, at North Coast Imports are very pleased to introduce the NEW Brettluhr! A  Brettluhr  is a "Little Board Clock."  It was a clock that mostly existed in Vienna in the first half of the  Nineteenth Century.  ( Here  and here are original Brettluhr  clocks.)  It appeared in many styles and configurations, but Brettluhren  commonly consisted of a board with a movement mounted to it.  Usually the board didn't have any sides or door which encased the movement. For our version, we decided to use a mechanism which showed off the beauty of the gears.  This "Skeleton" style movement is made in Germany.  It is, of course, made with the best quality materials and according to a time-tested design.  It is a single-train movement with a drop-off bell strike.  In other words, it strikes the sonorous bell once as the minute hand passes the hour. The clock is powered by the pull of gravity on the weight.  By the e...

Here's a really interesting piece, again from Dug North's inestimable blog . The monkey is shaving!  It's really a complicated movement, similar to a Black Forest dumpling eater ( or rat eater ) but more colorful.  I wish there were pictures of the clock too!

We're about to introduce an exciting NEW model.  Stay tuned for more info.  AND HAVE A GREAT WEEKEND! SOLID walnut board, made in the U.S.A. with German mechanism.  We're really excited to introduce this new model from Sternreiter.

It turns out there is an antique replica  (PDF) in Sydney ! Made in 1887. [via Kugelbahn ]

We'll have a leap second at the end of this month. The last minute will have 61 seconds. But, not without controversy: From  Cosmos Magazine : The leap second has long caused debate among member countries of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), with some arguing for it to be abolished in favour of the exclusive use of atomic time. Every time a second is added, the world's computers need to be manually adjusted, a costly practice that also boosts the risk of error. High-precision systems such as satellites and some data networks will have to factor in the leap second or risk provoking a calculation catastrophe. [via io9.com ]

Here's a nice article about our friend Justin and his NEW BOOK! From the article: Collectors Weekly : Was Johann Baptist Beha a well-known clockmaker? Miller : Yes, he’s definitely the most prominent cuckoo clockmaker in the Black Forest, and his clocks are collected aggressively. His clocks are usually regarded as the pinnacle of cuckoo clock making, whether deservedly or not. If you look at Black Forest clocks as a whole, a lot of them were very cheaply done. They were made for middle- or lower middle-class customers, and most manufacturers were competing with each other, racing to have the lowest price. And how do you lower price? Well, you cut quality and you cut costs. One of Miller's most exotic clocks is a cuckoo with a three-train movement and a life-size bird perched on top, designed by Johann Baptist Beha around 1880. But Beha basically said, “We’re not going to race to the bottom. We’re going to make clocks of high quality for people who can afford them...

We've been watching the restoration and re-installation of our founder Karl Schleutermann's giant cuckoo clock in Sugarcreek, Ohio. Sugarcreek Mayor Clayton Wellery, left, and Freeman Mullet line up the clock house of the large cuckoo clock that is being set in the intersection of Main and Broadway Streets in Sugarcreek on Wednesday, May 30, 3012. The wooden clock measures more than 23 feet tall, 24 feet wide and 13 feet deep, and is one of the world's largest cuckoo clocks. (AP Photo/The Times Reporter, Jim Cummings) Read more: http://www.kitsapsun.com/photos/2012/may/31/301088/#ixzz1ww9AWtYJ

We have no interests in Lowe's, but how can I not re-post this commercial?

Our supplier Ingolf Haas of Rombach und Haas has a nice interview about the current state of the Cuckoo Clock industry here.

This is a phrase we hear all the time from people who love weight-driven clocks (like cuckoo clocks!) but are concerned that their young child or pets might get a hold of the chain or weight and pull the clock down. It is surely a concern.  We know that it can be nearly impossible to child-proof or pet-proof a modern home, without even considering adding a timepiece. But consider this: There is nothing quite so personal, or thoughtful, as a gift of a clock to a young child.  It's something that the child will grow up with his or her entire life.  They might even regard a clock as an old friend or at least a remembrance of your love and care.  There are very few gifts which actually last a lifetime.  A mechanical clock is one of those things. While the child is small, don't worry about needing to keep the clock running all the time.  Sometimes they might just like to see it run now and then... possibly they might enjoy the soothing tick-tock sound whil...

Here's an interesting piece. Via Dug North . The gilded robed goddess standing atop the marble base has her arms outstretched. The hand of her right arm points to the hour, and the left hand points to the minutes, which are delineated in 5-minute increments. The gilding contrasts most beautifully with the blue enameled backdrop behind the goddess. The platform escapement movement works perfectly, translating the clockworks through a clever linkage to the two arms, which when they reach their uppermost point fall dramatically to the lower starting position.

We are making quicker updates on Twitter that don't make it to our regular blog. Please make sure you are following our Twitter feed too. There are lots of cool updates, like pictures of NEW models being designed in our workshop...   You can see this feed at www.twitter.com/ncimports and the RSS feed for that is:  http://api.twitter.com/1/statuses/user_timeline.rss?screen_name=ncimports ...And Facebook too! We've got pictures and info and updates on Facebook. Like us at www.Facebook.com/northcoastimports Our Twitter and Facebook updates are also posted to the right on this blog page ->