When purchasing or shopping for grandfather clocks, how important is it for you to have a visible pendulum that is visibly swinging back and forth inside the tower or waist of the clock.

Is this a “must-have” feature to you when thinking about purchasing a grandfather clock.

Remember that many grandfather clocks have solid wood doors where the pendulum and weights are not visible, even when they are present.  Some consumers obviously prefer the solid wood door covering the entire waist or tower of the grandfather clock.  In addition, some grandfather clocks are sprint driven instead of weight driven, and they will not have the visible weights working in the case even when the pendulum is there.  If the grandfather clock also has a platform escapement, there will be no working pendulum visible at all.

Nowadays, there are other options and therefore more considerations when shopping for a grandfather clock.  One is the advent of the decorative grandfather clock, generally quartz or battery driven, where when when opens the door to the grandfather clock, one may find storage shelves or even a bookshelf.   Another reasonably new technology is Quartz or battery operated grandfather clocks where the pendulum is moving back and forth, yet generally powered by magnets rather than the mechanical grandfather clock movement.  In these clocks, the visible weights, while reproducing the general look of a mechanical grandfather clock, will be stationary, and will therefore not move either up or down but will always stay in the same position.  The grandfather clocks weights therefore are decorative only in these cases.

So if you are looking for an “old-fashioned” mechanical weight driven grandfather clock, it comes down to a simpler question.  Do you want a grandfather clock with a glass door, or not?

Let us know your clocks preferences.