UGEARS Aero Clock

This simple-yet-elegant Ugears clock is driven by the force of gravity pulling down a weighted bag (you can fill the bag with sand or salt). Raise the bag on its pulleys to wind the clock. As the weight slowly descends, it rotates a drive gear, which then rotates an escape wheel through a reducer. The clock features an adjustable weighted pendulum which interacts with the escape wheel through the steady tick-tock of the anchor mechanism. You can adjust the clock's ticking action to the second, by sliding the pendulum's top and bottom weights. The reducer also transmits rotation to an hour disc and a minute disc. One of the interesting features of our Aero Clock is that time is not read with rotating hands on a clock face, but rather a fixed pointer indicates time on the slowly-rotating, numbered hour and minute discs. Moreover, these discs rotate counterclockwise—did you know that before standardization, some clocks moved clockwise while others moved counterclockwise? In the role of "cuckoo” the Ugears Aero Clock features a model hot air balloon. The suspended balloon rapidly descends when the hour strikes, then slowly rises again over the course of the next hour.

The theme of the Aero Clock is early aeronautics. Take a trip back in time to the dawn of flight and the "balloonomania" that seized France and England in 1783 on the occasion of the first free aerial voyage in a balloon. This was followed two years later by the first aerial crossing of the English Channel by intrepid aeronauts Jean-Pierre Blanchard and John Jeffries. We love this wooden model clock's steampunk sensibility and spirit of adventure, and we think you will too! Imagine yourself a discoverer of new horizons and a conqueror of the four winds. The casing and intriguing wooden clock mechanism represent an air base located among the clouds, where zephyrs blow and filtered rays of sunlight dapple the machinery, while you, in the role of aeronaut, launch a new voyage of exploration on the hour.

• Number of components: 320
• Estimated time of assembly: 11 hours
• Level: Advanced