Growing up in the great US of A, the poster in this Blog has naturally seen a zillion, or perhaps a google, of television episodes where there is a clock that is a mainstay in the background.

Grandfather Clocks in the background come to mind immediately from such shows as The Cosby Show and All in the Family, and the show Full House too!

1-800-4CLOCKS once made a proposal to the New York City based Museum of Broadcasting to work cooperatively to catalog most or all of the clocks – whether grandfather clocks, wall clocks, mantle clocks, or something else.  While they were quite intrigued at the time, it appeared that Funding did not allow for it to happen, at least just yet.

Movies also reserve special places for grandfather clocks.  There is a children’s book that was made into a movie, a Goosebumps production we recall, where a Grandfather Clock acted as a somewhat villainous time capsule, with some never returning to their current time period.

We welcome input from readers who can comment on what shows or in what books or movies or other media clocks have played a role.  We are especially interested in the role of grandfather clocks.

1-800-4CLOCKS has been asked to supply clocks, including wall clocks and grandfather clocks, for numerous movies and television shots.  One of our Howard Miller Clocks recently played a feature role in one of the Coen brothers movie productions featuring, among others, the great actor William Hurt.

Television shows also come to us on many occasions looking for something special in a clock.  Saturday Night Live once came to us looking for a prop-like grandfather clock that would do something like explode upon impact.  The Tyra Banks Show contacted us seeking 2 cuckoo clocks that had some quite unusual features.  And on and on …. but we never clock and tell .

We are very serious, even if we put it in a time capsule or as an heirloom gift for future generations, we would like to catalog the role of clocks minimally in television, and ideally also in the movies and film.  Anyone out there that might be able to devote some time to a great clocks research project like this, please do let us know.

The world will be richer for it.

In the mean-time, please keep comments coming with your best recollections of seeing a grandfather clock on a particular television show, or a great wall clock or antique mantle clock.

We eagerly await your input.

At 1-800-4CLOCKS, we have been absolutely besieged by Customers who want to sell items they own which contain solid gold in it’s different forms, e.g. 14 gold, 18k gold, etc.

The television advertising Cash4Gold has only accelerated this trend. By the way, our personal view is one that sending away one’s gold to an entity without knowing its true value, and then getting a check, is a recipe for being taken advantage of. But who are we to say, I suppose.

In contrast to the opinion of many clocks owners, clocks with Solid 14 Gold are extraordinarily rare. Bronze and brass were the favored materials, and gave the same look and color.

The place where there is real gold lurking out there stored in drawers or long-forgotten closet stashes, is in pocket watches. Many pocket watches are made with solid 14k or solid 18k gold. But they can be hard to spot if one is not an expert, and still, the vast majority of even gold colored antique pocket watch cases are gold-filled vs. gold.

We always invite our customers to arrange a meeting if they have any collections of watches, pocket watches or vintage wrist watches, that they might be interested in selling for a fair price.

Here below are 2 diagrams which include INCREDIBLY USEFUL information when trying to both describe your pocket watch, and to be able to describe your watch most effectively.

US Made Watch Sizes Conversion Chart:

Watch Size Translations (Diameter of the movement)

Size Inches Millimeters 20 1 5/6 46.56 19 1 4/5 45.72 18 1 23/30 44.86 17 1 11/15 44.02 16 1 7/10 43.18 15 1 2/3 42.32 14 1 19/30 41.48 13 1 3/5 40.64 12 1 17/30 39.78 11 1 8/15 38.94 10 1 1/2 38.10 9 1 7/15 37.24 8 1 13/30 36.40 7 1 2/5 35.56 6 1 11/30 34.70 5 1 1/3 33.86 4 1 3/10 33.02 3 1 4/15 32.16 2 1 7/30 31.32 1 1 1/5 30.48 0 1 1/6 29.62 2/0 1 2/15 28.78 3/0 1 1/10 27.94 4/0 1 1/15 27.08 5/0 1 1/30 26.24 6/0 1 25.40

This summary of American Pocket Watch sizes will be very useful in knowing which model you own, and well as to describing it to prospective buyers or collectors, or simply for your own use.

By the way, if you do have or come across a solid 14k or solid 18k grandfather clock, please let us know!

DIAMOND COLOR SCALE

D

E

F

G

H

I

J

K

L

M

N

O

P

Q

R

S

T

U

V

W

X

Y

Z

Colorless

Near Colorless

Faint Yellow

Very Light Yellow

Light Yellow

DIAMOND CLARITY SCALE

FL	IF	VVS1	VVS2	VS1	VS2	SI1	SI2	I1	I2	I3
Flawless- Internally Flawless		Very Very Slightly Imperfect		Very Slightly Imperfect		Slightly Imperfect		Imperfect

Gold Jewelry Markings: Percentage Of Gold North American Marking European Numerical Marking British Marking 37.5% 9k or 9kt 375 9ct or 9kt 41.6% 10k or 10kt 416 or 417 10ct or 10kt 58.5% 14k or 14 kt 585 14ct or 14kt 75 % 18k or 18kt 750 18ct or 18kt 91.6 22k or 22kt 916 or 917 22ct or 22kt 99.9% 24k or 24kt 999 24ct or 24kt