If you understand the Haut-Jura Comtoise clock as a product of a development process, then it becomes clear that there must have been intermediate stages on the way from the beginning to the product, i.e. from the lantern clock to the Comtoise clock in the period from 1657/58 to 1700/1710, because no one will assume that the Haut-Jura Comtoise clock with verge movement and long pendulum was a creation on the drawing board or the result of a Mayet family conference.
The Haut-Jura Comtoise is in no way a further development of tower clocks, neither from Mayet tower clocks nor from tower clocks from the 15th, 16th or 17th centuries by other clockmakers.
The Haute-Saône Comtoise clock is a further development of the lantern clock, which had already adopted elements from England such as the pendulum, anchor gear and rack mechanism at the end of the 17th century.
The Haut-Jura Comtoise clock is a further development of the Haute-Saône Comtoise clock, which first appeared in the first own clocks around 1710. The oldest dated and signed Comtoise clock of the Haut-Jura type to date dates from 1709.
I present to you a clock whose external features, such as a pewter dial and pewter fronton, one-hand, suspension bracket and lower spacers, bell in the middle of the top of the movement and in a forged movement cage with side movement doors, immediately indicate a Haute-Saône Comtoise movement. However, there is no gallows as a pendulum suspension, nor is there a pendulum rod behind the movement. There is also no slot on the lower back of the movement cage plate through which the pendulum could swing. This clockwork does not have a pendulum, as this quickly becomes clear. Instead of a pendulum, this clockwork has a wheel rest ( foliot )
Nobody would probably expect to find a clock that is still in its original condition from +- 1670 after almost 350 years. Of course, there have been repairs and/or changes to this movement, but the basic substance shows a hybrid movement with parts of a lantern clock and a Comtoise clock. The hand has obviously been replaced because it clearly dates not from the 17th century, but from the 18th century. The original pointer was significantly thicker than the existing one. The current bell is probably a 19th century example. The pewter dial could well be authentic, but is probably an early 18th century example. The tin fronton certainly dates from the 18th century, as it wears the typical Rococo rocailles. This clockwork was probably modernized in the 1730s/1740s with a new dial, fronton and hands in the Rococo style.
The small fixing screws of the pewter dial are hand-filed individual pieces and there is nothing to indicate any further change after the modernization in the early 18th century. Changes, however, can be seen on the upper holder of the spindle axis, as this is not original, but was replaced with old components from another clock. The spindle axis itself and the wheel alignment are unchanged; there are no other changes to the running gear wheelset. In the set of wheels of the striking mechanism, the wings of the vestibule were replaced, originally made of iron, now, after repairs, made of brass. The hammer and hammer pressure spring were also replaced. If you look at the axes, you will notice that they are conical, a typical feature of early works from the 17th century. The conical shape of the axis of the striking mechanism for its triggering is particularly obvious.
This Haute-Saône Hybrid Comtoise movement was of course created in the period after 1660, when lantern clocks were still predominantly being built. Lantern clocks usually had a running time of around 30 hours and the wheel sets were arranged one behind the other. However, the creator of this movement wanted to build a lantern clock with a running time of 8 days and thus created this hybrid clock. He placed the two sets of wheels of the lantern clockwork without the winding wheel - short axles of approx. 47 mm long - next to each other so that he could also have 2 winding rollers - long axles of approx. 69 mm long - to hold the necessary cord for the 8-day drop of the weights. The two front plates are vertical plates, whereas the rear plates have been angled backwards in the lower area to accommodate the longer axes of the winding rollers. With a plate thickness of 3 mm, the depth of the movement in a lantern clock movement (2 sets of wheels and 3 plates) would be 103 mm; in a Comtoise movement, the depth of a set of wheels (2 plates) would be 75 mm. If we compare these two dimensions with the usual dimensions of lantern clocks and early Comtoise clocks, there are hardly any deviations.
The big special feature of this movement, in addition to the wheel rest, is that it has these rear angled plates, because the construction would of course also have been possible with rear vertical plates and 75mm axles of all wheels as well as equipped with wheel rest.
As is usual with lantern clocks, there are extremely few screws. Only the locking washer sits on a shoulder screw, everything else is attached or secured by pins and wedges. The fastening screws of the fronton and the dial are 18th century, the round head screw of the bell holder is 19th century. Thick forged cage plates, sometimes more than 3 mm thick, movement pillars measuring 10 x 10 mm, just like those found in the earliest Haute Saône or Haut-Jura Comtoise clockworks.
The movement has a suspension bracket, the spacer pins are missing, but the holes for them are there. The iron cage had doors and the corresponding holes in the cage plates are present. There were originally small pinacles and cones/vases mounted to the right and left of the fronton. The holes in the cage plate are there, the threaded piece onto which the pinacle was screwed is still in the right hole.
Below are various dimensions and data for this movement.
Cage: 203mm height x 181mm width x 103mm depth.
Cage top plate: thickness 2.7 mm to 3.1 mm Cage bottom plate: 2.7 mm to 3.2 mm
Pillar 10 x 10 mm. (9.9mm to 10.1mm)
Clock: 300mm height x 181mm width x 158mm depth.
Pewter dial: 168mm outer diameter, 98mm inner diameter. Tin dial thickness: 2.3mm to 2.9mm
Boards are 19.5 mm wide and 4.7 to 5 mm thick.
The existing hand is 52 mm long and 1.5 mm thick. The original hand was probably approx. 4 mm thick (according to the possible recording of the square hand)
The back panel is 1.8 mm to 2.0 mm thick, the front panel is 1.6 mm to 1.7 mm thick.
Thickness of the conical axis of the percussion mechanism between 6.25 mm and 7.8 mm. Thickness of the conical axis of the peg wheel between 5.1 mm and 5.9 mm.
Thickness of the conical axle of the large floor wheel between 5.5 mm and 6.1 mm
The movement on the right side is wound counterclockwise. The striking mechanism on the left side of the cage is wound clockwise. You can see this visually because the two weights hang close to the edges of the cage sides. This counter-rotating system of winding the weights is a takeover from lantern clocks.
In the lantern clocks, the two winding wheels are arranged one behind the other. The weights are pulled upwards by pulling on cords or chains. The front going gear is wound on the right side - direction of rotation of the sprocket is counterclockwise - and the rear striking mechanism is wound on the left side - direction of rotation of the sprocket is clockwise. This means that the two weights hang in the middle on the left and right. If both weights were hanging on one side, the hanging clockwork on the wall could shift and the weights could also touch each other.
Since Christian Huygens also invented the endless cord/chain winding mechanism, only the basic wheel/sprocket of the going gear was turned in the lantern clocks, whereas the basic wheel/sprocket of the striking mechanism could no longer be rotated. The pulley on which the weight hung distributed the pressure on both the going train and the striking mechanism, and the weight also hung in the middle under the movement.
If you now install the two wheel sets of a lantern clock next to each other in a cage, you have to place the movement wheel set on the right in the cage and the striking wheel set on the left in the cage, otherwise the two weights would touch/obstruct each other in the middle.
In the further development of the Haute-Saône Comtoise clock to the Haut-Jura Comtoise clock, the winding system of the basic wheels is changed so that both sets of wheels are now wound clockwise, so that the left weight is to the left of the center of the cage and the right weight is at the edge of the cage hanging in the cage.
The striking appearance of the weights hanging on the left and right sides of the Haute-Saône Comtoise clockworks clearly shows their relationship to the lantern clocks.
Certainly winding the weights of a clock is easier, more practical and safer for the user if both windings rotate in the same direction. In the Haut-Jura Comtoise clocks this has been standard from the start (with extremely few exceptions in later examples). Even in those Haut-Jura works in which the gear sets of the going gear are arranged on the right and the striking gear on the left, both gear sets are turned counterclockwise.
Transitional forms or intermediate forms of a lantern clock and a Comtoise clock or another type of clock are likely to be extremely rare. Many of them were unique pieces and after almost 350, it can really be described as a miracle to find such a hybrid clock. But when such clocks are found, these clocks prove emphatically that the types of clocks we know are the result of a development process.
