> (1)  My 1st thought is that a stepper motor - direct or geared, may
> serve you better.

For my own clocks I do prefer steppers. As you say, they can go
backwards, and also can be run on DC when there's a mains outage.
A micro can keep track of the date and automatically adjust for
daylight saving

They do require a gearbox though. I've not actually approached them
about that possibility. I'm having some new cogs 3D printed, maybe
they'll go for it when I show them something assembled and running

Funnily, how I make my clocks has never come up in conversation
as an upgrade possibility. A DC system would be price-competitive
as the mains units are quite expensive to land here

They do tend to hang on to and search out older mechanisms for
restorations etc so JDHR should not hold his breath

"Why have any clocks at all when everyone has a smartphone and
can tell at once the public time is always wrong?"

As my drivers for the Gents mechanisms are mains-synchronised
they are generally correct and there's battery/crystal back-up for
outages. Boards from the 60s and 70s I'd been given to emulate/
strip were simply crystal-based and did drift a fair bit, even though
some effort had been put into stabilising the frequency. It's easy to
see why micros became popular when many many digital ICs can
be replaced by one. Bank 'flip' clocks have mains cycle detection,
driving a handful of TTL / CMOS logic and they keep good time.
Popular because they included the date

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Grayson-White-Digital-Easy-to-Read-Calendar-Wall-Cl=
ock-Bank-Shop-BNIB-G225-/261904154311

To some extent I agree about public clocks, but many are fixtures
and it doesn't take much to keep them going

I don't have a mobile of any kind or wear a watch. Gasp

Joe=20



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