Here on our website, you can view live pendulum telemetry from our actively monitored installations, demonstrating the marriage of traditional horology and modern digital engineering in real time.
Our system has been developed specifically for mechanical turret clocks. Rather than replacing the clock's traditional timekeeping, it works alongside the existing mechanism — observing its behavior, measuring its performance and, when necessary, making a small and carefully controlled correction.
At the heart of the system are two complementary measurements.
A highly sensitive electronic timing system continuously measures the beats per hour of the clock's physical pendulum. This tells us how the clock is running and reveals the small changes in rate caused by temperature, atmospheric conditions, mechanical loading and the constantly changing environment of a clock tower.
But knowing the rate alone does not tell us whether a clock is actually showing the correct time.
For that, our Centre Wheel Hour Position (CWHP) system independently monitors the position of the clock mechanism. Each hour, as the minute hand reaches the twelve o'clock position on the dial, a reference on the centre wheel is detected and compared with an accurate time reference. The result is a remarkably simple distinction:
The pendulum tells us how the clock is running. The CWHP tells us where the clock actually is.
Our Correction Engine combines these measurements to determine not merely whether the clock is fast or slow, but whether its error is increasing, remaining stable, or naturally moving back towards true time.
If the clock is already correcting itself, the system leaves it alone. Only when intervention is genuinely required does the Correction Engine apply or remove a small timing weight from the pendulum, gently altering its rate until the clock returns towards true time.
The clock therefore remains fundamentally what it has always been: a mechanical clock governed by its pendulum. The electronics observe and assist rather than replace its traditional timekeeping.
We are dedicated to assisting the custodians and clock keepers who care for these remarkable historic machines. Where an internet connection is available, the system also provides a window into the clock's operation. Environmental conditions, pendulum rate, clock position and Correction Engine decisions are recorded and securely transmitted here to the Follytrees® Analytics website.
Through a dedicated online portal, a clock keeper can remotely follow the clock's performance from a smartphone, tablet or computer — whether they are standing beside the clock or many miles away.
More importantly, the accumulated telemetry creates a detailed engineering history of the clock. Changes in pendulum rate, environmental conditions and mechanical timekeeping can be examined over hours, days and seasons, helping us better understand how these historic machines behave in the modern world.
Centuries old mechanical engineering remains at the heart of the clock. Modern technology supplied by Follytrees® Analytics simply allows us to listen to what it is telling us.