Cuckoo Clock Calibration

This is a very well-made and genuinely useful app. I love how you can add profiles for different clocks that you own, too. I was able to get my over 100 year old Seth Thomas mantle clock ticking within a 0.04% margin of error (which is about 5-7 seconds off per day). If you have vintage clocks, I definitely recommend this app!

This is a great app for regulating a mechanical clock…not just cuckoo clocks, as the name would suggest! You do need to find out the proper beat frequency of the clock movement you’re trying to regulate (usually 60 BPM for grandfather clocks, but varies widely for other clocks). I have three requests that would make the app perfect for me: —please allow a frequency of 60.000 BPM! I don’t know why the app doesn’t allow this. I use 60.001 BPM for my grandfather clocks, which is close enough, but it’s kind of annoying to have to do so. —you should really repackage/rename this app to be for all mechanical clocks, not just cuckoo clocks. The cuckoo clock animation is cute, but I think more people would purchase the app if it were clear that this can be used for all mechanical clocks —it would be wonderful if the app would save the data once a measurement is completed. Making a slight noise to pick up the phone or to take a screenshot completely disrupts the completed measurement, and it disappears. Thanks for a great app!

Dials in a clock incredibly accurately.

I have a cuckoo clock that is not in the database, a Regula 35, a one day movement. Through trial and error I’ve got it pretty close to about 1min/day. I’m not about to try and count teeth on gears and pinions to calculate the pendulum rate but found I had to get a longer pendulum stick after cleaning and oiling. Don’t know why this was but after trial and error got it pretty close. Was hoping the developer might have a proper reference for that particular movement but here is the reference that I have developed for the Regula 35; BPH 6755.25. BPM 112.587. Period 532.919. I hope the developer will publish a corrected version but if not this is about as close of one that I can get. I hope this helps anyone with that particular movement. A great app and thanks.

I believe this app works but the directions are so confusing I can’t get it to work. A you tube tutorial is needed.

This app is wonderful! I just upgraded my Grandfather Clock with a new Hermle movement and was not looking forward to spending a week or more calibrating the pendulum. Within a few hours I got this baby down to gain or lose just seconds per day. This tool will be a tremendous time saver to keep my clock running at it’s finest. The biggest problem was getting a good run - the iPhone microphone picks up so much background noise that it is difficult to complete a calibration pass. I had to wait until everyone was in bed before I could get good, reliable readings. Just the dog’s nails clicking on the hardwood floor was enough to trigger an upset. My suggestion (Feature Request) is, once you’ve reached a high level of confidence in the beats measurement, put guard bands around the measured beats. That way, any noise outside the guard bands would be rejected.

I got a request from a friend of the family to try and fix their cuckoo clock. I knew nothing about them, but after some YouTube videos and this app the clock is running again and keeps perfect time! I was a rank beginner but this app is very intuitive, easy to use even for a new guy.

Great app if you need to set the beat on a clock and then time it! Not just for Cuckoos! Tells you when you have a consistent beat and then whether you need to raise or lower the pendulum. You need a quiet place to use it. One of the best apps I’ve ever had!!

I belong to a couple clock collecting and repairing groups on Facebook, and I occasionally recommend this app. The first question is always, does it only work for cuckoo clocks? Since it works for any clock, a more universal name would be in order. Tick-Tock Clock Calibration, etc. Perhaps in your database you could include generic timings for common pendulum clocks - 60bpm, 72 bpm, 80bpm, etc. Thanks for a very fine and very practical app!

This app worked great to calibrate an old shelf clock. Ideas: 1) add a button to invert the display (you need to point the iPhone mic at the clock for best results so the display is upside down). 2) Explain how calculations for “drift” and instantaneous beat are made. (For example ... over how many data points does the drift average? And what does it mean when is says “done”?) I also measured a Sligh grandfather clock which has a second hand that advances 1 second per beat. So I assumed the theoretical beat was 1000ms. I measured the beat as 965.3x. I also timed 600 beats with a stopwatch which also gave me 965.3xms per beat. As it turns out theoretical beat is truly 965.3 as the second hand makes about 62 revolutions for every revolution of the minute hand. Would not have discovered that without the app.