This Seth Thomas Medbury 6E was made in 1967. It has a tambour style case, is electric powered (plug-in) and plays Westminster chimes. The movement was made by Hermle in Germany specifically for Seth Thomas. The movement has date code 6613. 66 is the year (1966) and 13 may refer to the 13th lunar month of the year. The instruction label inside the back door has date code 6701 (year 1967 and either January or the first lunar month).
The 1968 Seth Thomas catalog shows this clock, in both electric and windup versions, retailing for $85.
In this movement (like in other Seth Thomas electric chime clocks) the motor runs the hands and also winds a small mainspring for the chime and another small mainspring for the strike). These two mainsprings are in little barrels, visible at the left and right of the second picture below. The mainsprings have brace ends that slide around the outside of the barrel when they reach a certain tension, so they aren’t overwound.
Repair job 7788. I polished the pivots and installed 14 bushings. The mainspring barrels were full of graphite (yuck – please don’t use graphite on mainsprings!) They were a mess and took lots of cleaning. These mainsprings are very thin (.006 to .007 inch thick). I set them so the braces would slip after 8 turns of winding for the strike, and 10 turns for the chime. It is impossible to get an exact setting (by bending the brace inward or outward) but you want the mainsprings to slip in the barrel before being wound tight, to avoid putting too much load on the motor. On the USA made versions of this movement, I typically set the springs to slip at around 6 1/2 to 7 1/2 turns, because the mainsprings are stronger than the ones in this movement.
This clock’s motor is the M5, sealed capsule type. The capsule contains all the gears of the motor, and is detachable from the field coil.
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