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I’ve been harvesting car clocks at junkyards for a few years now, stockpiling them for a project that requires at least two dozen functioning timepieces. Here’s one of the prizes of my collection. Believe it or not, this elderly mechanical clock, from a country not known for reliable machinery, still works! So, guess the year/make/model of the car that yielded this fine clock for my collection, then make the jump to see if you were right.
It probably wasn’t a very challenging process of elimination to narrow this choice down to something Italian from the 1960s or 1970s, and from there Fiat— being the most common junked Italian car from that era— was the obvious call. Did you get it right?
21 Comments on “Name That Car Clock: Veglia 2″ Diameter Analog...”
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I thought it could be a triumph at first.
Also thought something British. And about a decade older.
Cool. The Rabbit clock stumped me, but this one I actually got right.
Definitely the most inelegant example you’ve shown so far.
i find it funny that they truly expect the driver to manual wind the clock every few days
just wear a watch instead?
24 clocks?
Are you planning a world time display with (when available) a clock from each time zone?
If so, go crazy and harvest 55 of ’em.
http://wiki.answers.com/Q/How_many_times_zones_does_the_world_have
I absolutely nailed it! But it was easy.
When are we going to see an 850 spider?
Sir! He visits junkyards but Murilee ISN’T a gravedigger. I can honestly say it’s been more than 20 years since I’ve seen a running 850 and any 850 that has sat in one place for 20 years has become one with the earth….long ago. My Alfa mechanic here in Texas has a couplecof acres of old Fiats and Alfas, and even the odd Lancia and Maserati, but even he doesn’t have an 850 in the pasture.
Sorry Lokki, I had a moment of temporary insanity. Come to think of it, last nice one I saw was in 1971.
I think I saw one in a TN junkyard yesterday sitting on top of a school bus.
It was probably the only thing that still worked on the car.
Murilee, you made it too easy.
I recognized it would be Fiat cause some of my first cars were Fiats and the instrument gauges came with the name Veglia on them. By the time I got aroiund to owning cars, the clocks in ’em were digital so I’d never seen a Veglia clock. But yeah, I spent a lot of time looking at that brand name written on the gauges of my first 2 or 3 Fiats.
“I’ve been harvesting car clocks at junkyards for a few years now . . .”
That sounds like a quote from Exhibit A to my mother-in-law’s divorce complaint.
I would not have guessed which car but am pleased it came from a Fiat, and a purple one at that!
Very cool.
Nice looking, but yeah, the knob is well, inelegant.
Love it!
Back in 1959 my father glued a pocket watch to the dash of his VW. It would be great to mount this Fiat analog clock to the dash of my present all digital dash.
Hope I get to see your collection.
BTW, I may be wrong on this but I think MM did a Fiat 850 at some point last fall.
veglia borletti
what an evocative name
maker of intruments of questionable reliability for ferrrari, lamborghini…
Yes! Veglia-Borletti was a factory located here in Milan, famous for building instruments for many automotive brand like Ferrari, Lamborghini and Fiat.
My grandfather work in Borletti during wartime.
My dad had a Fiat when I grew up. The clock looked very similar to this one, but the button was much smaller. That puzzled me, until I read that this one is a mechanical clock. First time I heard about a mechanical clock in a car.
Having a mental disease that caused me to own 23 Fiats over the years, let me clear up a few things about this clock. The black bezel indicates this came from a 1970 or newer model. These were not mechanical in the sense that you wound them; they ran off electricity. That huge abortion of a knob I’ve only seen once before and I believe it is a “fix” and not original. The factory made these with a small black plastic knob that (surprise) frequently broke off. It’s only purpose was to set the hands to the time. 67-69 versions of this clock would have a chrome bezel that is far more attractive. Both the 124 and 850 sports cars shared the gauges, so you could just as easily get one of these from an 850 Spider or 124 Coupe. Most of the instruments in these cars were reliable and failure was rare, but the clocks were a notable exception. Of all the cars I owned I think the clock only worked in one.
i concur. my father had two fiat 124 spyders including a ’74 very much like this one. the knob was a slender black thing. i’m not certain but i though these were mechanical in the sense that they were self-winding like an automatic watch.