Much work has been done to restore this novel animation clock to like new condition. The clock face is a reproduction and has new glow in the dark paint on the appropriate places. The thick convex glass is a replacement for the one that was broken. After three full winding cycles the clock runs accurately for almost 60 hours before it stops. This is quite unusual for a clock that should be rated for only 24-30 hours.

The paint only had a handfull of small blemishes and has been touched up and coated with a clear lacquer. Some of the touchup needs a little work to blend more naturally.

Both sides of the clock look nearly perfect.

Most glow in the dark paint that is radioactive will last about 30 years. This clock has new glow in the dark paint applied, but is not radioactive. As a result, it may last only 10 years. The animated fish was not originally glow in the dark, but it is now. The picture was taken in a dark room with a handfull of ambient light sources. The brightness of the photograph has been increased so that the face of the dial can be seen. The glow effect is somewhat exaggerated.

The picture was taken in a very dark room with no ambient lighting. The glow effect is somewhat exaggerated, but would last a number of hours rather than a few minutes as it originally did.

Original condition of the front of the mechanism. All it needed was a good cleaning and proper lubrication.

Every surface except for the balance wheel was cleaned without disassembly. Avoided touching the balance wheel since the hairspring that attaches to it is very delicate. If that spring gets damaged then repair would be quite difficult.

Original condition of the back of the mechanism.

The main spring and alarm spring were unwound so that the surface of each could be cleaned. This will prevent the springs from sticking.

The white plastic ring seen under the clock face was yellow and brown due to age. It was restored back to its milky white color by soaking in hydrogen peroxide and left out in the bright sunlight for a number of hours. Apparently the UV rays from the sun attack the free radicals that yellow plastic and attach to the hydrogen peroxide molecules. The results are surprisingly good.

It appears that most of the alarm clocks that come out of The People's Republic of China are primed with the same color or type of primer.

Original clock face shows abnormal staining.

Backside of clock face.

Scanned image of the original clock face. It appears that the red color is somewhat faded.

After soaking in hydrogem peroxide and leaving out in the sunlight for 30 minutes yielded a better looking clock face, but overall not good enough.

After much work in Photoshop this is the final clock dial. All of the red color has been restored and a mild greenish tint was added to the elf face and hands along with fish bucket. This can be seen on the original with human eyes but the camera did not pick up on it. It is barely noticeable on the final output.

Video of running clock.