Featured Unusual Little Clock - Any Thoughts on Use or Age?

Hello again,
Just wondered if anyone knows what this clock might be used for. It has a handle at the top as though it would have hung from something, and a strange sort of chimney thing on the top. This is topped with a brass cap that does not come off. The base is strange as well - could it have been attached to something?
The dial is marked 'Spendex' and 'Made in Germany'. With the handle at the top, it stands 6.5" tall.
Any thoughts on use, age or anything else gratefully received.
Thanks

 

that doesn't look like brass...and does look like it comes off.....
hummmmmm...hit it with WD40.........

 

That is one weird looking clock!

 

I think its cool,sorta looks like a railroad lantern.

 

Yes I agree it looks railroad related, but it's quite small so doesn't seem big enough?

 

JMHO. 1950s, no use. handle to throw it far and wide.
perhaps af knows the brand ?

 

Nice pictures, Cat.
Don't know Spendex, only spandex.

 

spendex means you're spending the money of your ex.

 

Ah see, that's why I didn't know. I have no ex's money to spend.

 

It is just a style thing. Cheap clock made to look a bit like a lamp. Someone's idea of what someone else might have thought decorative.

Probably bought from a gift shop, that specific type of shop that sells things you neither need nor desire but they'll do for giving away.......

 

Yes think you may be right. Doesn't feel sturdy enough to have had any real purpose. But it was worth asking anyway...

 

Difficult to look up on Google: first they want to show you Spandex, then Splendex.

Absolutely certain that top doesn't come off? It reminds me of a night watchman's clock. They carry it with them and key in from various locations on their rounds to demonstrate the they're making the rounds. I can imagine that cylinder storing tokens, or some kind of key port, to the same purpose.

 

MOS, that's EXACTLY what I thought when I saw this! When I was in boarding school (a long, long time ago) there was a night watchman who walked thru the buildings at night, "checking in" at various places during his rounds. This looks an awful lot like the "clock thing" that he carried.

 

I'll get my husband to have a go at getting the top off - maybe it could have been used to hold something as you suggest. I'll have a search and see if I can find anything about clocking in or night watchmen's clocks.

 

That is definitely not anything but a novelty shape.
Night watchmen's clocks vary in design, but they all have the movement (of far better quality) locked away so the time cannot be altered by the user. If the watchman can alter the time he can sleep all night and then do a nights rounds by changing the clock time.