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Help ID vintage German auto clock VDO brand. Mercedes?


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Hello. I've owned this old VDO brand auto clock for years, but cannot seem to find what car it belongs to. It is marked, "VDO" at the bottom of the clock face, and "Made In Germany" at the top. Does anyone recognize it?

ClockautoStude3.jpg

The backside is stamped with the numbers, “1 59” which I ASSUME might be a manufacture date.

ClockautoStude4.jpg

Another AACA forum reader suggested to me that this might fit an older Mercedes SL…perhaps a 1959 model. Do you have any idea about this?

Thanks in advance for any assistance you can offer.

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Sorry to disappoint you.

It is much more likely to have come from a humble VW Beetle or possibly a Karman Ghia coupe.. I would hesitate before I connected it up to 12 Volts. In the absence of any other marking I think you may find that it is 6 Volt.

Edited by oldcar (see edit history)
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Sorry to disappoint you.

It is much more likely to have come from a humble VW Beetle or possibly a Karman Ghia coupe.. I would hesitate before I connected it up to 12 Volts. In the absence of any other marking I think you may find that it is 6 Volt.

Oldcar, thanks for the reply. Heck, it's no disappointment at all. I am not hoping to find that it fits one car or another...just trying to find out WHAT it fits at all. It's useless like this, just sitting in a cardboard box. I would be much happier if I knew what it fit. SOMEONE somewhere probably would like to have it.

You make a good point about 6 volt versus 12 volt. I haven't tried hooking it up at all, and won't do so until I (hopefully) can learn some more about it.

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  • 6 months later...
Guest henry roberts

hi, i can't tell you what it is for but i'm fairly certain it's not for a VW. the face doesn't match any era vw gauge and i've never seen or heard of one like it in 18 years of playing with VW's.

the 1.59 stamp is the date of manufacture.

it is a rear wind windup clock. the big knob on the back being the winder.

as a generalization vw clocks in the 50's were either front wind for oval/big window beetles and kombi's or side wind with the winder in the glovebox on split window beetles.

if you pull out the bulb holder, the thing with the square end with a screw in it, at 1 o'clock in the rear picture, if it has a bulb you can read the voltage of the bulb, but that it the only electrical part the gauge.

Edited by henry roberts (see edit history)
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