Hanging a cute clock is a lovely way to bring new year cheer that keeps on giving. I’ve had this mushroom clock for a couple of weeks, but with Christmas I haven’t been in the office much, so I just hung it up today.
The Merry Mushrooms clock was a ceramic clock made in Japan for Sears in 1978.It was released with a variety of other matching ceramic kitchenware, which all featured the adorable merry mushrooms, and today is one of the most commonly available vintage ’70s mushroom clocks.
I buy a lot of vintage clocks, but this one was unusual in that it was still in its original box, which even still has the original Japanese battery that was supplied with the clock.
This mushroom clock came along with a lovely 1967 Sexton sunflower wall clock that I’ll share in a later post. Judging from its immaculate condition, I don’t think this Merry Mushrooms clock has seen much time out of the box.
How could you not love this adorable little thing?
Even Godzilla, my bearded dragon, is in love with it. I hung the clock next to his tank, and he is enthralled by the movement of the shiny gold second hand.
The only thing that surprised me about this clock when I received it was how small it is. I’ve seen a lot of pictures of this clock and assumed it was around the size of the Arnel’s mushroom clock, but it’s only nine inches or so.
In its original state it has a quartz movement that runs on a C battery, although there are of course retrofitted Merry Mushrooms clocks with plug-in movements.
This one still has the original battery-powered movement (the cord beside it in the above picture is powering Christmas lights, not the clock), and it works like a dream. It’s happily ticking along and keeping wonderful time.
You never know quite what to expect with the quartz movements in vintage clocks. They can range anywhere from superb to non-functional, though I’ve gotten many that are in surprisingly good shape considering their age and still run great with little to no adjustments needed.
While I generally prefer mechanical movements, I do love these novelty clocks, and the one nice thing about these quartz movements is that if you get a vintage clock that doesn’t work, you don’t have to be a clock expert to fix it.
Even if you know nothing about the workings of a clock, quartz movements are inexpensive and easy to replace, so get out there and find yourself your own adorable vintage clock to start the new year off right!