My mother's Hamilton mantel clock has fallen behind by an hour on the chime. when it is three o'clock, it chimes twice; 6 o'clock, it chimes five times, etc. I'm afraid of breaking it when I turn the hands to try to correct it. Mom relies on it because she has trouble seeing.

Bob, November 2008

go to the web site
http://www.clockoilkit.com/
this explains a lot of questions with illustrations. Usually though, you just turn the hour hand, but only to put right the chime with the hour. This is the only time that you ever touch the hour hand (the hour hand is the short one - the minute hand is long.

Jad, December 2008

Fred is right - moving the hour or minute hand FORWARD will not cause a problem, but do NOT move hands backwards on wind-up clocks.

Harry Lindswell, November 2008

take your finger and move the short hand up to the correct time. You will not harm the clock. This will correct your problem.

Fred Hallman, November 2008