Kit Cat Klock Gentlemen The Original (Classic Black)

The Kit Cat Clock has been an American classic for decades. It's funny, cute and maybe too tacky for some folks but a lot of people (like me) love it. I read a lot of other customers' reviews before buying this and I recommend that you read some of the high rated reviews if you are planning to buy it so you know the "tricks" to getting it to work. It is somewhat fragile and it takes care to open it without damaging it, removing the foam insert, installing the batteries and putting the back part on again. You need to get the top of the back (up by the ears) in first and gently snap the panel in. It is also a good idea to use a screw rather than a nail to mount it since the screw should be more stable and you can adjust the small distance between the clock back and the wall as necessary to keep the tail assembly moving. You will also need to adjust the vertical angle a bit to keep the tail motion going. But I was very pleasantly surprised to see that, with careful preparation and installation, the krazy thing really works. The wagging tail assembly isn't even powered by a motor but just uses magnetic repulsion to keep the tail pendulum moving but it has continued to work for months now without any adjustment. It also keeps good time - just remember to only move the minute hand to set the time or you will probably break it. It really looks like a smaller version of the old AC electric Kit Cat Clock that I remember my aunt and uncle had in their house decades ago and the box says it's made in the USA. Good stuff!

Works great! So cute and easy to assemble. Just pop back off and put batteries in and clip on tail. I don’t understand all the negative reviews about this, yes it’s plastic but it’s not super flimsy. It is smaller than you expect but it is the exact same size as the vintage ones.

Love this clock. It’s a cute addition to my kitchen. Had some issues getting the animation to work and reached out the manufacturer, who were extremely helpful in troubleshooting. If you have the same problem try loosening the tiny philips head screw on the pendulum by a half turn. It’s tightened for shipping and can prevent the tail from moving. Once fixed, it began working beautifully and I’ve gotten several compliments from guests.

The media could not be loaded. This is a great looking piece and a bit challenging to get working. This is made of plastic and I am not sue if the original version was, but it is fine. It requires 2 C batteries for the time which seems like overkill, but maybe it helps with weight somehow. The tail wagging and eye movement are one simple mechanism that is powered by a magnet so it doesnt use any battery at all. It seems pretty finicky to get working. It has to be centered left and right as well as the top have to be in perfect alignment. After playing with it for quite some time, here are my suggestions. First, just hold it in the air until you get the tail wagging consistently, then you can see how it needs to sit and get a feel for the angles. I think the one suggestion in a review was to use a screw instead of a nail, thats probably a good idea to give adjustment on the ridges of the screw. If you use a nail, try not to angle it up to much as that will make the clock slide back. The other trick I found is once you hang it, get the tail wagging and 1st adjust the bottom left or right, you will notice if the eyes track one way or the other. They need to track in the center, so adjust left or right to make that happen, next, gently pull the head away from the wall or closer to the wall in order to keep the tail wagging. Using this technique I am able to get it working every time. At one point, I also taped a nickel or a penny on the bottom of the tail to give just a bit more weight to the pendulum. Im not sure if that helped or not, but I left it on. This was a present for my wife and she absolutely loves it. I personally thought it is a bit high of a price point, but its worth every penny because she loves it!

So I purchased three clocks and all have encountered the same issues. Either they are too loud or they stop moving after a day or two. I was able to resolve both of these problems. I do wish they told you in the instructions how to troubleshoot, but I have figured out a way, and I hope to help others the same. Try to do these 3 things if you are frustrated with your clock.1. If you use a nail in the wall, the clock has a tendency to slip head down wards which should be fine, but I have found that with all of the clocks that I used a nail, they all stopped wagging the motion after a little while. If you switch to a screw, it will keep the position of the clock in place and it would not slip head forward. I believe this causes the movement issue to go away. The reason here is the clock should be completely flush with the wall, this helps the movement.2. You should probably use a level. To get these perfect you should use a level.3. To help with the noise being too loud I found that if I used a very light silicone lubricant and applied just a tiny drop to the eye of the lower and upper portion that holds it in place as well as a tiny drop to the eye stems that rub against the black holder things the clock almost made no noise. The eyes is what’s causing all the noise and by putting some light silicone lubricant in those areas my noise completely went away.4. Lastly the lubrication of the eyes completely smoothes out the animation motion and helps with the animation to never stop if you followed all the steps above.That is all it takes. I wonder if this company should take a note and do something about it as it can help a lot of frustrated people, I know it helped me, I thought I had to return all 3 clocks back but nope all good.By the way, people are complaining about cheap quality for the price, you have to understand that this is a product made in US. Of course it will not be as cheap as a Chinese product. Same with a UK product being made in UK. People literally can’t read that it’s made in its own country, seriously. Other that that it’s a very cool clock, a legend and I’m totally glad to have 3 of them.