Retrospective: My One-Of-One Pragotron × UDC Porsche 911 SC Coffee Timer

It has been almost a year since my last article, so no pressure at all! “It has to be an epic comeback,” I told myself as one month flew into another. There were many watch candidates with unusual stories, but getting back to writing became harder and harder each week. As it usually goes, that crucial push for a comeback came out of the blue, completely unexpected. Meet my old Czechoslovak Pragotron clock, which I decided to turn into a “restomod.” After years of it sitting abandoned, I decided to make it into a UDC Porsche 911 Coffee Timer. But let’s take it slowly.

Quick recap

This is my 425th article for Fratello. For six consecutive years, I contributed almost every week, digging up unusual complications or personal vintage watch stories to keep all of us vintage watch nerds fed and happy. My life changed dramatically last year, from family rearrangements to the decision to step down from my leading role at my company. There were so many reasons why it was just easier not to write an article and skip one week. Another week passed, followed by another month. Eventually, putting pen to paper became an impossible task. I didn’t feel I was ready. Also, I didn’t want it to be a task. I am so happy that Nacho and RJ never put any pressure on me and just let me find my way back. Here I am.

Turning life upside down

After taking a six-month sabbatical, my curious mind couldn’t just sit around. Since I wouldn’t be able to squeeze everything that happened over the last 12 months into 12 articles, I will focus only on the outcome for today’s topic. At the end of last year, I decided to fully embrace what I’ve always loved — old cars. I partnered with a friend who already had a drive club, and we decided to take it to the next level. We added a new location and rebranded it as UDC – Unboring Drive Club. Our vision is to build a global community of drivers, collectors, and dreamers. It’s a movement for anyone who’s ever fallen in love with a machine…and coffee, bikes, vinyls, and watches.

A Pragotron clock at Masaryk Railway Station, Prague — Image: Wikimedia

Pragotron

You’ve never heard of Pragotron, have you? That’s about what I expected. Pragotron clocks are often considered the Czechoslovak equivalent of the iconic Swiss Railway Clock. Both were created for the same purpose — to provide a synchronized public time system across railway stations, schools, hospitals, factories, airports, and government buildings. Rather than operating independently, thousands of clocks were controlled by a single master clock, ensuring everyone saw precisely the same time.

My first Pragotron

As an ’80s kid, I had the image of a Pragotron ceiling clock burned into my eyes after staring at it for hours during each visit to a doctor or a public office. I remember that deep electromechanical clunk each time the minute hand jumped forward, filling the silence of the gloomy waiting room. I found my first double-sided Pragotron, a square one, about six years ago. Without much thought, I bought it. I had no use for it, so I kept it with my watchmaker, who decided to restore it and put it on display at the front of his watchmaking studio.

Image: @martin_katler

My Porsche 911 SC

Besides developing my passion for old clocks and watches, I was living the life of a classic-car enthusiast with no modern car. For the first 10 years of owning one of my first classic cars, a 1981 Porsche 911 SC, I didn’t do anything with it other than drive it, change its oil, and collect tiny dings. I had no urge to upgrade it or change anything about it. I fully enjoyed its unmolested, all-original, one-previous-owner condition.

How it all came together

Early this year, as we were fully in the process of shaping our Unboring Drive Club, I felt an urge to make my 911 more personal. I wanted to make it a signature UDC car. While tasking OpenAI with endless queries to make stripes here and there, I started thinking about how I could fine-tune my 911 through my passion for watches.

Image: @martin_katler

The eureka moment

With images of mid-century Wyler Vetta Incaflex promotional vans in mind, I thought back to my Pragotron clock and started making mock-ups of an old one welded to a roof rack. I liked the idea of a clock on my Porsche, but it felt kind of violent. I had missed the point and found it self-serving. After living with this idea for about a month, dropping it, and then reviving it, the right question came to me: what do racers mostly carry on their racks? Spare tires! Here we go… What if I dropped the square Pragotron and tried to find a rarer round double-sided version? The tire would protect it from bumps, and the final “object” would feel strange because it would only become a super-cool clock.

Project kick-off

I couldn’t believe it when I, quite hopelessly, opened a local classified site and searched for a round Pragotron. Only one result popped up, and I didn’t let it slip through my fingers. A couple of days later, I parked at the nearest tire service and dug through the tires. I couldn’t find a single 19″ tire, which was the best theoretical fit. Since a call to my brother never ends in disappointment, within a few hours, I had an almost perfectly fitting tire. I took the Michelin branding as a bonus. We had to trim the tire slightly with a grinder and apply some lubricant, but the clock slid right into place.

Pragotron PD40

The Pragotron PD40 is a classic double-sided suspended station clock produced during the 1960s. Each of its 435mm dials is equipped with an independent movement mounted on the reverse side. Both the hour and minute hands are made of black-painted sheet metal and were driven by minute-polarized impulses from a central master clock. This ensured that every clock in a given building would advance in perfect synchronization. The Pragotron’s robust hammer-finished steel case, minimalist numeral-free dial, and independent movements for each face made it both durable and instantly recognizable — a quiet icon of public spaces.

Disassembly (butcher time)

A typical Pragotron clock is suspended from the ceiling by a sturdy metal tube. At its upper end, the tube terminates in a shaped steel bracket with two opposing holes for a metal pin, allowing the clock to hang from a ceiling hook. The suspension tube also serves as a conduit, concealing the electrical wiring that powers each movement independently. The ceiling hook, wiring entry, and mounting bracket are enclosed by a bell-shaped metal cover, providing a clean and finished appearance. Since I decided to make the clock battery-powered, we simply cut all that stuff off. You could argue that I ruined the clock’s value by installing a cheap movement, and you would be right. But I really didn’t mind since the clock would be reborn for mobility and couldn’t require a socket.

Image: @martin_katler

Some more grinding

On each side of the frame, a sheet-metal dial is loosely fitted and secured with its protective glass by a metal retaining ring fastened with four screws. Since the clock was too thick and would otherwise stick too much, I simply cut the metal retaining ring in half to fit it nicely into the prepped old tire.

Image: @ottovollmann

Design twist

Like its Swiss role model, a regular Pragotron clock has no numerals. Since I decided to make it an inseparable part of my 911 SC, I had the idea of using the Porsche 911 numerals to mark 9 and 11 o’clock. I took the dial disc to a professional agency, which redesigned it 1:1, even with its original Pragotron logo. We even tried to match the ivory tone of the originally white, now-half-century-old clock dial.

Assembly

Once I had the body shell and dial imprints ready, I rushed back to my watchmaker, Tom, to have the clock assembled. Given that the hands are made of metal and quite heavy, we ordered the strongest battery-powered movements we could. For my trusted friend, the assembly was a piece of cake. Within an hour, I was pressing the metal retaining ring over the protective glass.

Image: @martin_katler

Longevity

This is one aspect I’m not sure about at the moment, and only time will tell. The clock may be too fragile for constant movement, but it has already made it through one long trip and an event full of petrolheads. What I love is that the final piece looks natural. It looks like the clock was born in that tire. Rubber, thanks to its natural characteristics, even helps absorb some shocks during transport. When I’m not attending events, I just unstrap it from the car and put it in our coffee shop, where other people can enjoy it.

Image: @martin_katler

Last thoughts

A Pragotron clock is not something you’ll see hanging from the ceiling in a living room. But seeing it reborn in a new, cool outfit makes it timeless. Everything in this tiny clock project clicked nicely. The creation process was pure joy. What makes me smile is the amusement of other people who see it strapped to my roof rack. Rather than being long forgotten by history, it now “parks” quietly on the floor while people chat over a cup of good coffee at the Unboring Drive Club.