A strange happening

I have owned my 1977 Porsche 2.7 for 20 years. For all of those 20 years the VDO dashboard clock has refused to function. In the early days I removed the clock from the dashboard. I disconnected it and bench tested it with a 12 volt power suppy. Nothing.

I have shaken it and tapped it with a screwdriver. I have driven the car over tens of thousands of kilometres of rough Aussie roads and still nothing. The clock has stayed frustratingly frozen.

I have consulted various forums and obtained an opinion from a repairer on the likely repair cost. It was way over what I thought was reasonable to spend on a clock which I rarely would look at.

I gave up on the clock years ago. It was there and that was it-until today when I took the car out for a run upto a friend's for coffee. The car had not been driven for 5 weeks and had stayed under a cover in the garage.

For some reason I happened to glance at the clock whilst stopped at some roadworks and noticed that the hands were no longer showing 10.15 as they had done for at least the last 15 years but now showed 10.32. I pulled onto the side of the road the other side of the roadworks and carefully watched the hands and I could see the minute hand moving. The clock had mysteriously sprung to life after a 20 year sleep. But how and why?

It's a total mystery but at 1.44 when I took the above photo it was still going strong-just like it's supposed to. A very strange happening indeed.