This may not be of any relevance, but it does remind me of a mechanical off-peak timeswitch which was installed in my previous house, although the device was only from the early ’70’s.
As I recall, “my” device had two sets of contacts which switched the off-peak supply. Two sets because it could have two on/off periods in any 24 hours. The device was normally driven by the mains but did have a spring driven clockwork backup to cover for power cuts. I believe the spring back-up was for 8 hours.
During the 24 years we lived in that house, the actual time as shown on the dial gradually slipped such that a nominal 2300-0700 actually became something like 0300-1100. Now of course, I had no means of altering it, meter readers (then) came every quarter, and no-one noticed the slippage, and somehow, I kept forgetting to mention it!
This is probably why my present house, still using off-peak, is controlled by a radio teleswitch.
Regards,
Peter G. Shaw