Clock Repairer?s Bench Manual: Everything you need to know When Repairing Mechanical Clocks

My grandfather died when I was seven. We lived in Southport England. He had owned three grandfather clocks. About a year after he died, I asked my mother what happened to the grandfather clocks. She said they were distributed to the grandchildren. I said, “where is mine?” She said I think Auntie Florrie got one.

Next time we were visiting Auntie Florrie, I said to her “you got my grandfather clock” in a way only an 8-year-old could without being disrespectful. I caught her off guard, but she replied, I could have it when the time was right.

As a kid, whenever I saw an old clock at a jumble sale or going cheap, I would buy it and take it apart to see how it worked. I don’t think I ever got one back together again, but I enjoyed tinkering with them.

Twenty years later when I was getting married, now living in the USA, Auntie Florrie wrote to me saying I could now have the clock.

I arranged to have the clock shipped over and it was proudly placed in the entrance hall to my home. It was built in about 1880 in Maghull England by a local clockmaker, [before the electric light was invented], had a stately mahogany case, hand-painted dial and ran nicely.

After a few years, it stopped. I was frustrated that I didn’t know what was wrong with it or how to get it going. I ended up having it serviced by a local repair shop and it ran again. I was fascinated with the clock.

In 1995, my family decided to spend a year in England including putting the kids in school. It was a big challenge to arrange to swap houses with an English family. Finally, we were settled, and the kids started school, my wife was volunteering at a local charity shop and suddenly I had time on my hands.

I read the paper that morning and came across an ad for a clock course starting nearby at Manchester City College. I called the college and they told me it was a three-year course, one day per week. I explained I was only in the country for one year, so I persuaded them to let me take the course, coming all three days.

I enjoyed the course and did very well. The final exam took several weeks, making a ‘suspension bridge’ from scratch to exact specifications, restoring several old clocks and watches. I documented the process and took the extensive final written exam all set by BHI [British Horological Institute]. I did pass the exams and became a Horologist.

25 years later I teach clock repair classes and ‘pass it on’. This is the class workbook.