We all like fixing things, right? So how about antique clocks? My friend Emon made this little video about an Englishman living in New York who repairs antique clocks.
We all like fixing things, right? So how about antique clocks? My friend Emon made this little video about an Englishman living in New York who repairs antique clocks.
Actually, my wife does this! Years ago we lived in a city that had one of the few clock repair training programs in the US, and she took the full two-year program and ran a small, part-time business cleaning and repairing clocks. Long story short, there's no money to be made in doing first-rate, full teardown clock repair business in a small city in southern New Mexico, so now she just does it for enjoyment. She is just now finishing up a 120 year old Gilbert movement, an antique German movement is next. She had to stop for several years due to a condition called essential tremor, which is tremors similar to Parkinson's but not as severe or deadly, but two years ago she had elective brain surgery called deep brain stimulation that allows us to remotely adjust the stimulation level to electrodes in her brain that actually stop the tremors, so she is now back to fixing clocks for fun. Amazing medical technology we have these days!
Interesting comment in the video about cuckoo clocks, she won't touch one either.
That was great, the first clock looks similar to one I own. I haven't run it in a while but I've always enjoyed it.
Horologists unite!
I have a grandfather's clock made in 1785 that runs if you wind it, but it really needs a good cleaning and adjustment, so I don't.
I also have a mechanical mantle clock from the late 1880s that not only shows time, date, day of the week, and phase of the moon - but once every 4 years it puts 29 days in February. Now that is some mechanical confidence.
Jim, I'm glad your wife was able to get her neurological issue mitigated! That sounds really interesting.
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