TIME-HONOURED CRAFTSMANSHIP

It’s almost a cliche of old black and white spy movies: a man wearing a trench coat and a trilby checks his watch. He realises it has stopped. He winds it up and glances up at the local clock tower to set the time.

Back then, all watches needed winding and keeping town clocks accurate was an important civic duty. However, that whole scenario is passing into history.

It’s a curious business, considering the art of the watchmaker. When most of us were growing up, the trade of watchmaking, if not as common as plumbing, carpentry, or motor mechanics, was not at all rare. Everyone had a mechanical watch, and there was a ‘watchmaker’ employed at most of the bigger high street jewellers to clean, adjust, and service watches and, of course, clocks. Almost every home had a clock on the mantelpiece and one on the kitchen wall. How else would you know how long you had until you had to go to work, or when to put the tea on? When you got to work, you often had to clock in.

A watchmaker

The title ‘watchmaker’ is of course not strictly accurate, although it dates back to a time when such people would often make the parts they needed. Most were