When we clockmakers talk about restoration rather than repair, what do we mean.

The term restoration is much banded about nowadays and can often just be used as a more fancy term than simple repair.

In terms of antique clock restoration, this has only really been in existence for about 30 years. Before that, many repairers did the minimum job necessary just to keep the clock going, and this was mainly about price. So if your clock hasn’t been looked at for 30 years or so, it has not been restored.

When customers come into my shop to enquire about their clock, the usual phrase to describe why they have come to see me is ‘ it just stopped and it was going fine until recently, so there can’t be much wrong with it’. When I tell them that, in fact, it has probably been struggling along for years and has now given up due to having lots of dirt, no oil, and lots of wear, they are amazed, as if because it is a clock it defies the logic of mechanics – would you run your car for years with no oil or any kind of service, that is what the clock has done.

In the past this situation was dealt with in a number of ways depending on the clock man and how much customers were prepared to spend. You could just have your clock oiled – this mean adding oil, usually in an indiscriminate way on top of the dirt, making an even better grinding paste to wear away the parts. You could have it stripped down, inspected and cleaned, then oiled. This was better, but still didn’t deal with the wear issue and cleaning was done by a water based ammonia solution which wasn’t very effective.

Nowadays, when restorers do work on a clock, they do every job that is needed — keeping as many of the original parts as can be kept, bringing them back to efficient operation, which often means redoing work done badly earlier in the clock’s life. All parts are cleaned using an ultrasonic tank, which means as gently and completely as possible, all wear issues are dealt with wherever possible – this means burnishing all the pivots ( bearings) that the wheels run on, and re-bushing the holes they run in ( re-bushing is a way of filling the oversized hole that the pivot has worn into) . All working parts that have created a ‘wear mark’ which may interfere with it’s smooth operation, have that wear mark smoothed away. The ‘escapement,’ which is the part that ‘ticks’ and drives the pendulum, often has serious wear issues and the original geometry has to be re-established to give an efficient transfer of power to the pendulum. All teeth and pinion leaves are checked for smooth running. And any parts that are missing or broken beyond repair are made by hand in the correct style for that clock, and fitted. Finally, all parts are cleaned again, reassembled, and then oiled in the appropriate places – which is not on the wheels as most people imagine.

And this is just the movement, the part you don’t see..

Brass dials need cleaning, re-silvering and lacquering to keep them that way – this was done every twenty years or so in the clock’s life, so leaving it tarnished and dirty is not ‘ keeping the original surface’ as many people believe. Painted dials need careful attention by an artist to maintain/replace missing paint. And the case may need work by a furniture restorer.

All this takes a very long time to do professionally, all work is done by hand and with extreme care and attention, so it can seem expensive. Thankfully, if done well, this work only needs to be done every twenty years or so.

Twentieth century clocks were mass produced and by their very nature, cannot be restored, they were designed to wear out, so just because it belonged to your Granny, that doesn’t mean it will outlive her. Nineteenth century and earlier clocks were made to a much higher standard and will restore successfully.

Over many years I have tried to make analogies between clock restoration and other mechanical work in everyday life, failing miserably. All I will say is that some clocks have been going for well over 300 years, even victorian ones for over 100, and there isn’t another working object in the home that can say that. Try making your washing machine or car go for 100 years.. it will be a labour of love if you can.