DOCSLIB.ORG

J3 Early Clockmaking in Connecticut

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
J3 Early Clockmaking in Connecticut CONNECTICUT staTE department of educate library service center , •/AIDDLETOV/N, CONNECTICUT TERCENTENARY COMMISSION OF THE STATE OF CONNECTICUT COMMITTEE ON HISTORICAL PUBLICATIONS J3 XXIII Early Clockmaking in Connecticut PUBLISHED FOR THE TERCENTENARY COMMISSION [934 9 74.6 TER, "Reprinted November, 1957" XXIII 5000837lf Connecticut State Library Library Service Center 3outb Main Street 'icidletown, Connecticut TERCENTENARY COMMISSION OF THE STATE OF CONNECTICUT COMMITTEE ON HISTORICAL PUBLICATIONS Early Clockmaking in Connecticut PENROSE R. HOOPES HE first clockmaker on the American con- tinent of whom a record has been found was Thomas Nash, an original settler of New Haven in 1638. Like many of the European Tclockmakers of that day he combined clockmaking with the trade of the gunsmith. It was, indeed, to the latter art that he devoted most of his attention during the twenty years that he lived and worked in America. His home lot was on the west side of what is now State Street, about a third of the distance from Chapel to Elm, and in a little shop on that lot he and his three sons made and repaired firearms for the earliest inhabitants of New Haven. Not a great deal is known about Thomas Nash's life in New Haven. He was admitted a freeman of the town in 1639, and was a member of the general court in 1640. His holdings of land were not extensive, for his time was largely devoted to his trade, although like most of his contemporaries he necessarily cultivated a modest farm. In 1645 he was a "fence viewer" and in 1646 the general court decreed that "In regard to several occasions and works to be done against trayning day, Brother Nash is Copyright 1934, by P. R. Hoopes. spared." As late as February i, 1657, he had charge of the town's muskets, but on May 12, 1658, he died leaving an estate made up in great part of his shop tools. Among these tools was "one round plate for making clocks." This was the early seventeenth-century tool for laying out clock-wheel teeth, the only specialized clockmaker's de- vice which might differentiate his equipment from that of the gunsmith. This carefully itemized tool, supplemented by the more generalized metal-working devices noted in the inventory of the shop, affords presumptive evidence that Nash was both a gunsmith and a clockmaker. It can not, of course, be asserted that he actually constructed any complete clocks after his arrival in New Haven. He was certainly capable of doing such work and was un- questionably the man who kept the early clocks and watches of New Haven in running order. His work with clocks must, however, have been but a small fraction of his business, for there were probably not a dozen clocks in the colony during his lifetime, while every settler was fully provided with firearms which in the aggregate re- quired the constant attention of Nash and his sons. There is a temptation to credit Thomas Nash with being the father of American clockmaking and to attempt to trace a gradual outgrowth of the trade from his shop and through his apprentices. Unfortunately the facts do not justify such an hypothesis. None of his sons paid any attention to clocks although they became the leading gunsmiths of New Haven, Hartford, and Hadley. At the beginning of the eighteenth century, when records are encountered of the actual making of clocks in America, the men engaged in the work seem without exception to have been European-trained immigrants. It is probable that the skill in clockmaking which Nash brought to New Haven in 1638 was of such slight practical importance to 1 the community that it, in great part, died with him, leav- ing the task of permanently establishing the trade in the colonies to a later generation of craftsmen. He is signifi- cant as the first American clockmaker, the first to bring the highest type of craft skill to the New World, and the pioneer in a business which was later to play an important part in the industrial life of Connecticut. For over fifty years after the death of Nash clockmak- ing seems to have been neglected in Connecticut. Toward the end of the seventeenth century it was an established trade in Massachusetts and Pennsylvania, but the first clear reference to its practice in Connecticut appears in the Guilford records of 1726. In that year Ebenezer Parmele installed a tower clock in the meetinghouse at Guilford. From that time onward to the end of the cen- tury domestic tall clocks with brass movements of the same types as those made in England were turned out by native craftsmen in most of the larger towns and many of the smaller villages of Connecticut. Most of these clocks were eight-day, striking, tall clocks, but musical clocks, thirty-hour timepieces, tower clocks, and even pocket watches were produced in small quantities. From first to last during the eighteenth century Con- necticut was the home of nearly one hundred clockmakers. The absence of large towns in Connecticut, and the scarcity of men of wealth, had a tendency during colonial days to encourage numerous small and widely scattered clock shops and to support a local industry which could supply clocks at substantially lower cost than those im- ported from Europe. The early Connecticut clockmakers were, in general, more self-sufficient, even if more con- servative and provincial in their methods, than their Philadelphia and Boston contemporaries. While the latter made frequent use of imported materials and tools, most 3 of the Connecticut workers were necessarily largely in- dependent of outside sources for their supplies. They were indeed forced to buy up scrap brass which they melted and cast into clock parts, and even to construct their own lathes and wheel-cutting engines. The limited demand for clocks in the smaller communities led the rural clockmaker to cultivate versatility and encouraged him to undertake a variety of trades unnecessary for the worker in a large town. It was, in a measure, this early and wide distribution of clockmaking in the country towns of Connecticut, and the resulting self-reliance and enforced readiness of the clockmakers to turn a hand to any variety of mechanical work, that fostered the in- genuity and commercial aggressiveness which ultimately resulted in the preeminence of Connecticut as the center of clockmaking in America. In one field of eighteenth-century clockmaking Con- necticut occupied a unique position, for the wooden clock seems to have had its American origin and practically its entire development in that colony. History is silent on the origin of the wooden clock. There is little doubt, however, that such clocks were made quite as early as metal clocks and it is not at all unlikely that many of the clocks which records show were so common in Europe in the middle- class homes of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries were actually of wood. Most of the industrial machinery prior to the eighteenth century was constructed of wood, and even within the memories of some of the older mechan- ics of the present day, wooden machinery and wooden gearing were still in daily use in the United States. There are few early references to the making of wooden clocks, although it is well known that John Harrison, the inven- tor of the chronometer, made such clocks in England at least as early as 1700, while in America wooden clocks 4 were regular articles of commerce by 1745. The early Connecticut wood clock was a massive, thirty-hour, tall clock, wound by pulling down on the weight cords. It was crudely made but was nevertheless a remarkably satis- factory timekeeper. It was sometimes fitted with a fine brass dial and placed in a handsome case, to which facts must be credited the survival of the few existing examples known at the present time. There are some indications pointing to the possibility that wooden clocks may have been first made in Connect- icut as early as 1715 in the vicinity of New Haven, but the earliest surviving clocks of this type seem to be those produced in East Hartford by Benjamin Cheney about the year 1745. Presumably Cheney learned the trade from Seth Youngs of Hartford, and it is possible that the latter was in turn instructed in the art by Ebenezer Parmele, the woodworker and clockmaker of Guilford. For many years East Hartford was the center of the busi- ness, and in 1761 when John Fitch, the inventor, was working for Benjamin Cheney, the latter was devoting all his time to making wooden clocks. Benjamin Cheney was not the only Connecticut maker of wooden clocks during the second half of the eighteenth century, but he was apparently the most successful, and it was from him or from his brother Timothy Cheney that Eli Terry de- rived his knowledge of the art, a knowledge which he later applied to the design of the popular, wooden, shelf clock of the early nineteenth century. After the Revolutionary War there was a notable in- crease in the number of makers of wooden clocks and in the quantity of such clocks which each maker produced. Gideon Roberts and John Rich of Bristol, James Harrison of Waterbury, Wooster Harrison of Newfield, and Eli Terry of Plymouth were especially active in this business 5 between 1790 and 1800. They disposed of their clocks by extensive peddling throughout New England and as far south as New Jersey and Pennsylvania, and in this man- ner laid the foundations for the subsequent concentration of the large-scale clock industry in Connecticut.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Grandfathers' Clocks: Their Making and Their Makers in Lancaster County
    GRANDFATHERS' CLOCKS: THEIR MAKING AND THEIR MAKERS IN LANCASTER COUNTY, Whilst Lancaster county is not the first or only home of the so-called "Grandfathers' Clock," yet the extent and the excellence of the clock industry in this type of clocks entitle our county to claim special distinction as one of the most noted centres of its production. I, therefore, feel the story of it specially worthy of an enduring place in our annals, and it is with pleasure •and patriotic enthusiasm that I devote the time and research necessary to do justice to the subject that so closely touches the dearest traditions of our old county's social life and surroundings. These old clocks, first bought and used by the forefathers of many of us, have stood for a century or more in hundreds of our homes, faithfully and tirelessly marking the flight of time, in annual succession, for four genera- tions of our sires from the cradle to the grave. Well do they recall to memory and imagination the joys and sorrows, the hopes and disappointments, the successes and failures, the ioves and the hates, hours of anguish, thrills of happiness and pleasure, that have gone into and went to make up the lives of the lines of humanity that have scanned their faces to know and note the minutes and the hours that have made the years of each succeeding life. There is a strong human element in the existence of all such clocks, and that human appeal to our thoughts and memories is doubly intensified when we know that we are looking upon a clock that has thus spanned the lives of our very own flesh and blood from the beginning.
    [Show full text]
  • Th B T the Brocots
    The BtBrocots A Dyyynasty of Horologers Presented by John G. Kirk 1 Outline • Introduction • Background: Paris Clocks • Brocot GlGenealogy • The Men and Their Works • Gallery 2 Outline • Introduction • Background: Paris Clocks • Brocot GlGenealogy • The Men and Their Works • Gallery 3 Introduction • This is a review of “Les Brocot, une dynastie d’ horlogers” by Richard Chavigny • Dean Armentrout asked me to discover the following: – How many/who are the Brocots who contributed to horology (see below…) – The years the famous innovations were made (and by whom) (see below…) – How the Brocot dynasty interacted with other clockmakers, for example the house of Le Roy (i(curious ly, such iitnterac tions, if any, aren’t mentioned in the book) 4 Outline • Introduction • Background: Paris Clocks • Brocot GlGenealogy • The Men and Their Works • Gallery 5 The Paris Clock (1 of 5) • The term, la Pendule de Paris, applies to table/mantel clocks developed by Parisian clockmakers • Beginning around 1810 and continuing well into the 20th century production of these clocks evolved into a highly industrialized process 6 The Paris Clock (2 of 7) • Around 1810, Paris clocks were no longer fabricated from scratch in Paris except by the grand houses, such as Breguet, Le Paute, etc. • A “mass” market for high quality, competitively‐priced “Clocks of Commerce” developed based on ébauches completed and finished in Paris 7 The Paris Clock (3 of 7) • The ébauches comprised – The two plates – The barrel (without spring) – The stiktrike titrain compltlete with dtdeten
    [Show full text]
  • Grandfathers' Clocks: Their Making and Their Makers in Lancaster County *
    Grandfathers' Clocks: Their Making and Their Makers in Lancaster County * By D. F. MAGEE, ESQ. Whilst Lancaster County is not the first or only home of the so-called "Grandfathers' Clock," yet the extent and the excellence of the clock industry in this type of clocks entitle our county to claim special distinction as one of the most noted centres of its production. I, therefore, feel the story of it specially worthy of an enduring place in our annals, and it is with pleasure and patriotic enthusiasm that I devote the time and research necessary to do justice to the subject that so closely touches the dearest traditions of our old county's social life and surroundings. These old clocks, first bought and used by the forefathers of many of us, have stood for a century or more in hundreds of our homes, faithfully and tirelessly marking the flight of time, in annual succession for four genera- tions of our sires from the cradle to the grave. Well do they recall to memory and imagination the joys and sorrows, the hopes and disappointments, the successes and failures, the loves and the * A second edition of this paper was necessitated by an increasing demand for the pamphlet, long gone from the files of the Historical Society. No at- tempt has been made to re-edit the text. D. F. Magee's sentences, punctuations and all are his own. A few errors of dates or spelling have been corrected, and a few additions have been made. These include the makers, Christian Huber, Henry L.
    [Show full text]
  • William Raynes Part 2
    WILLIAM RAYNES The York years by Brian Loomes, UK PART 2 of 2 illiam Raynes’s York work is This clock was the subject of an known through two lantern article in CLOCKS in April 1983 describing Wclocks (just possibly three) and the experimental nature of the anchor three longcases. One lantern clock is a escapement, written by Mike Kennedy and re-converted verge with the pendulum set John Ballinger. The latter took up clock between the trains (what we usually call dealing after retiring from the RAF and ran Pinfold Antiques in Lincolnshire, where the clock was said to be on view but not for Figure 8. Lantern clock by William Raynes of sale. Obviously it was sold, passed through York, made in the late 1670s or early 1680s my hands and was then for many years in with experimental anchor escapement, the the collection of the late Dr J E S (‘Stuart’) only one known with anchor escapement by Walker of Hornsea, who was a keen clock him or by any York clockmaker. Figure 10. This dial centre from a verge a centre verge). This is probably the one pendulum clock by Thomas Cruttenden of that came through auction at Sothebys in York is identical, even down to the ‘angry’ 1978 and was sold again in the trade in dolphin frets. 2008. The other is the anchor escapement example pictured here, which is a clock I enthusiast and was instrumental in founding sold many years ago and re-purchased Hornsea Museum. recently. Each clock has a virtually identical engraved dial centre which, interestingly Figure 9.
    [Show full text]
  • The Art of Horological Complications
    the art of horological complications 2020/2021 THE ART OF Horological Complications © Gerhard D. Wempe KG, Hamburg 2020 Author: Thomas Wanka 2020/2021 Noble radiance BREITLING 81 Metal bracelets make wristwatches into sporty luxury items 8 Chronomat Limited Wempe Edition 82 ROLEX 19 HUBLOT 85 Oyster Perpetual GMT-Master II 20 Big Bang Integral Titanium 86 Oyster Perpetual Day-Date 40 22 CHOPARD 89 PATEK PHILIPPE 25 Alpine Eagle Chronograph 90 Nautilus Chronograph 5980/1R 26 Nautilus 5711/1R 28 GIRARD-PERREGAUX 93 Laureato Ininity - exclusively available at Wempe 94 BREGUET 31 Marine Tourbillon Équation Marchante 32 ROGER DUBUIS 97 Classique 7337 34 Excalibur Spider Huracán 98 A. LANGE & SÖHNE 37 FERDINAND BERTHOUD 101 Odysseus 38 Chronomètre FB 1 102 Zeitwerk Minute Repeater 40 ULYSSE NARDIN 105 JAEGER-LECOULTRE 43 Executive Blast Black 106 Master Control Chronograph Calendar 44 TUDOR 109 Master Grande Tradition Grande Complication 46 Black Bay Fifty-Eight Navy Blue 110 CARTIER 49 TAG HEUER 113 Pasha de Cartier 50 Carrera Heuer 02 114 VACHERON CONSTANTIN 53 WEMPE IRON WALKER GLASHÜTTE I/SA 117 Overseas Perpetual Calendar Ultra-Thin 54 Iron Walker Automatic Chronograph 118 IWC SCHAFFHAUSEN 57 Iron Walker Automatic Diver‘s Watch 120 Portugieser Perpetual Calendar 58 LONGINES 123 GLASHÜTTE ORIGINAL 61 Spirit Pilot‘s Chronograph 124 Senator Cosmopolite 62 MONTBLANC 127 WEMPE CHRONOMETERWERKE GLASHÜTTE I/SA 65 Heritage Manufacture Pulsograph Limited Edition 128 Chronometerwerke Automatic Pilot‘s Watch Bronze 66 NOMOS GLASHÜTTE 131 175 Years
    [Show full text]
  • Celestial, Flow, and Mechanical Clocks
    recalibration Michael A. Lombardi First in a Series on the Evolution of Time Measurement: Celestial, Flow, and Mechanical Clocks ime is elusive. We are comfortable with the concept of us are many centuries older than the first clocks. The first -in time, but in many ways it defies understanding. We struments that we now recognize as clocks could measure T cannot see, hear, or touch time; we can only observe intervals shorter than one day by dividing the day into smaller its effects. Although we are unable to grasp time with our tra- parts. ditional senses, we can clearly “feel” the passage of time as we Most historians credit the Egyptians with being the first civ- watch night turn to day, the seasons change, or a child grow up. ilization to use clocks. Their first clocks were probably nothing We are also aware that we can’t stop or reverse the continuous more than sticks placed in the ground that indicated time by flow of time, a fact that becomes more obvious as we get older. both the length and direction of their shadow. As early as 1500 Defining time seems impossible, and attempts to do so by phi- BC, the Egyptians had developed a more advanced shadow losophers and scientists fall far short of their goal. clock (Fig. 1). This T-shaped instrument was placed in a sun- In spite of its elusiveness, we can measure time exception- lit area on the ground. In the morning, the crosspiece (AA) was ally well. In fact, we can measure time with more resolution set to face east and then rotated in the afternoon to face west.
    [Show full text]
  • Century Regulator by John Roger Arnold Expert Adviser's Statement
    Case 5 2010-11 : An early 19 th -century regulator by John Roger Arnold Expert Adviser’s Statement EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 1. Brief Description of item • What is it ? Longcase regulator • What is it made of ? Mahogany, brass and steel. • What are its measurements ? Height 193 cms. • Who is the artist/maker and what are his/her dates? John Roger Arnold (1769 – 1843) • What date is the item? 1795 – 1800 • What condition is it in? Good and original. 2. Context • Provenance From the time of manufacture to the recent sale at Bonham’s London Auction House (15th December 2009), making an assumption of inheritance, the regulator has a traceable provenance – see appendix 3 below. • Key literary and exhibition references The regulator has not been exhibited and has not featured in any published work. 3. Waverley criteria • Which of the Waverley criteria does the item meet? (If it is of ‘outstanding significance for the study of some particular branch of art learning or history’ which area of art learning or history). Waverley Criteria1 and 3. • Very briefly why? Waverley Criterion 1– It is so connected with our history (including local history) and national life that its departure would be a misfortune. This regulator is important because it is intimately connected with the life and business of one of Britain’s internationally recognised and celebrated chronometer making businesses and with the history of precision timekeeping in this country - an area in which London clock, watch and chronometer makers lead the world for over a century. The Arnold business had a history of providing regulators of the highest quality to observatories, perhaps the most celebrated examples being two regulators commissioned from John Arnold senior in April 1772 for the Royal Observatory, Greenwich.
    [Show full text]
  • Customer Service Focus
    TIMES TM ADVANCING THE ART, SCIENCE & BUSINESS OF HOROLOGY March 2013 HOROLOGICAL Customer Service Focus AMERICAN WATCHMAKERS- Clockmaking Tools, Part 3 CLOCKMAKERS INSTITUTE Eppner: An Extraordinary German Watchmaker Special Watch Aids, Part 3 Greubel Forsey’s Quadruple Tourbillon Watch Brequet Type XXII Chronograph with 10 Hz Frequency NEW to help you stock and organize better! New! IN THIS issue VOLUME 37, NUMBER 3, March 2013 customer technical education & service discussions certification Official Publication of the American Cabinet Perfect for Battery Strips AND 6-paks Watchmakers-Clockmakers Institute AWCI Course and Delivering Outstand- Clockmaking—The Tools, This perfectly-sized sixty-drawer cabinet is included in the Master Battery Part 3 Exam Schedule EDITORIAL & EXECUTIVE OFFICES ing Customer Service Kit or available by itself. The Master Kit contains 240 cells and tools that By Laurie Penman page 25 American Watchmakers- through Effective page 14 will cover 95% of your watch battery needs. The Starter Kit has 180 cells, Clockmakers Institute (AWCI) Communication fewer tools, and covers 85% of your needs. 701 Enterprise Drive By Justin Shiver, CW21 Stock # Description Price Harrison, OH 45030 page 4 Special Watch Service 866-FOR-AWCI (367-2924) Aids, Part 3 classifieds BX-61 New 60-Drawer Cabinet Sized for Battery Strips $ 55.95 or 513-367-9800 Dale LaDue, CMW21 Cutomer Service Can Be SBA Starter Battery Kit on left (cabinet not included) 150.96 Fax 513-367-1414 page 16 Buy, Sell, Trade, and Summed Up In Just Two MBA Master Battery Kit on right 243.50 [email protected] • www.awci.com Employment Words Battery kits come with 6-paks where available unless otherwise requested.
    [Show full text]
  • John Harrison (1693-1776) and the Heroics of Longitude
    DOI 10.6094/helden.heroes.heros./2014/02/09 Ulrike Zimmermann 119 John Harrison (1693-1776) and the Heroics of Longitude 1. A Symposium and a Rediscovery bestseller, and Dava Sobel embarked on a car­ eer as a well­known and respected author of 2 When American journalist Dava Sobel attended popular science books. the Longitude Symposium of Harvard Univer­ Dava Sobel’s first subject already was his­ sity at Cambridge, Massachusetts, in November tory, albeit part of an unaccountably hidden or 1993, she did not expect anything decisive to at least underrated history. John Harrison was a come out of either the conference or her attend­ carpenter and self­taught clockmaker, who was ance. “500 people from seventeen countries” born in Yorkshire and spent his early life in Bar­ came together to hold “a conference about the row­upon­Humber, North Lincolnshire. He would history of finding longitude at sea,” W. H. An­ prob ably have spent his life in obscur ity had he drewes, curator of the scientific instruments col­ not solved one of the major techno logical prob­ lec tion at Harvard, notes in his introduction to lems of his time, the problem of how to determine the conference proceedings (Andrewes, Intro­ a ship’s east­west position, its longitude, at sea. duction 1). Despite the sizable number of par­ Harrison has a firm place in the his tory of navi­ ticipants, the Longitude Symposium was at first gation, and would have been known amongs t sight a convention of specialists sharing their horologists, clock and watch makers, and nava l knowledge and discussing finer points of their historians.
    [Show full text]
  • 1.1 John Harrison
    Name: ___________________________________________ Mapping the Earth Date: __________________________ Period: ___________ The Physical Setting: Earth Science Supplemental: John Harrison Biography John Harrison Biography Nancy Giges - www.asme.org John Harrison (1693 – 1776), English inventor and clockmaker over- came one of the most challenging problems of the 18th century: how to determine the longitude of a ship at sea, saving many lives. In so doing, he had to defy the establishment, fight to collect a huge prize offered by Parliament, and wait for decades before receiving the recognition he deserved. Biographers say Harrison's fascination with watches, clocks, and other timepieces can be traced to age six when he was sick with smallpox, and he entertained himself with a watch his parents placed on his pil- low. Watches in those days were very large, and while not very accu- rate, their works were visible and one could see a relationship between the loud ticking and the watch's mechanical action. Although a carpenter by trade, Harrison's father occasionally repaired clocks, and young John assisted his father in his work as soon as he was old enough. As he grew older, Harrison combined his interest in woodworking and timepieces to begin building clocks and completed his first longcase clock, more commonly called a grandfather clock, in 1713 at the age of 20. It was just a year later that Parliament offered a prize of 20,000 pounds to calculate a ship's precise longitude at sea. Harrison decided to go for it. Sailors knew the principle of calculating longitude: that for every 15 degrees travelled eastward, the local time moved forward one hour.
    [Show full text]
  • Clock Cases in American Colonies
    Clock Cases in American Colonies < by Frank L. Hohmann III > n 1656 Christiaan Huygens, the Dutch mathematician, physicist, and astronomer, invented the first practical 1 pendulum clock. Within a genera- Ition, the basic form of the tall case clock, as we know it today, was for the most part estab- lished in England and northern Europe. The pendulum was first adapted to the existing lan- tern clock, but it soon became apparent that the long, swinging element needed to be encased. While month- and even year-going clocks were contemplated and constructed, the unwieldiness of the weights and the compli- cated gearing required made the next smaller 2 calendar interval, the week, more desirable. With a day added for extra tolerance in winding, the eight-day clock became the stan- dard. One-day (actually thirty-hour) clocks were also produced in quantity but were usu- ally relatively primitive clocks made outside competitive town centers. As this process was occurring in England, the earliest clockmakers who immigrated to America brought the result 3 of this standardization with them. Thus, the stereotypical American tall clock case, with form and dimensions to allow the swing of the pendulum and the drop of the weights, took on its familiar proportions. 198 www.antiquesandfineart.com Autumn/Winter Eight-day tall clock, Duncan Beard (d. 1797), Appoquinimink, Eight-day tall clock, Edward Duffield (1720–1801), Philadelphia, Pa. Del. Mahogany. H. 101¼, W. 21½, D. 11¼ in. Engraved along Mahogany. H. 122½, W. 24¼, D. 12 in. Dial engraved “Edw. Duffield / the dial arch “Duncan Beard, Appoquinimink.” Courtesy Philad.a.” private collection.
    [Show full text]
  • Capital Area Watchmaker and Clockmaker Guild Central Texas Affiliate Chapter - American Watchmakers-Clockmakers Institute (AWCI)
    Capital Area Watchmaker and Clockmaker Guild Central Texas Affiliate Chapter - American Watchmakers-Clockmakers Institute (AWCI), www.cawcg.org Meeting Date & Time President’s Message Tuesday, June, 26, 2012 Dear Guild Members and Friends, Dinner: 5:00 PM – 6:00 PM Program: 6:00 PM My odometer is clicking up and the physicians recommended a full service this year. I underwent a procedure yesterday as the final step. They told me Location they would fix things while they were in there if Pok-E-Jo’s Smokehouse anything was needed. I read and signed lots of 2121 Parmer Lane (near Metric Blvd.) papers. The good news when I woke up was that everything looked real clean and nothing was done or Austin, TX needed. So today I am a happy guy, ... a clean bill of Phone: 512-491-0434 health as they say. http://www.pokejos.com The automotive industry is big on these regular interval service checks for oiling and lubrication, "A Service", and "B Service", typically at 15K mile intervals. Do you recommend this or do it with your timepieces? I wonder how many people do it? 5%? 10%? More often than not, I guess we run things until they stop or break and then take them in or throw them away. Watches and clocks have gotten to the "disposable" device level ... "Ain't worth fixin'". We can see and recognize those pieces that are worth caring for regularly, so where possible, recommend that win-win. "Bring it back in 1 or 2 years", or whenever our "15K mile intervals" are.
    [Show full text]