Clocks’ many duties stand the test of time

Time never stands still at the Old Time Clock Shop in Wichita.

In fact, as you step into the warm confines of the small shop at 1946 W. 13th St. – the only clock store in Wichita – you can hear time move.

It whirs, strikes, tick-tocks and chimes all around you. The top of the hour is almost always striking from one clock or another, as the clocks – ranging from antique to modern – are mostly set at different times.

“It’s the sound and the mystique of something that ticks and continues to operate that’s 100 to 200 years old,” said Scott Childs, owner of the shop and one of only a couple of people in town who still repair clocks. “We have people who walk in and go to the back of the store and close their eyes and take all the sounds in.” It’s like standing alongside a waterfall.

As most Americans prepare to set their clocks ahead one hour before going to sleep Saturday night for the return of daylight saving time – and Childs’ shop will reset around 30 – people’s love for clocks seems to have stood the test of time, even as they most often check their cellphones if they want to know the time of day.

“There’s still plenty of people who do use the old ones and cherish them,” said Wichita enthusiast Steve Overstreet. “They really cherish the family heirlooms.”

There’s also demand for high-end clocks and ones that remind people of ones they grew up with, or that Grandma and Grandpa had, Childs said.

He and his staff work on about 2,500 clocks in the shop a year, and he makes about 700 grandfather-clock house calls. He also moves clocks for customers, and sometimes buys clocks from customers. He figures that within a year most of the clocks for sale in his shop will turn over.

Examples can be found from any decade from 1820 on up; new Kit-Cat clocks swish their tails in a variety of colors on the wall.

Another indicator that clocks and watches continue to draw interest is the fact that the Wichita Antique Watch & Clock Collectors will put on their show for the 45th year on March 28 at the Extension Education Center. The show also will include music boxes, fountain pens, knives and antique jewelry. About 100 tables are rented for the event.

“The public seems to enjoy it,” said Mike Ciskowski of the Wichita chapter of the National Association of Clock and Watch Collectors. “We have families come. (Vendors) sell all types, but antique is the most collectible.”

The nice thing about the show is that “most of the exhibitors are local or within a driving distance, and people can we can vouch for,” Overstreet said.

People like clocks not only for their beauty and sentimental value but for their mechanical aspects and precision timekeeping, and for all those reasons put together, Overstreet said.

Clocks can be very simple or include artwork such as statues, bas-reliefs, paintings and beautiful woodwork.

When decorating with them, the fireplace mantel is a natural, Steve Overstreet of Wichita, a member of the clock collectors group. But if you don’t have one, you can have a mantel put along a wall, he says. Clocks can be placed on end tables or sofa tables, either as part of a collection of other items or on its own. They can be hung on walls – even in the bathroom – as well as placed on shelves, whether the shelves are on walls or free-standing.

Brass and glass clocks display readily against wood walls, while wood clocks should be displayed against a backdrop other than wood to highlight them.

“There are so many homes that have their clocks work so well with their interior design,” Childs said, “but my recommendation is buy what you like, not what you think your budget will fit, though that plays into it.”

Interest in collecting clocks is falling off, Overstreet said, because it “doesn’t have the same technological ‘gee whiz’ that it used to. A lot of the older collectors are dying off, and their collections are coming up for sale. For anyone wanting to collect, this is an ideal time. The prices are significantly depressed.”

But that doesn’t mean that clocks aren’t keeping up with technology.

“We have digital grandfather clocks that use media cards and have digital sounds from music boxes,” such as a recording of the sound of the bells at Westminster Abbey, Childs said. “It’s phenomenal.

“We have found that there is increased interest in high-end clocks as well as high-end watches, but still for the younger folks, the cellphone is their timepiece.”

But the clock may be ticking on getting them repaired.

For antiques, Childs recommends that they be lubricated every three to five years and cleaned every 10 to 15. For newer ones such as Howard Miller, lubrication should be done every two to three years and a cleaning every five years or so. But Childs’ shop and another man who works out of his house are the only places to get the work done, Childs said.

“It’s a dying craft, and it’s a shame, because the interest is out there,” Overstreet said. A national school that taught clock work closed a couple of years ago, he said.

“I have a lot of people who say, ‘Please don’t retire,’” said the 67-year-old Childs. “… There are several people that have expressed an interest in learning a trade, but we don’t have the time to devote to them because we’re so busy.”

When it comes to turning clocks forward for daylight saving time, “that’s the easy one,” Childs said. “You just turn the minute hand forward an hour and let it chime.” In the fall, because pre-1970 clocks should not have their hands turned backward, the pendulum on them is stopped early in the evening and then are started again an hour later.

“The biggest nuisance is resetting VCRs and microwaves and stoves,” Childs said. “That’s more of a challenge than just spinning the hands of a clock.”

This story was originally published March 6, 2015 at 12:23 AM with the headline "Clocks’ many duties stand the test of time."