Everybody Knows What Time It Is at the Watch and Clock Museum

Story and Photos by Mary Medland

Most of us don't give a whole lot of thought to our wristwatches or the alarm clock on the nightstand. But hike on up to Lancaster County, PA for a visit to the National Watch and Clock Museum and you'll never think the same about horology—The first American Heritage definition, “the science of measuring time,” is followed by “the art of making timepieces.”

However, let's begin with a bit of history. The National Association of Watch and Clock Collectors was founded in 1943 by hobbyists, educators, collectors, students and pretty much anyone fascinated with timekeeping. By the early 1950s, the association's secretary, collector Earl Strickler, had grown the organization, raised enough money to hire a number of people to work with him from his home. Continuing to grow, in 1971, the association purchased a building from Pennsylvania Power and Light with the intention of opening a museum and housing the association's administrative staff here. Today the museum boasts North America 's largest collection of time-keeping artifacts while the association has some 26,000 members from 55 countries, a staff of 30 and 15,000 people coming through the doors each year.

In 1977, the 501(c)(3), 8,000-square-foot museum (since then an addition has doubled the space) opened its doors to the public. In 1995 a horology school opened and, in 1999, a $7 million renovation was completed. Originally there were 1,000 pieces on display and today about 20 percent of the 12,000 items in the collection can be seen. For those wishing to research the provenance of the clock passed down from grandparents or purchased in an antique store, the museum has a library and research center with, between what's on the computer and on videos or in books and journals, some 5,000 sources of information that are available to the public. On the second Saturday of every month there are different programs and speakers.

A few of the standout items include a Table Clock that dates to 1570 A.D., sundials from the 17 th century and, in the Asian section, an antique clock with a stick of incense that burns for precisely one hour. At the end of that hour, a ball is dropped—the resulting noise alerting those in earshot of the time.

In the 18 th Century gallery, there are musical clocks that date back to the late 1700s. Describing an elaborate German Glass Bell Musical Clock, c. 1770, the museum writes, “Typical of clocks of this period, this Black Forest musical clock has a wooden movement with verge escapement … or ‘cow's tail' pendulum…. The thirty-hour movement strikes the quarter-hour and hour. Six melodies are each played through twice, when manually selected, on nine original glass bells. The carved and painted wooden dial features an armorial crest with crown. Two standing lions flank the chapter ring. Gold and silver leaf accents the red and blue paint.”

One of the many nifty clocks in the collection is the Conical Pendulum Statue Clock. Dating to 1875, it is an 11-foot French clock that was made by a Monsieur E. Farcot for display the following year at the Philadelphia Centennial Exhibition. With a silver-bronze statue of a woman and a marble and onyx base, the pendulum, which is attached to the hand of said woman, does not swing from side to side as is typical, but rather swings conically.

From the 19 th century collection, there's an alarm clock that does not go off at a specific time, but rather after a certain period of time has passed. Made in Paris by Monsieur H. Laresche—Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte was a client—the base of the watch reads: “HL/Galerie de Valois/Palais Royal.”

Apparently getting workers out of bed to head off for the salt minutes is not a new problem. Around 1910, an unknown-American clockmaker came up with the kitschy “Tugaslugabed.” The clock itself was bolted to the floor and before nodding off, dead-to-the-world sleepers wrapped a ring around their toe (ring and clock were connected by string.) When the alarm went off the next a.m., the clock gave a good hard tug to the toe-ring's string.

In addition to the permanent exhibit, there's a temporary show—through June 2006—that will charm all ages. “What's in Your Cereal Box? American Pop Culture Timepieces” features more than 125 timepieces, many of which were given as premiums by cereal manufacturers, including Cocoa Puffs, Lucky Charms, Cheerios and others. The genesis for the exhibit began back in the early 1970s when Ursula Metsker—author of Time: A Premium—noticed on the label of a can of Starkist tuna that all she had to do to get a watch was to send in the label. She did and an addiction was begun.

Celebrities in this watch-wall-alarm clock exhibit include Bart Simpson, Mr. Peanut, Superman, Pocahontas, the California Raisins, Little Mermaid, Pillsbury Doughboy, Morris the Cat, Mickey Mantle, Mickey Mouse, Beauty and the Beast and more.

One can only guess what it was that Stephen Engle was smoking when he spent 20 years creating the clock that was billed as the Eighth Wonder of the World. It's 11-feet high, eight-feet wide, three-feet deep, 1,049 pound clock that has a cast of characters that includes—ta dum!—Jesus, all 12 of the Apostles, Satan, Father Time, the Grim Reaper, Orpheus and Linus. If that's not enough, it also has a platoon of Continental Army soldiers who rush past Molly Pitcher on their way to the Battle of Monmouth. It this is not enough, Engle added characters who play background music.

Engle begins the hour by reminding us of our mortality with a skeleton banging a bone on a skull. In the hour's remaining 15-minute increments, Father Times makes an appearance as do figures representing Youth and Middle Age (the latter of which happens to be a dead ringer for Stephen Engle). Forty minutes into the hour the Continental soldiers charge by and 15 minutes later, the Apostles make their appearance.

Once Engle completed his magnificent opus, he turned the clock over to a Captain and Mrs. Reid, who dubbed it the Eighth Wonder and proceeded to schlep it around the United States —charging a small fee for admission. Due to the fragility of the clock today, it does not run continuously. However, when visitors reach a critical mass, museum guides are happy to put it through an entire hour-long performance in about 10 minutes.

Ready for a career change? If so, the School of Horology is here to help and the good news is that there is world-wide a shortage of skilled clock and watch repairmen and restoration experts. The school, which opened in 1995, is right across the street from the National Clock and Watch Museum . There are two programs—one in the repair of watches and clocks and another in restoration—which are certified by the Accrediting Commission of Career Schools and Colleges of Technology. Enrolled students will find themselves taking courses like Hairsprings, Cuckoo Clock Repair, Introduction to Escapements and Reversed Painting on Glass. The clock repair program consists of 10, 70-hour courses in two-week increments.

And a few of the schools students are not at all who one would expect. To wit, Arthur Finn retired from the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill 's School of Medicine , where he had been a professor of medicine and cell and molecular physiology, and enrolled in order to determine how his 1795 English grandfather clock actually worked. He's now back home in Carolina in a new profession—with a four-month waiting list for his newly acquired skills. With a degree in labor relations from Cornell University , an MBA from Santa Clara University and a good run as a recruiting services consultant for the telecommunications, computer and consulting industries, Gene Wypyski decided that it was time to expand his love of his antique clock collection one step further and headed for the school. Today, he and his wife own an antique clock shop in Georgia .