Antique Clock Shop Falls Back In Time

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Daylight saving time ends this weekend. As a result, people will be moving their clocks back one hour on Nov. 1. KMUW's Abigail Wilson takes us into a local shop where the staff will have to change the time on more than 400 clocks...eventually.

 

Scott Childs, owner of the Old Time Clock Shop in Wichita. Childs says that last time he counted, there were 416 clocks in his store,
Credit Nadia Faulx

"I was stationed in Germany in the late 60's, and you could find clocks in the trash; you could find them for two and three dollars a piece if you'd go to the antique store. You could buy the finest clock in there for $25. And I was making $90.60 a month. And if you'd taken [the clock you found] to a German clockmaker, he'd charge you $25 or $30 to get it repaired. I couldn't afford it, so I decided that I would see what I could do and goofed up a lot of clocks early on. In 1974 I had a chance to study under a certified master clockmaker for a year and I've been doing it for other people since then." ---Scott Childs

 

The interior mechanism of a pendulum clock.
Credit Nadya Faulx

"Most people have their cell phone and so the necessity to wind a clock once a week, is sometimes more than they want to handle. It's older folks like me that enjoy the uniqueness of every clock and the tic, which I think is phenomenal. But I don't think younger folks like that so much. There's such a personality involved in all of them; it is kind of sad. Prices are going down as opposed to going up which is just sort of a sign of the times." ---Scott Childs

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Follow Abigail Wilson on Twitter @AbigailKMUW.

To contact KMUW News or to send in a news tip, reach us at news@kmuw.org.

 

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