Start all the clocks

Joanna Davies | 9th November 2009

Auckland clockmaker James Ellis is one of a disappearing breed. Joanna Davies finds out what makes him tick.

The dull ticks of five or six clocks echo around James Ellis' small workshop. A cabinet on the wall is filled with brass winding keys and the benches are lined with jeweller's tools.

Every so often, another clock chimes the hour. None show  the right time - but that's why they are here.

Mr Ellis is one of Auckland's few clockmakers. The Bucklands Beach horologist can build a complete clock from scratch but now most of his work is on old mechanisms and family heirlooms.

"People who are qualified as horologists are getting fewer and fewer,'' Mr Ellis says. "Three hundred years ago, horologists were at the top of the sciences, but now it's all quartz crystal and atomic energy and not about the brass mechanisms.''

The 71-year-old became a clockmaker in his early 30s after studying carpentry, a trade which, he says, has helped him to restore old clocks.

"If one bit of the clock is broken, whether that be a bit of the mechanism or the casing, I'll make a new piece. A lot of clock repairers rely on getting parts from the company that made the clock, but if you're repairing a clock that is 200 years old you have to make the parts.''

My Ellis makes everything, from cog wheels to clock hands. "Some of the tools I use can be found in museums now.''

On his workbench is a 200-year-old German cuckoo clock. Ellis has fixed its woodwork.

"It was missing a hand, so I made a new one out of bone from the butcher's to match the original one. Clocks like this were made with such integrity, and that's why they last so long.''

Mr Ellis doesn't know of anyone interested in horology that might take over the business. "A lot of my old clockmaker friends have died with clocks still in their workshop. It's not really something you retire from.''

And retiring isn't something Mr Ellis is thinking of doing. "You become a part of the history of these clocks. They're not like a table or a chair. A clock is a living thing, and some of these have outlived many generations of people.''

Horological Institute president Brian Webber says there are about half a dozen clockmakers left in Auckland. "In 1950, when the institute started, we had 600 members. Now we only have 160 throughout New Zealand.''

One difficulty is finding clockmakers with the time to train apprentices, which takes four years. "We do want to encourage clockmakers to take on apprentices, and encourage young people to become clockmakers, because it is a very skilful profession.''