Wanted   Do you have a passion for antiques and collectibles - and writing?   The Wayback Times invites you to submit freelance articles for use in print and on our new web site.   E-mail your text submissions to The Wayback Times.   Articles published in The Wayback Times since 1995 have covered a wide range of interests, from Golliwoggs to toy VW collecting, and from collecting insulators to hunting old books.   Most authors of our online selection of articles have included their e-mail addresses and they are always delighted to hear from other collectors.

Ad Rates / Articles / Classified Ads / Editorial / Home / Links / Showtime   Quinte Timekeepers club marks its 30th year    List Ray Yurkowski Next   Got the time to join the Quinte Timekeepers club? By Ray Yurkowski Timekeeping has come a long way from the days when, sometime around 2000 BC, Egyptians estimated the time of day by the shadow cast by a stick stuck in the sand.   “The manufacture of clocks and watches in Canada may have begun as early as 1700,” says the Canadian Encyclopedia. “However, practicing watch and clockmakers through the 18th and much of the 19th centuries did not make the movements. The watch or clock mechanisms originated in England, continental Europe or the US, arriving in Canada as an ébauche (basic, unfinished movement). This was finished by the local horologist, and thus bears his initials or signature, or the stamp of his silversmith.   “The first large-scale Canadian clock manufacturer on record was the Canada Clock Company of Whitby, Ontario, which began production in 1872. The operation later moved to Hamilton, Ontario, and continued to produce clocks as the Hamilton Clock Company until 1880. The firm changed management and the name back to Canada Clock Company but failed in 1884.”   The interest in collecting timepieces is partly mechanical, but for most it's the history that goes along with it. Seemingly, the more stories a collector can dig up in reference to a clock he owns, the better.   “I call it collecting fever and there is no cure,” says Wayne Precoor. As president of Quinte Timekeepers, a 30-year-old club based in Belleville, Ontario, he should know. He has been collecting for more than 25 years. Not only that, he has started machining clock parts in his home shop.   “It’s not a big-time operation,” he said. “It’s mainly for friends and members of the club. If they need a part made, I can usually help them out.”   An auto mechanic by trade, Precoor recalls his younger days and when a clock got thrown out, he'd retrieve it to see if he could make something out of the parts. Later on, when he was in business for himself, he had an old oak rolltop desk in his office. He wanted to put an oak clock on it so he visited a local shop where they bought, sold and repaired clocks.   “I picked out a clock and it turned out to be the most expensive in the place,” says Precoor. “It was a Pequegnat and I didn't know Pequegnat from pegboard, but I liked it.” It turned out the clock was from the largest and most successful clock company in Canada, that of Arthur Pequegnat, which began in 1904 in Berlin (now Kitchener), Ontario.   “I’ve got a wide range of everything,” said Precoor. “Now I've got some American, French and German clocks as well but I do repair and sell them too so you've got to keep a variety.   “A lot of people tend to tinker with them and get them running,” he added. “But there’s a difference between tinkering and restoration.   “When you get into serious clock collecting, you start with a couple of books but before you're done you end up with almost a library. You want to find what the original really looked like and, if you're restoring, if you're doing it right. You want to make it as original as possible. I like taking two clocks and making one.   “There are lots of really nice cases around. And some people take the works out and replace it with a quartz movement. That drives me crazy, but you won't find anyone in the chapter that does that.”   In fact, he notes, the parent organization, National Association of Watch and Clock Collectors, mandates against the destruction of the mechanism from an historical timepiece.   Jim Biggs, Quinte club secretary, sums up his interest in collecting clocks in just a few words: “As long as they're old and large.”   Biggs tells of a discovery he made about a mantel clock he recently bought.   “I was digging around in the back and found a receipt. A lady bought it in 1910 from Eaton’s (department store).”   Dave Riley, one of the original members of the Quinte club, says he has always been interested in clocks.   “As a little gaffer, I used to take clocks apart and use the mechanisms to drive my Meccano set,” he said with a laugh.   But Riley calls himself more “a hoarder” than a collector.   “I kind of like to get one of every major item,” he says.   The Quinte club celebrates their 30th anniversary this year and, even though they have a healthy membership of 40 collectors, there's always room for more. If you are interested in clocks, watches and history, e-mail roberttarshis@gmail.com for more information.   “Precise timekeeping helped establish and develop Canada,” notes the Canadian Encyclopedia. “For the past two centuries, Canadian exploration, mapping, navigation and transportation have exploited state-of-the-art precise time systems.   “Precise timekeeping played its first important role in Canada during the 1777-79 exploration of Canada's west coast by Captain James Cook.”   Speaking of precise, the first atomic clock was built in 1949 with the next great advancement in timekeeping in 1967, when the atomic clock used the oscillations of cesium-133 atoms to tell time and scientists had achieved an error ratio of only one second every 1.4 million years. But that wasn't good enough. The cesium fountain atomic clock - which is off by one second every 20 million years - was developed in 1999, making it the most accurate in the world.   If you are looking for a trip through time, the Canadian Clock Museum is located at 60 James Street, Deep River, Ontario. Log on to canclockmuseum.ca for more information.   “Henry Ford built a watch before he built a car,” notes Precoor. “A lot of people don’t know that.”   Canadian Clock Museum photographs 1 - Hamilton Clock Company clock label from late 1870s   2 - Canadian Time wall clock circa 1910 made by Arthur Pequegnat Clock Co.   3 - Nova Scotia 1820s pillar and scroll mantel clock     Return to top of page   This Is Livin' Publishing © 2010 581 8th Line West, RR1 Hastings, ON, K0L 1Y0 Phone/Fax: 705-696-1833   webmaster