Clockmakers and restorers Clerkenwell, London
We make and restore mechanical clocks, orreries and tourbillon watches in a workshop above a Clerkenwell yard. Scroll to wind one up and watch it run.
Scroll to wind the mainspring
01 How a movement runs
One, the mainspring
Every mechanical clock begins as stored effort. A ribbon of blued steel, four metres long, is coiled into a brass barrel with a key, one turn at a time. Two days of patience, held in a drum the size of a biscuit.
Two, the going train
The barrel’s slow pull is handed down four wheels and pinions, each one multiplying the speed by about five. Count the teeth: forty-four, forty, thirty-six, thirty-two. Every tooth is cut, cleaned and checked by hand.
Three, the escapement
Here is the part that makes it a clock and not a clockwork toy. The anchor locks and releases one tooth at a time, kicked on by the balance as it swings. The hairspring breathes, and every beat is the same length.
Four, the orrery
The same idea, scaled up and pointed at the sky. Six planets on six brass arms, all driven from one crank under the table. Every so often they fall into a line. We built the machine to show you when.
Power reserve0hours
I / IV
02 On the bench
One, stripped
The movement is photographed, numbered and taken completely apart. Wheels, pinions, jewels, springs, the lot. Nothing goes back in that has not been looked at under the loupe.
Two, cleaned
Ultrasonic bath, then pegwood and a tray of fine rouge. Worn pivots are re-turned, bent teeth are re-cut and tired jewels are replaced. Our oils are changed to suit the clock, never the other way round.
Three, regulated
Rebuilt in the order it left the maker’s hands, then run on the timing machine for a fortnight in six positions. It leaves with a twelve-month guarantee and a note of every change we made.
I / III
03 Your turn
A complication is anything a watch does beyond telling the time. Pick one and the movement strips itself and rebuilds round it, live. Drag the scene to turn it.
Complication
28,800 vph
A tiny rotating cage carries the whole balance, so gravity pulls it every way in turn and the errors cancel out. Beautiful, and absurdly hard to make.
Drag to turn the movement. Beats are drawn at half speed.
04 What we do
Strip, clean, repair and regulate. Longcases, carriage clocks, bracket clocks and wristwatches, with a fixed quote after inspection and a twelve-month guarantee.
from £480
Typical turnaround six to ten weeks
A new movement, drawn and cut in our own workshop: tourbillons, perpetual calendars, moonphases or a table orrery made to your sky.
from £14,500
Twelve to eighteen months, staged payments
We call every week to wind, set and oil your collection, at home or in the office. Members get priority repairs and a free yearly service of one piece.
£36 a month
Central London and the home counties
Ninety minutes at the benches, a go on the staking tool, and a cup of tea beside the orrery. Groups of up to eight, with a mainspring to take home.
£45 a head
Saturdays and Tuesday evenings
05 The small print
06 Visit
Ninety minutes at the benches. See a movement come apart, hear an escapement up close and wind an orrery yourself. Mind the stairs, they are steep and very old.
Thank you. We will check the benches and write back within a day. Do bring a coat: the workshop is kept cool for the oils.
07 Find us
Five minutes from Farringdon station. The bell is the brass one with no label.