Spring forward slowly: Museum of Time faces an ‘exercise of patience’ readying 200 clocks for time change

Antique timepieces have individual quirks that require specialist handling

Those who feel tired on Sunday morning after losing out on an hour’s sleep should spare a thought for staff at the Irish Museum of Time.

Timekeepers at the Co Waterford museum will be busy this weekend ensuring most of its oldest and most ornate clocks chime to the right hour.

However, there just isn’t enough time in the day, so some of the 200 pieces will remain an hour behind when the clocks spring forward on Sunday.

They won’t stay behind for long, though.

“We just wouldn’t get home,” said Rosemary Ryan, acting curator-manager of Waterford Treasures. “The museum is really busy with visitors and you don’t want to be in their way, so we have a schedule and we work our way through that through the week.”

It is a time-consuming process, with only two people working on changing all the clocks.

“The process is a slow and steady one,” said Ms Ryan. “We only have two people working on this at any given moment, as some of the clocks have certain little quirks when you wind them, so it’s an exercise of patience.”

The museum opened in 2021 with donations from two of the country’s long-standing horologists, David Boles and Colman Curran.

One of its most valuable pieces is a clock made in London by William Clement.

The gold-plated piece dates back to 1663 and is the oldest clock in the world with an anchor escapement – the part of the clock that makes it go “tick-tock”.

“Because we have the date of it, we can say it’s the oldest in the world,” said Ms Ryan.

“It actually turned up at a Waterford house, which makes it doubly valuable, doubly interesting for us, and we’re delighted with it.”

Timepieces are not the only items on show. Many of the clocks are surrounded by furniture from the same period to provide added context.

“We have a vignette where we have a beautiful mahogany table, mid-18th century, with a marble top and we have a beautiful piece of silver,” said Ms Ryan, who also said the museum has a miniature teapot from the time as well as paintings.

The clocks that chime are the star attractions – the timepieces visitors love to see and hear.

They help fill a peaceful space with music and life, but they do not all chime at once.

“We cannot keep all the clocks keeping accurate time, it’s impossible,” Ms Ryan said. “Some chime, some play music, with very many different tones. It’s a musical experience.”

Ms Ryan is deeply invested in the clocks and believes they all have individual personalities.

“They’re like the beating heart – the tick-tocking of a clock,” she said. “We talk about the face of a clock and we put the hands at 10 and two so each little face is smiling out.

“And then there are the rather poor little orphan dials who have lost their cases, but they’re all together, so they support each other.”

“We put the hands at 10 and two so each little face is smiling out” Rosemary Ryan