Sellers hope time for fine, antique clocks hasn’t passed
CLAYTON, Mo. — Is time running out for fine and antique clocks?
Sales are down, and prices are, too. Interest in them has been fading for years.
But clocks are circular. Their faces are circles, their gears are circles, their hands move in a circle.
“I think the market for antiques will come back. We all say it’s a cycle, that everything will come back again. (But) this cycle has lasted longer than others,” said John Delaney, a member of the family that owns Delaney Antique Clocks in West Townsend, Massachusetts.
Clocks have a mystique all their own; they are works of art and craftsmanship that also have a practical function. They can be things of beauty, and they also tell time.
“A clock, even if you’re not looking at it, it’s talking to you. It’s chiming, it’s ticking. It becomes a heartbeat of the home,” Delaney said.
Gary Sullivan of Gary R. Sullivan Antiques Inc., of Sharon, Massachusetts, agrees.
“They’re the only living, breathing piece of furniture or decorative object that you have in your house,” he said.
And it’s not just the sense that clocks have a kind of mechanical life. Some people are entranced by the mystery of clocks, by the seemingly magical way they work.
For instance, Edward Pernik, co-owner of Timekeepers in Clayton, Missouri, has a Jaeger-Lecoultre Atmos clock for sale on his counter. It’s not electric, but it never has to be wound. It can run for 10 or 15 years without ever needing to be adjusted.
First invented in 1929
and still made today, the clock works by atmospheric pressure. Any change in temperature makes gasses sealed inside expand or contract, winding the delicate, long spring.
It’s an engineering marvel, and Timekeepers sells a few of them a year. The price is right, too — they cost about $1,000, which is on the low end for collectible clocks. The store also has a selection of miniature clocks for a few hundred dollars to a few thousand dollars, plus a selection of larger and more expensive pieces that Pernik calls “highly collectible.”
“People buy when they understand what it is,” Pernik said.
Despite the timeless nature of clock styles, the market for antique clocks, and antiques in general, is in a recession. It has been that way at least since 2008, Delaney said.
The problem, the experts agreed, is generational.
“My parents’ generation, the World War II generation, were rabid collectors. They often built collections of everything. You would have people who wanted to have one of everything; they
would have hundreds and hundreds of clocks,” Sullivan said.
Sullivan’s generation, the Baby Boomers, were interested in furnishing their homes with the type of things they grew up with, which included older pieces and antiques. But things are different with the generation of his children, who are in their 30s.
“My children, they travel light. They don’t collect as much. They spend money on experiences, rather than things,” he said.
Even so, Sullivan said some younger people appreciate the vintage look. They may not like antiques, but they do like shabby chic, so they will buy an older piece of brown furniture and then paint it happier colors.
Part of the problem, Sullivan said, is in the word “antique.”
“(People) said it means granny’s old house, where you can’t go into the room because everything is too fragile,” Delaney said.
For the time being, though, younger people are not interested in vintage style or antiques, Pernik said.
Ella Ilyashov-Pernik, his wife and co-owner, said, “I do think retro is coming back.”