Royal timekeeper
Successful applicant set to earn $ 52,000 a year
Better be on time for your interview with Buckingham Palace. The Queen is looking for someone to wind her collection of more than 1,000 clocks.
LONDON — Knowing the right time is essential for the Queen.
Royal engagements lose their symbolism and grandeur if they do not run like clockwork.
That is why one of the job ads on the royal website is so significant. The Royal Collections Trust is looking for a skilled horologist ( clockmaker) to be one of three who look after the timepieces in all of the Queen’s residences.
The role involves maintaining and winding up more than 1,000 clocks, and the collection is one of the finest in the world.
Work is also needed on “a range of horological items and turret clocks” — the latter being the dreaded big beasts of the repairer’s trade, housed in cold and damp casings, devilishly difficult to reach.
The job description is daunting: “You will be confident working with hand and machine tools, with particular ability to strip and clean mechanisms, make new parts, solder, turn, cut screws, wheels and pinions, make hands, silver dials, pattern making, brazing and some forging.”
The qualification needed is a final grade standard, awarded by the British Horological Institute. The institute, based in Newark, has only 2,400 members, and the majority are enthusiasts and collectors rather than professionals.
This year, just 86 people achieved the required grade. Most will have sought jobs with the dwindling number of clock and watch manufacturers in Britain before trying to establish themselves as freelance repairers. Yet Alan Midleton, the institute’s curator and librarian, resists the suggestion that it is a dying art. “At the moment numbers are on the increase.”
He adds that the salary being offered by the Queen, about $ 52,000 a year, is a lot more than he’d have got when he started in the business 40 years ago, even taking inflation into account.
Ever since mechanical clocks were invented in the Middle Ages, monarchs have recognized their role in maintaining control of their kingdoms. Queen Elizabeth I is reputed to have worn a tiny watch as a ring, incorporating an alarm that would scratch her finger to remind her of engagements. George III enjoyed taking watches apart and reassembling them.
Applications for the job close on Oct. 13 — the successful candidate may have just a few days to prepare for one of the two busiest weekends of the year. The clocks go back on Oct. 27, and it takes 50 hours for the royal horological team to make the necessary adjustments to the whole collection.