Company: House of Clocks
Owner: Ed Walker
Location: 2352 Mendon Road, Cumberland
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Year Founded: 1974
Employees: Sole proprietorship (one part-time employee)
Type of Business: Clock sales and service
Annual Revenues: $250,000
Looking over Ed Walker’s shoulder as he sits at his desk in Cumberland is a little fellow with an odd appetite: precisely on the hour, he lifts a dumpling to his mouth and blinks his eyes with satisfaction.
“That’s the dumpling eater clock,” Walker smiled, indicating the quaint little timepiece that sits on a shelf in a corner of the House of Clocks on Mendon Road.
The dumpling man, Walker explained, is a typical Black Forest clock from Germany, and it’s one of the 100 or so clocks awaiting repairs in his shop at any one time. That’s in addition to the 150 clocks Walker has for sale – items that range in value from a modest “$70 to $80” to grandfather clocks that retail for $5,000.
Soft economy or not, 2002 has been a good year for Ed Walker, though he conceded that the jury was still out on December sales. That’s significant, because he does 60 percent of his retail business at Christmastime.
Historically, though, the House of Clocks has been a busy place. In business since 1974, Walker sells an average of 100 grandfather clocks annually, and the repair business is a nice hedge against slow sales periods. The 52-year-old native Rhode Islander makes house calls over a 50-mile radius, and works for an insurance company evaluating the damage to clocks which become casualties of moving.
Walker grew up in Burrillville, did a hitch in the Merchant Marine, and entered the clock business as an assistant to his uncle, who owned a jewelry shop in Cumberland.
“People would bring in clocks, and he didn’t have time to repair them,” Walker recalled. “So I did it nights and weekends.”
Three years later, the uncle retired and sold the business, and Walker opened his shop on Mendon Road. The decision satisfied two of Walker’s vocational requirements:
“I like working with my hands, and I like working for myself,” he said.
The decision turned out to be a sound one, even though he spent a brief, unrewarding period learning watch repair.
“It wasn’t challenging,” he explained. “I like clocks because they do things. They’re animated.”
The dumpling man is a case in point, but there are plenty of other timepieces in Walker’s store that tick and chime and generally infuse the premises with a cheerfully melodious spirit. And if Walker is looking for a challenge, his repair projects certainly meet that need.
“If it’s an antique,” he said, “you have to know how it was made. There have been changes over the years. For example, if (the works) were made of cast brass, they have to be replaced with sheet brass.”
Three hundred years ago, Walker explained, clockmakers could use lead to soften the cast brass. Sheet brass, the contemporary material, is “easier to work.”
A clock’s country of origin can also be significant.
“You can quickly tell the difference between a British and a German clock,” Walker noted. “Europeans carried their workmanship with them (to the new world). We see German clocks that are made in Pennsylvania and British clocks that are made up here” in the Northeast.
German clocks, incidentally, carry their own Teutonic handicap.
“German clockmakers are known for their precision,” Walker explained, “but they’re also redundant – too complicated. They’re very complex and subject to breakdown. Repairing them is an unforgiving task.”
British clocks, on the other hand, “seem to fall together quite easily. They don’t have to be so precise.”
One clock currently in Walker’s shop originated in the British Isles – Scotland, to be exact. Built in the early 1800s, it is owned by a resident of Norfolk, Mass., and presented a special challenge.
“It ran for 35 years without being cleaned and oiled,” Walker said. “The pivots were worn out, so I made new ones.”
The pivots have to be polished to increase their wear time, he explained. Properly treated, they will run without friction and keep better time.
Walker maintains an extensive library to support his repair efforts. He also belongs to a 400-member trade organization, and picks up useful information on the Internet.
“I check the Internet every day,” he said. “It’s a good resource – like belonging to a club on line.”
Walker’s repair shop contains the kind of equipment he needs to make new parts for older clocks – those made before World War II. Nearly all of those pre-war timepieces require parts made with modern materials.
Walker is a popular man in his field, maintaining a two-month waiting list for clock repairs. People largely find out about him by worth of mouth, he said. And they come from significant distances.
“They come to me from Narragansett… Fall River…as far as they’re willing to drive,” he said.
Repair work, it seems, is Ed Walker’s salvation.
“I’d get bored selling clocks all day,” he admitted. “Of course, it’s fun to sell them to people who enjoy them. Maybe they can tell me something interesting (about clocks). That’s fun. Otherwise, it’s like selling toasters.”
Repair work can also provide an occasional extra benefit. Walker recalled that, when Tupperware moved from North Smithfield to Florida, the company asked him to take charge of an antique clock that was part of the move.
So Walker headed for Orlando and set up the clock in Tupperware’s new quarters.
And on top of the free plane ride and the chance to do the work he loves, Walker grinned, “They paid me.”
Dick Sherman is a contributing writer to PBN.
