theInterview
Christopher Jobson clock restorer
Q How did you become interested in
horology and clock repair?
A Horology has been in my family
for generations. My great-great-
great-grandfather was a cabinetmaker
who worked on clock cases in the early
nineteenth century. He had a very keen
interest in the clockmaking side of his
trade and apparently when the time came
to deliver cases to the local clockmaker
he would disappear into the clockmaker’s
workshop and wouldn’t be seen for the
rest of the day. This interest has been
passed down in my family.
It is also due to my father’s
keen amateur interest—for
as long as I can remember
I have been surrounded by
clocks in various stages of
repair. As a small boy I was
forever taking things apart
just to see how they worked
and were put together—
they didn’t always work
afterwards though!
Q How long have you
been restoring clocks?
A I have been restoring
professionally for
around 15 years with
some of that time spent in
the watch industry. I have
worked in the past for
Watches of Switzerland,
and Longines. Prior to
establishing my own
company I was almost
exclusively involved in high-end clock
restoration and built up a reservoir of
experience working on some of the finest
clocks by famous makers, restoring
singing bird boxes and other musical
automata as well as organ clocks.
Q How important is research before
attempting the restoration of a fine
quality movement or clock?
A Very! When undertaking any serious
work, such as re-instating a missing
repeat system or re-converting an
escapement, it is a major aspect of the
work to understand the style of the maker
and the way he approached his work.
When looking at a movement with
plates full of holes I wear three hats,
22 March 2018 clocksmagazine.com
Christopher ‘Tommy’
those of the archaeologist, the historian
and the clockmaker. I will initially look
at the evidence hidden within the clock
Jobson is a bespoke
clockmaker and restorer
itself, such as empty threaded holes,
the positions of pivot holes, wear marks,
bruises from cocks being screwed
who offers a complete down etc, to give myself an idea of what
the original system was, and with that
clock restoration service. information I will then research as much
His rural Cheshire as possible the other examples of the
maker’s work and clocks with similar
workshops boast a well- systems fitted. Finally, I can go about
equipped machine room, reverse engineering the missing parts
with some of the finest with my clockmaker’s hat on to re-instate
the system as accurately as possible, and
in the style of the maker.
Q What has been one of
your more challenging
restorations to date?
A This is still ongoing! I
am currently working
on an extremely rare
regulator with an important
place in history. I’m taking
my time to be sure things
are historically correct and
that the clock will work!
This has already caused
several re-designs as further
research has been done
and highlighted flaws in the
design. Watch this space!
Q Working on clocks by
many famous makers,
how do you regard the work
of other less renowned
makers?
Swiss machines. He
and his staff are able to A That’s an interesting question.
Having the privilege to work on
clocks by the famous makers does tend to
offer work of the highest somewhat spoil one, but that’s not to say
standard. Between them that all clocks by less well known makers
are any less interesting or enjoyable
they have worked on some to work on. I have worked on many
of the finest clocks by provincial clocks by almost unknown
makers that are just as well made as their
makers such as Thomas more famous London counterparts.
Tompion, Joseph Knibb,
Dan Quare, Claudius Du
I have in at the moment an extremely
interesting provincial longcase with centre
seconds, dead-beat, maintaining power,
Chesne, John Arnold, and lots of interesting little manufacturing
details. The rack tail for instance has a
Frodsham, Berthoud, Tompionesque ‘snotty nose’ which just
Vulliamy and Dent. demonstrates that it was made by a
maker who cared about his work.
 On the other hand, I have worked on a
clock by a London maker which was really
very poor. The inferior workmanship was
demonstrated in the original construction
and was not just a result of poor quality
restoration. A little research though
showed that the maker was infamous
for his poor workmanship, a fact not
overlooked by the Clockmakers Company
at the time.
Q How do you balance conservation
with restoration?
A I think there is probably a PhD thesis
waiting to be written in answer to
this question! In my opinion there can be
no blanket cover for this subject. Every
clock must be viewed as a completely
individual object and a plan of restoration
/ conservation drawn up based on a
balance between the longevity of the
object, and its proper functioning. This
has to be based on the client’s wishes as
after all it is their clock!
I try to be as non-invasive as possible
with my restoration approach, and
very rarely will I ‘conserve’ a clock
in a deliberately non-functioning or
deteriorated condition. My aim is always
for my work to exist in working condition
for many years to come, and I would
hate to think of it sitting stopped because
of fear of it wearing out. A clock is a
functioning object and in my book it
should do just that.
Q What has been your most difficult
restoration to date?
A To date the most technically difficult
restoration I have carried out was
the restoration of a Dutch organ clock. It
required extensive restoration work to all
aspects of the mechanism which meant
putting an organ builder’s hat on too! The
musicology was the most taxing part of
the entire project.
Organ clocks tend to play extremely
complicated music to show off their
capabilities and this one was no
exception. Looking at the partially
damaged cylinder and trying to work out
which pins were supposed to be playing
on which note of which tune at what time
was extremely time consuming, especially
when taking into account that some of the
missing pins were intentional!
Then when the tunes were finally
playing they had to be sort of practised,
correcting a couple of notes on each play,
improving timing, changing the length of
the note etc, a bit like a musician would
when learning a piece. Fortunately, as a
musician myself I was able to manage
that, however it was still an extremely
taxing undertaking, albeit a hugely
rewarding one and one of the ones that I
am most proud of.
Q Do you do all the work in-house? Do
you outsource at all?
A I have invested a lot of time and
money into obtaining the skills and
equipment to do all aspects of movement
work in-house, however I do outsource
some of the more specialist work such
as enamel and painted dial restorations
(silvered dials are done in-house),
engraving, gilding and cabinetwork. I
have built up a reliable set of contacts
who are some of the finest in their trades
to carry out this work for me. Having said
that, though, I do always treat a clock
as a whole object and all work between
external trades is brought together in-
house meaning I remain responsible for
the restoration of the object as a whole.
Q What machinery do you have in your
workshop?
A I am a bit of a machine geek so am
quite well kitted out! I love Swiss
machines and have three Schaublin
lathes (at the moment!) and a Mikron
milling machine. I have the luxury to have
enough machines to leave them set for
a particular function. For example, the
Mikron is exclusively left set in horizontal
format with dividing equipment to act
as a pinion-cutting machine. One of the
Schaublin 102s has the dividing head and
vertical slide left set as a wheel-cutting
engine, whereas another 102 is the go-to
do-all lathe. There are also 10mm, and
8mm lathes for small work, a large milling
machine, and two drilling machines.
I have just purchased a massive and
beautiful Smart and Brown 1024 tool
room lathe. This is a pure joy to use and
hugely undervalued as the quality is just
as good as the Schaublins around it.
My machine collection is still expanding.
I am currently on the hunt for a BCA
jig borer and / or an Aciera F1 milling
machine to improve my small milling
capability. I know in the bicycle world they
have an equation which demonstrates
how I see machines, ‘n+1’, where n=the
number of bikes currently owned. This
can also be written as ‘s-1’ where s=the
number of bikes that would cause a
divorce!
Q What advice would you give to
anyone with a good clock to restore?
A Take your time and get it right. Don’t
be in a rush to get the job done at the
expense of getting the detail right. If cost
is an issue, hold off and save up. Don’t be
tempted to cut corners in the interest of
getting the bill down as it will only come
back to either bite you or annoy you as
that little detail that you wish you had
had done. Research—do as much as
possible, and lastly, enjoy the process.
Clocks and the story they have to tell are
fascinating items to be involved with.
Q Restoration can be expensive, what
is your advice to anyone who cannot
afford to have a good clock restored
professionally?
A As long as the clock is not in a
condition which is liable to deteriorate
I would advise just leaving it and enjoying
the clock as an object until in a position
to look at a proper restoration. Perhaps
some of the research can be done at
this stage too. I would not advise doing
anything yourself unless extremely
capable as even when done with the
best of intentions poor restoration work is
much harder to correct than honest wear
or damage.
Q Which clocks interest you the most?
A My real love is with precision
horology and the experimental
development era of the precision
escapement in the 1850s, however I love
all aspects of horology and the journey
that it leads one on. I recently restored
a fairly mundane HAC single train
movement, however this was extremely
interesting. It was cased in a re-purposed
World War One propeller, and research
led me to the fascinating story behind the
Zeppelin L33 which it was salvaged from.
This story then led to the detail of names
and individual accounts which really
added a human touch to an otherwise
inanimate object.
Q Which three books do you find
yourself constantly referring to?
A Precision Pendulum Clocks by
Derek Roberts Volumes 1, 2 and
3! Seriously they are a major asset to
anyone involved in the precision clock
world. There are obviously many other
books on my bookcase, but these are
quite honestly my most thumbed volumes
and starting to look a little battered.
Q What are your other pastimes and
hobbies?
I have a 14-month-old daughter who
takes up most of my spare time,
however when I do get the chance I enjoy
working on my 1954 Morris Minor as well
as other mechanical bits and bobs. I do
have one big guilty pleasure however
which is that I am a fireman on the
Llangollen Railway and it is a great joy to
play with big expensive steam engines.
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