Category Archives: Buy Clocks / Clock Parts

We are often asked where antique clock owners can buy clock parts as replacements for their cases and movements.

VENDORS

We have two clock part vendors we prefer:

• Timesavers
• Merritts

KEYS

Usually, cases may need to be unlocked by a locksmith if you do not have a key that fits. Replacement keys can be found, but without having keys physically there to try and try again, the task becomes more challenging.

MACHINING

One reason why this hobby is suited to me is the fact that I am a hobby machinist. This means that I’m able to repair bushings and cut gears on my own, without having to purchase them.

We’d like to invite you to consider visiting the National Association of Watch and Clock Collectors (NAWCC) store on eBay. This is a good starting place if you’d like to buy antique clocks or any sort of horological paraphernalia.

http://stores.ebay.com/watchclockcollectors

Why Buy Antique Clocks Here?

In the words of NAWCC Executive Director Stephen Humphries, “As members and the public donate items to support the organization, we keep those items that are needed for the library and museum collections or educational programs and sell the remaining items to support the library, museum and educational programs. Often people drop off or ship to us boxes of books, tools, timepieces and other items. The surplus items are listed on the eBay store and provide thousands of dollars of support annually. Items that are on the site for more than several weeks are often put on sale, so check back often.”

What is My Antique Clock Worth?

We receive emails with this question all the time, to both this site and our sister site, gledhillbrook.com. Although we are not professional appraisers or antiques dealers, our familiarity with the market due to our personal interest and collection gives us some insight into what one can buys certain clocks for where.

Retail

That’s key, the ‘where’ part of the equation . . . Clock shops are going to sell antique clocks for their idea of its retail value.

auctions

Auctions are usually selling antique clocks or vintage clocks as part of a container full of lots they are trying to offload quickly. Therefore, they will sell the clock for whatever anyone present at that particular auction is willing to pay for it. Unless the auction has been billed as a clock-specific sale, clocks at local auctions are most often sold for far less than they are worth.

We starting bringing antique clocks home from auctions in our local area about ten years ago. Technically speaking, not all of them are antique clocks, but vintage, although we have many that date back more than 100 hundred years, and a few from as far back as the eighteenth century.

What’s glorious about antique clocks is that they are mechanical. You can buy mechanical clocks today, yes, but the plates of the movement are cut thinner, the gears not as finely honed, and the overall gravitas of a timekeeper that has seen over a century pass is simply not there.