Keeping good time

Keeping good time .W hen midnight strikes New Year’s Eve, dozens of clocks in Clyde Day’s home and backyard shop will reveal their unique cadences, belt out “cuckoos” and ring deep “dongs.”

But Day, an 86-year-old clock repairman and collector, probably will sleep through all of the commotion.

“We’ll be in bed long before 12 o’clock,” Day said. “At our age, we don’t worry about that.”

Day started collecting clocks in the early 1970s. The grandfather clock he built with a kit for his son, and that hooked him on the hobby, still stands in the living room.

“It’s a hobby that got out of control,” Day said with a mild chuckle.

Now, every nook and cranny displays something relating to clocks or watches, which are just smaller, wearable clocks, Day explained.

“It gets kind of loud in here on the hour,” said Day’s granddaughter, May Koenig.

Day’s clock collection includes a contemporary-styled clock that’s synchronized with an atomic clock at the U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology in Fort Collins, Colo. He also owns and stores dozens of intricately designed German, American and Swedish mechanical grandfather and granddaughter clocks, some more than a century old.

Some of the clocks on display in his shop demonstrate a history of time-keeping or horology. One imitates the ancient clepsidra or water clock design and others have monthly calendar dials.

Day says his collection wouldn’t be complete without the inexpensive quartz clocks he introduces with the same enthusiasm. There’s one with U.S. silver coins, a funky Las Vegas-themed clock with plastic dice to mark the hours and a decorated Christmas tree clock that plays “Silent Night” on the hour.

“I’ve got strange little things sitting around here that don’t mean much to anyone but me,” Day said, picking up the Las Vegas-themed clock. “Obviously, this has no particular value.”

Inside grandfather clocks , labels indicate the manufacturer, age and origin. Without identifying labels, these clocks are “lost sheep,” Day said.

Clocks can be dangerous, too. Once, Day opened a clock without disarming its springs and the insides exploded, lodging a metal piece in his thumb.

Day says he never tires from disassembling old clocks that aren’t working and getting them ticking again.

“I like things that are mechanical and orderly,” said Day, a retired chemical engineer. “I like to know who made it and how it was made.”

Pulsating tick-tocks create a restful effect and the intricacies of the clock’s function challenge the mind, but it’s the discovery that keeps Day fascinated...