Chennai/Bengaluru: “There are three hundred and sixty degrees on the circumference of the earth; and these three hundred and sixty degrees, multiplied by four minutes, gives precisely twenty-four hours — that is, the day unconsciousy gained” — and that is how Phileas Fogg won his wager of ‘Around the World In Eighty Days’ in Jules Verne’s 1872 classic novel (Le Tour Du Monde En Quatre-Vingts Jours, first published in French).
The emphasis on time-keeping, Fogg’s complicated clock which indicated “the hours, the minutes, the seconds, the days, the months and the years”, the sentiment Fogg’s manservant Passepartout attaches to the “family watch” that he inherited from his great-grandfather, despite it running slow, showcases the fascination with watches and clocks in an era right after the Industrial Revolution.
The world has moved on from sundials and shadow clocks thousands of years ago, to quartz and atomic clocks — the most accurate time-keeping devices today — but mechanical clocks, a combination of metal, springs, glass and stone, that kept the world ticking for centuries, continue to inspire awe in many horologists and collectors.
Mechanical clock-making may have been the forte of the German, Swiss, British and the French historically, but there is interest — although very niche — in India too. There are those who collect a piece of history every time they bring an antique mechanical clock to life, and then there are those who have taken the art of mechanical clock-making and given it a modern twist to keep them relevant in modern times.
We bring you two such people — one an architect-turned-horologist who makes mechanical clocks with a modern touch to them, and the other a passionate clock collector from Chennai.
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Dilip Sivaraman: Maker of ‘Gato’
The moment one hears the word “grandfather clock”, an imposing image of a grandiose and sturdy floor clock with long metal pendulum, boxed in a thick wooden and glass case, topped with a bright, big dial embossed with numbers and needles of various thickness moving in rhythm probably comes to mind.
Now imagine a skeletal, minimalist and anything-but-conventional version of the grandfather clock and you will get a ‘Gato’ — Dilip Sivaraman’s handcrafted masterpiece of a modern, mechanical “time-only” floor clock.
The moment you swing open the doors of his cosy apartment in Bengaluru, the ‘Gato’ is standing there, welcoming you, waiting for you to ask Dilip how he, an architect-turned-horologist, handcrafted this time-keeper.
“A second-hand wall clock I bought in 2014 revealed everything that was wrong about mass-produced mechanical clocks in India. It would work at the repair store but would stop a few moments later. I tried to repair the clock but the parts as well as the mechanism were simply not workable. I soon realised that the only way I could have a decent mechanical clock was if I built it myself,” Sivaraman told ThePrint, giving a tour of his compact workshop where he builds his clock mechanisms from scratch.
Right outside his workshop, on the same floor as his home, lies a partially-dismantled cycle. “My wife wanted to start cycling and I told her I would make one for her, but I just haven’t got to it. She eventually bought one,” Sivaraman quipped, adding that he is a big fan of DIY- Do It Yourself.
He did take his own advice in 2014, when he started research on clockmaking. In a year-and-a-half, he had successfully built his first mechanical floor clock. ‘Gato’ in Spanish means ‘cat’. “Just as they say a cat has nine lives, my clock can tick through many lifetimes,” he explained.
Sivaraman’s clock took him places. He made it to the list of finalists at the 2016 Young Talent Competition sponsored by Académie Horlogère des Créateurs Indépendants (AHCI) for independent watchmakers from across the globe. AHCI is a non-profit association that aims is to perpetuate the art of independent watch-and-clock-making. Sivaraman was the only Indian at the competition where entries came from more than 30 countries.
“I read literature first to understand what mechanism is used in the world’s best mechanical timepieces. Then began the process of drawing up designs and technical plans. My experience as an architect helped me design my clock’s mechanism using CAD (computer-aided design), CNC (computer numerical control) and electrical discharge machining. I first built the parts using 3D printing in plastic, and once that worked, I tried my hand at metal,” Sivaraman said, recounting his journey of trial and error towards building his perfect clock.
Before he started piecing together his device, Sivaraman took classes at a diploma college to learn how to work a lathe and other tools, read up on metallurgy and brushed up on physics.
One critical component of a mechanical clock is the escapement mechanism, and Sivaraman took about six months to design a fully-functional regulator clock.
His Gato clock has a planetary gear motion-work. “In my clock, I didn’t want a chapter ring. I wanted every component to do some function. In regular clocks, this mechanism is much smaller but I have dramatised it,” Sivaraman said. He swears that one could build a spaceship with the tools, equipment, skills and expertise available in Bengaluru’s Peenya industrial estate. The gears he designs for his clocks are machined to precision at the estate.
Chapter ring is the circular component in a clock dial where hours and sometimes minutes are engraved. In the Gato, a ring gear with 12 spokes (to tell time) replaces the chapter ring but also anchors the planetary gear motion-work.
“The planet carrier becomes the Hour hand in my clock. That is unusual,” Sivaraman said. The Gato has an eight-day winding power reserve and the winding dock is thoughtfully geared and placed at the bottom edge of the ring gear, right under 6 o’clock, so as to allow winding without disrupting the clock’s time-keeping.
Some 75 moving parts, carefully crafted in stainless steel, titanium, aluminium, an invar pendulum rod, braided Kevlar ropes and tungsten carbide palet teeth cased in wood and glass, keep the unconventional mechanical clock ticking.
“I bought a lathe from the US and started working with it. Our dining table was my first worktable. The kitchen would be filled with metal shavings every day,” Sivaraman told ThePrint as he made a cup of coffee in the same kitchen.
Gato’s name is credited to the Spanish heritage of Sivaraman’s wife, Griselda. “He is so passionate about it and I am happy he is able to pursue his passion,” she said.
Priced at Rs 8 lakh a piece, Sivaraman has clients in Bengaluru, Spain and Mumbai for Gato.
“I have immense admiration for how tough and complex it is to build a mechanical clock and how the complexity has been hidden in such a beautiful design. Every time I stand nearby, it grows on me,” Anuj Sahai, one of Sivaraman’s clients in Bengaluru told ThePrint. His customised Gato, with his name engraved on it, stands tall at the end of his living room.
Sivaraman said: “It is like a living thing because you have to wind it up, care for it and you ultimately connect with it. You love your dog because you feed it and care for it. I remember feeling like a mother when my clock started ticking the first time. It’s amazing how a few metal parts come together and become a live thing.”
A door away from his home, at his workshop, the clockmaker is proud of his tools. A lathe, drill press, grinder and polisher stand out, and he explains the role of each of these machines in constructing his artwork.
The profession of an architect, generally considered a creative one, sometimes doesn’t allow full use of creativity, Sivaraman explained, adding that clockmaking is his go-to vent.
“You may have creative ideas but they are sometimes bogged down by things like client preference, regulations, etc. Making clocks helps me put all my creativity to use. I make them for myself,” he said, pointing to centuries of clockmaking techniques as inspiration for designing his own mechanism and improvising it.
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Robert Kennedy: Housing a treasure trove of mechanical clocks
1,706 — that’s the number of perfectly functional mechanical clocks at Robert Kennedy’s private clock museum in Chennai. And that excludes his 509 pocket watches and more than 750 wrist watches (all mechanical) and dozens of antique cameras and typewriters carefully stacked in a two-bedroom apartment in the city’s Kodambakkam.
Kennedy bought this apartment just to house his prized possessions.
“It feels like heaven, I can’t put it in words,” he told ThePrint when asked how it is like when the clocks strike an hour.
Over the last six years, Kennedy has been attempting to etch his collection in the Guinness Book of World Records and, finally, his 1,706 mechanical clock collection is ready to be reviewed by the evidence committee of the organisation.
What started as a fascination for a large “grandfather” clock that was gifted to his grandfather — a clerk at a tea estate in Munnar — by the British sometime in the 1930s, led to Kennedy turning into an avid collector of mechanical clocks.
He has been collecting such clocks for 39 years now, and spent the last two putting together an inventory detailing every clock in his collection, all labelled and numbered, sorted by size, design and function.
Mechanical clocks of all sizes and materials — one of them at least 290 years old, says Kennedy — adorn every inch of the apartment’s walls.
“There was a point in time when my family members thought I had mental health issues and needed to consult a psychiatrist. I couldn’t explain to them why I was drawn to mechanical clocks. But now, with all the attention my museum is getting, I stand vindicated,” Kennedy said.
He has spent an estimated Rs 60 lakh on collecting, repairing and maintaining his clocks. “It isn’t true that clock collection is a rich man’s hobby. I have bought these clocks from scrap shops, hawkers, auctioneers, clocksmiths and traders in whatever condition they were in and got them repaired. I used to buy scrap clocks by the kilo to look for spare parts to salvage antique clocks with,” Kennedy said, adding that every clock in his collection only needs an occasional winding up to start ticking.
“Mechanical clocks have a life of their own by way of their movement and mechanism. They are passed on from one generation to another and, with a little upkeep, they keep ticking. This is not true of battery or electricity-operated clocks. They have a short life,” Kennedy passionately argued.
From alarm clocks to pigeon race clocks, steeple clocks to anniversary clocks, grandfather clocks to cuckoo clocks, mantel clocks to alert clocks — the collection comprises clocks that have survived through decades, even centuries. Some once adorned the walls of East India Company officers, some perhaps kept time at the homes of royalty and bureaucrats, some were stolen and lost in time, others discarded or auctioned at will.
“In 1993, when I got married, I had about 200 clocks. Even as a student I would spend all my money on either food or clocks. My wife found my passion weird but it was not until 1999 that we had a huge fight over it and she asked me to choose between the clocks and her,” Kennedy said, adding that he managed to convince Teenie Robert, his wife, to bear with his passion.
“Thankfully, my family soon realised that I was very keen about my hobby and wouldn’t let go of my collection. In 2005, I bought this apartment and housed my clocks,” Kennedy said.
Kennedy acknowledges that mechanical clock-making is a dying art. “Barely anybody even repairs or knows how a mechanical clock mechanism works,” he said.
V. Nagaraj, Kennedy’s clocksman, has been repairing mechanical clocks for 30 years now. “I learnt it from my father. Those days, people had mechanical clocks at home and would require repairs, but that is not the situation anymore. My sons didn’t learn my craft because there is no money in it,” Nagaraj told ThePrint.
A skilled hand at clock assembly and repair, Nagaraj knows what part can be found in what clock. “There are some 30-35 parts in a mechanical clock. Some big, some small and others very minute. Given their age, some of these parts are very difficult to handle but once put together, they work in unison to make the clock tick,” Nagaraj said with a spark in his eyes.
Access to the internet has come as a boon and bane for Kennedy. While the web helped him research and learn about mechanical clocks, it has also meant that collecting them has become more expensive.
“My scrap dealer who used to sell me wall clocks for Rs 600 or so depending on the state of the clock now shows me how much people are willing to pay for them on e-commerce sites,” Kennedy said, laughing. He added that he would like to open a trust to manage his clock museum.
“I won’t give my clocks to my children. They don’t realise their value now,” Kennedy said, adding that such pieces of art must only belong to those who have a passion for them.
One a clockmaker, another a clock collector, both Sivaraman and Kennedy agree that a digital or quartz watch is not even a patch on the good old mechanical clock.
“What is special about a quartz watch? You put in a battery and it tells you the time. But the mechanical clock is a piece of artwork made possible because of impeccable physics and mathematical accuracy,” Kennedy said.
(Edited by Nida Fatima Siddiqui)
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