WATCHES AND CLOCKS

Dominion, Volume 35, Issue 250, 20 July 1942, Page 4

WATCHES AND CLOCKS

Growing Piles Of Repair Work Watchmakers in Wellington are working hard to cope with a growing pile of watches and clocks needing repairs. So numerous are the orders that it is now generally accepted that repairs cannot be ■ completed within three weeks, and it is not unusual for owners to wait over a month for the return of their timepieces. Hundreds of watches and clocks of every make, size and age are accumulating in city workshops awaiting the attention of a dwindling number of craftsmen. Servicemen's needs are given priority, so that civilians who wind a watch too tightly or drop it must be prepared to pay for carelessness by inconvenience. Experienced New Zealand watchmakers are showing their worth by devising ingenious ways of overcoming the difficulty in obtaining spare parts. One craftsman eaid that the workman in New Zealand was probably better equipped than those in Britain to overcome such handicaps, because even in peace time they had made many parts which British repairers could obtain in a few days by sending to the cradle of watchmaking In Zurich and Geneva. Other parts such as springs cannot be manufactured locally, and for these the trade depends at present on rapidly diminishing supplies. With clocks the position is no better, import restrictions and diversion of factories to war production having made some familiar lines unobtainable. Some city reirairers, with more watches than they can cope with, have been obliged to leave clock repairs to the tender mercies of any member of the household with a mechanical One repairer jocularly fa id that the removal of the post office clock would probably cause the public to hairy their watchmakers in an effort to reduce inconvenience to a minimum. Wellington was not as favoured as many other cities with clocks on public and private buildings, he added.