The Village Squire, 1981-05, Page 14Business
If you're looking for it, then Bruce
Walsh of Stratford can.certainly help you
find thc time. Hc's got lots of it, in fact,
although he •doesn't have much for
himself.
The time Walsh has fills his downtown
ship in the Festival City, Antiques In
Time ; there, in cabinets and clinging to
the walls of the long. narrow store is an
extensive collection of antique watches
and clocks. And that's all - just lots of
time.
And perhaps the best service the
timepieces can offer Walsh is constant
reminders of how little timc the propriet-
or has for himself. Because his occupat-
ion as a store owper and repairman is
somewhat unique ! there arc other shops
which deal exclusively in clocks and
watches. though not many - he finds the
hours in his days arc consumed rather
quickly. His services arc in demand.
So early on this cold, wet late winter's
day, the time saver has already been at
work since 5, giving over what for others
is the remainder of a night's sleep so he
can keep up with thc demands of his
skills. This day. too, is no exception.
Walsh says getting a predawn start
provides productive hours of repair work,
so he has made it his habit. The schedule
includes working until shortly before
business hours then a quick dart home to
change in preparation for manning the
shop.
Before the dash home, we talk. and
before that he slips outside for a few
moments to exchange greetings with
other businessmen in his row. Alone,
inside, there is a taste of what Walsh
experiences in the early morning solitude
of Antiques In Time.
Tick, tick, tick. Not just from one,
either, but from dozens. Though the
pulsing is regular, steady, in a short time
it seems to be gaining speed. The ticking
envelops the store and grows, and could
conceivably drive the person lacking the
proper mental balance more than slightly
off centre. It leads one to assume the
fellow who works in the midst of this must
be gifted with vast amounts of patience
and the capacity for concentration. You
have to be able to get in tune, it wpuld
seem, and then there's deliberate pre-
cision needed to perform the repair work.
"Patience," he says. "People wonder
about that all the time. Actually, I don't
have much patience at all. What it really
PG. 12 VILLAGE SQUIRE/MAY 1981
Lots of Time
takes is a logical mind. and you have to
like it too."
Walsh has been repairing timepieces
since 1975 when he opened his first store
in Aurora. Entering the antique time
business was not part of any great
design. "I was going through antique
shops on weekends and picking up clocks
that weren't working, because they were
cheaper. It takes too much time for
antique dealers to fix the clocks them-
selves."
The answer gradually took hold.
Specialize in his own business.
Running the store in Aurora was fine,
at least until it was undermined by a visit
to Stratford. "The first time 1 came to this
town, I liked it. It was as simple as that,"
he notes, describing his decision to move
to Stratford. "1 have three children and
there's everything here for them - the
activities, the cultural events." That was
two years ago.
Before getting involved with the
antique clocks, and while he was
spending weekends jaunting about the
countryside in search of the antiques, he
was at the same time learning the fine
by Herb Shoveller
skills of his trade from perhaps the best
teacher of all - himself. He is. in effect.
self-taught. though he has for the past
two years followed the British Horological
course. That he is self-taught. at least. is
evidence enough that he has the logical
mind necessary for the trade.
Running the store would be simple if it
mcant only doing his repair work and
greeting customers. But it isn't that
simple. Usually at least one day a week is
set aside for road trips, which arc in most
cases highlighted with visits to specific
antique dealers. "I can throw five or six
clocks in the car and conic back empty,"
says Walsh. "1 deal almost exclusively
with a dozen dealers."
In part. that takes care of the
distribution. First, though, the time-
pieces have to find their way to the
repairman. "Going out and finding them
is fun," explains explains the dealer. "I
pretty well buy only in Ontario and
Quebec. Our dollar isn't strong enough to
buy in the States."
Walsh adheres very closely to some-
what inflexible guidelines for what
constitutes antiques. "I won't take
anything later than 1920 unless it was
high quality work when it was made.
There are exceptions."
Because restoring the inner workings
of the clocks and watches occupies such a
major portion of his hours, the dealer
doesn't have the time for restoring the
wooden cabinets in which many clocks
are set. "If I don't buy them clean. 1 have
them done," notes Walsh. He gets help.
as well, from his wife Nancy. an artist.
Besides doing stints in the store to deal
with customers, she uses her skill to put a
fresh appearance on tired clock faces.
For many, the lure of antiques is tied
up in discovering the history of the time
as much as in the beauty and quality of
the piece. Walsh gets that along with
additional rewards.
"It's bringing something back to life,"
he says, "restoring clocks that haven't
turned a wheel for 50 to 75 years. That's
gratifying."
Given the time the dealer spends at his
trade. it must indeed be gratifying. "The
only drawback is my heavy workload,'
which, explains Walsh, stays five or six
months ahead of him. "But most people
in this business are backlogged."
Somehow, though, Walsh will find the
timc. ❑