Antique and Vintage Clocks

One week before the time change in Canada there were many reports of people waking up late because their phone switched to Eastern time –  Quebec and Ontario, so if your phone told you it was 5am, it was really 6am. Bell Canada blamed this on a software glitch but it is a further reminder of how unnecessary the time change is to us all. What a frustrating experience to all those Bell customers who use their phones as an alarm clock.

Albertans were given a chance to decide in October 2021. The question posed to them was:

Do you want Alberta to adopt year-round Daylight Saving Time, which is summer hours, eliminating the need to change our clocks twice a year?

Electors could vote “yes” or “no” on the question.

The Chief Electoral Officer announced the following results for the referendum:

• “Yes” – 531,782 votes, representing 49.8% of valid ballots cast
• “No” – 536,874 votes, representing 50.2% of valid ballots cast

No change for Albertans! Most affected in Alberta would be those living in the far north. Sunrise could be as late as 10am. But, no matter, they said “no”!

Daylight Savings Time has no place in our modern world. Of 195 countries in the world, approximately 70 countries observe Daylight Saving Time in at least a portion of the country. Japan, India, and China are the only major industrialized countries that do not observe any form of daylight saving.

70 countries must live with it.

At 2:00am Sunday, set your clocks ahead one hour if you live in an area where the convention is still followed.

Regions that typically use daylight saving time adjust clocks forward one hour close to the start of spring and adjust them backward in the autumn to standard time.

In Canada, we have a little aide-memoire, “Spring ahead, Fall behind” to make it easy to remember what to do twice a year. In Canada, it is the second Sunday in March and the first Sunday in November.

How to set your mechanical clock(s)

• Stop the clock and wait for the correct time, then, restart.
• Move the minute hand slowly clockwise to the correct time, stopping briefly for the quarter-hour on chiming clocks and the half-hour for striking clocks. If you have a movement with a rack and snail you can move the minute hand quickly through the hours.
• Do not move the minute hand backward unless the instructions that come with the clock specifically say that it is safe to do so. Otherwise damage to the movement will result.

Time change is a scourge, it is very wasteful and unnecessary in our modern world.