Antique and Vintage Clocks

Thank you, viewers and subscribers.

It is always a thrill to reach a milestone. Six years ago I attended a WordPress workshop and after the instructor assisted us in setting up a rudimentary site, I thought, I can do this. I can talk about clocks! WordPress 101 certainly made it sound so easy but it wasn’t as easy as I thought as I began my journey.

It has taken time to build a following, more than I ever imagined. It takes planning, commitment, an investment of energy, and, finally, perseverance but at the end of the day, it has been worth it.

I began by following other blogs and making notes on what made them successful and eventually found a natural style that was best for me. Unfortunately, I have seen a lot of blogs come and go in the past six years, bloggers that ran out of ideas, lost interest in their blog, or for whatever reason, life got in the way. And some of those blogs were pretty darned good. But I wasn’t going to let that affect me.

The first two years were frustrating, to say the least, and I don’t know how many times I thought of quitting, but I hung in even though the number of views was, well, disappointing. I knew my content was interesting, certainly to me and I knew there were people out there who had a yearning to read and learn about mechanical clocks, so, I stuck with it. And, I am glad I did.

As I have said elsewhere if you regularly use a lathe to cut gear teeth, re-pivot arbours, bush mainspring barrels on a weekly basis, fashion new wheels from raw stock or make advanced repairs on complicated movements and cases, this is probably not the place for you but you are welcome to leave any comments or suggestions or simply read one of my blog articles over a cup of coffee in the morning.

After six years I still consider myself a clock repair generalist though there is no denying that I continue to build my repertoire of clock repair and restoration skill. Judging from my mail I seem to appeal to those who are like-minded. I appreciate those who have stumbled onto my site looking for advice and guidance on a particular clock or clock repair issue.

But I especially appreciate comments and suggestions from regular viewers. And, yes, there is fan mail, most of it sent privately and I take great pleasure in responding to each and every query.

As I review articles that have the greatest number of views it seems clear to me that most of my visitors are looking for how-to and general information articles. That suits me just fine.

These have become the most popular.

• How to wind a mechanical clock?
• What is my clock worth?
• Clock keys sizes, do you have the right one?
• Why does my clock run slow?
• Regulating your mechanical clock, it’s easier than you think
• Why a Vienna regulator clock is not a regulator

After six years I have developed an understanding of my audience and have managed to produce blog articles that seem to appeal to a wide range of people with an interest in horology.

Will I continue? Darn right, and as they say, the best is yet to come.