Clock fanciers gather at Ocean Center
By Mark Lane
Published: Thursday, February 13, 2014 at 6:44 p.m.
Last Modified: Thursday, February 13, 2014 at 6:47 p.m.
DAYTONA BEACH – Skip Carter drove here from Ocklawaha, towing a 20-foot trailer packed with grandfather clocks that are probably taller than your grandfather. He was one of more than 1,000 watch and clock enthusiasts who arrived at the Ocean Center Thursday for the first day of the National Association of Watch and Clock Collectors’ regional gathering.
Skip Carter, left, shows some collectors a clock Thursday at the National Association of Watch and Clock Collectors regional show at the Ocean Center.
More than 600 sellers and traders set up tables displaying wristwatches, pocket watches, watch parts, clockworks, watch tools, wall clocks with pendulums, figurines with clocks in their bellies, cuckoo clocks with life-sized cuckoos, marble Art Deco clocks with brass naked ladies reclining on top, drug-store clocks with Coca-Cola logos, Mickey Mouse clocks, ship’s clocks, railroad watches, dark wood Victorian mantle clocks, clocks that glow in the dark, and even a sundial or two.
Carter was showing off an 1895 Lenzkirch wall clock made by renown German clockmaker Eduard Hauser and selling for $8,000.
“This is the pinnacle of his clocks,” he said proudly. “We call it ‘the mermaid’ because, see, there’s the mermaid on top.” The elegant, heavy walnut case is decorated with fluted columns and gilded brass laurel leaves, all topped with a gleaming mermaid.
“I’ve sold them anywhere between $13,000 to $10,000,” he says, but lately the market’s been a bit soft.
No matter. It’s early in the day and he’s made some sales already.
This is the fifth year the event has been held here and Carter, along with his wife, Deborah Carter, has been coming every year.
Less elegant, perhaps, were the offerings at Jerry Maltz’s table. Maltz, who drove here from New Rochelle, N.Y., with his wife of more than 50 years, MillyMaltz, specializes in clocks used for advertising. Such as the Goulding’s Manure (“the best for all crops”) wall clock dominating his table and selling for $1,800.
“I went for the rubbish,” he said with a laugh. “I like them and they’re hard to find because people just threw them away.” He has clocks advertising Coca-Cola, patent medicines and drug stores. He even wrote the book on the subject, “Baird Advertising Clocks,” describing the work of nineteenth century New York-based clockmaker Edward Baird.
He says he has “a couple hundred clocks” at home. “All my friends have a couple hundred clocks. Doesn’t everyone?”
The spokesman for the collectors’ group, Randy Jaye, Flagler Beach, says he has about 250 wristwatches and 50 clocks. He started as strictly a wristwatch collector but branched out after attending some of the group’s conferences.
He’ll be giving a talk about the history of wristwatches to the group and will show off the oldest piece in his collection, an 1884 silver watch called a “wristlet” which looks like a small pocket watch on a bracelet.
So what was on his wrist today? “Oh, a real mod ‘70s watch,” he said, holding up a big, Jetsons-looking wedge of steel made by the Swiss watch company Zeno.
Jaye said snowstorms have delayed some attendees and he expects more to arrive on the event’s second day. The conference runs through Saturday.
News-Journal/DAVID TUCKER
Skip Carter, left, shows some collectors a clock Thursday at the National Association of Watch and Clock Collectors regional show at the Ocean Center.
News-Journal/DAVID TUCKER
Jerry Maltz shows off one of his advertising clocks at his table with wife MillyMaltz on Thursday at the National Association of Watch and Clock Collectors regional show at the Ocean Center.
News-Journal/DAVID TUCKER
A box of pocket watches is on display Thursday at the National Association of Watch and Clock Collectors regional show at the Ocean Center.