LAMORINDA WEEKLY | 'Round the Clock We Go


The Russell family (left), from Denmark, help Wendy Tamis and Scott Hampton reset a wall of clocks. Photo Sophie Braccini

For Wendy Tamis and Scott Hampton, Sunday, November 7th brings hours of extra work. Daylight Savings Time ends and Standard Time begins, two hours after midnight; 2:00 a.m. will officially become 1:00 a.m. The average Lamorinda resident will probably spend only a few minutes resetting clocks; but Tamis and Hampton, co-owners of Clocks, Etc., will spend hours resetting somewhere around one thousand clocks; they spread the work out over a 1-2 week period because, "Our fingers get too tired," says Hampton.

The Lafayette store rustles with the tick-tock of hundreds of clocks. "All the clocks that do not have a chime are on time," says a proud and methodic Tamis, so twice a year the change of time requires some planning. "We start, before the date of the time change, with the little ones that are in glass displays," she explains, "but the ones on the wall have to wait for the actual date; otherwise clients might get confused."

The hardest clock to change this year will be a 50-pounder that has to be taken off the wall; the large indoor/outdoor clocks are not easy either because panels have to be unscrewed to reach protected hands and batteries. "The change of time is a good opportunity to change the batteries not only of smoke detectors, but of battery-powered clocks as well," advises Tamis, "once a year is a good periodicity."

Not all clocks should be turned back. "You should not fall-back an antique clock," says Hampton, "if you do, you risk damaging the mechanism and the strike will be off." Every year, the store gets calls from some of these clock owners. "The best thing to do is to stop it for an hour," advises Tamis.

The couple also gets a few calls every year from people whose radio controlled clocks do not change automatically like they're supposed to. The WWVB Atomic Clock time signal, transmitted from Colorado, provides the ability to synchronize the time on computers and other electrical equipment; clocks equipped with a receptor get a signal at 2:00 a.m. and roll back automatically. "In the buildings we live in, sometimes the devices have difficulty getting the signal," explains Tamis, "we recommend that owners put their clock in a window facing east overnight; eventually it will hit the signal."