May 22, 2009
Everlast
On average I speak to 70 000 people a year in person, face to face, about the life expectancy of a clock or music box. Its a measure of quality; of value.
Often I am surprised by the unease of the enquirer when I mention that these artefacts will accompany quite a few generations. I guess it can be interpreted that the clock or music box is of greater value than a human life? My words are twisted to sound something like: “You will pass on my friend and when your family returns from your grave this clock will be ticking and that music box will be playing a tune when the new husband hangs his coat…”
I remember turning on my sister’s transistor radio after her death. It was unplugged and yet it played. The batteries had outlasted her! It upset me greatly and irrationally.
Or maybe we as consumers are dwarfed by these durables. We demand consumables! What will become of us if our purchases outlive us?! What will we do? There will be no need for buying! Our very indentities as consumers are threatened!
Note: All our clocks and music boxes are mechanically operated, wind up movements. Life expectancy stretches to 10 generations. Yet, without the human hand to do the winding, there is no music.
April 29, 2009
Balance
Balance lies at the heart of a clock. No balance. No tick tock. No movement. No smile.
Simple.
See how balance can make you smile
Yours
April 3, 2009
Future holds
Maybe we turn around clocks and watches because in the unconscious lives the phrase:
Is better
Than what came
Before”
Maybe that is what blows the bubbles that pop – .com; sub-prime; promises…
Yet somehow the aspiration never pops and the clock holds its value.
Promise.
Herman
March 31, 2009
One Hour
So on the same night we celebrated our Mother Earth in an hour of darkness, we moved the clocks forward one hour for British Summer Time! Look I’d love to say something about Reuge music boxes today but this moment is just shouting at me to say one thing about clocks. Unlike this very entertaining man who makes many very funny comments about a bunch of clocks. By the way I disagree with him on one point: A beautiful wrist watch is always on the arm of a beautiful person.
Anyway, Sunday morning 29 March was one confusing morning here in the UK. The previous night Earth Hour slowed everything down beautifully and later that same night we moved the clocks’ hands on by an hour!
Where’s my balance gone-help!
Think I love you all
Herman
March 18, 2009
“Too much, Too young?”
That is the question asked this morning in the Independent. The young prodigy in question is the 13 year old Faryl Smith. Maybe that is where we go off the tracks. She isn’t a prodigy. She is a young talented person living a few blocks from our Tick Tock Time offices here in Kettering.
Maybe we see in her what we wish for ourselves…
Godspeed Ms Smith! And thank you for singing at Twickenham – your voice wakes Lions!
Herman
February 27, 2009
I see you
Are Icons of Beauty
Witnessing the Passage
Of time.
This week i’ve been turning a diamond in my hand – looking at a few angles on our relationship with clocks, watches and music boxes. In the main i have been wondering about the reciprocity of this connection in Clarity, Mystery and Imagination, Companions, Infuse and today, I see you.
Can these objects be witnesses to our lives? An “I see you”? Go to any old object in your personal space and ask it, as if it could answer: “what have you seen?” Its a powerful tool of reflection. Listen.
Psychotherapists are quick to say, Nay! You’re simply identifying a dislodged part of your psyche which has identified itself with an object out there. May i ask the sceptic: Why do i feel humbled when i walk past the floor clock in my lounge that has been ticking for 259 years?
Why is it important?
It isn’t. Just a lantern i hung in the window…
Herman
February 24, 2009
Mystery and Imagination
The day my grandfather died the watch he gave me stopped the minute he exhaled his last breath. I was cycling to tennis practice; he was back home. It was one sad day in 1978 at 15:42.
Since then i have heard similar stories many a time. I heard dozens of them at our stand at expos around the world, and again this morning on BBC Radio 2.
How do we explain this fascinating phenomenon?
Have a look at the Boegli musical wristwatch playing 4Seasons.
Herman
