Situated just off State Highway 2 in the Central Hawke’s Bay township of Waipawa is a small shop with big hopes of restoring time.
Jim and Anne Greeff, originally from Zimbabwe, moved to New Zealand in 2002, and first opened the Napier clock shop on Dalton St around 2004 or 2005.
They later opened The Clock Shop on High St in Waipawa in 2011.
Together they run what they describe as a destination store, helping to repair clocks and watches, fix jewellery, re-thread vintage beads and pearls, along with facilitating porcelain repairs and rehoming unwanted clocks.
Jim said his love for the work came from a decision after he finished school and wanted to explore his love of “tinkering”.
“My parents got tired of me taking things to pieces and being unable to put them together again... so they thought, let’s have a look and see what there is to tinker with.”
He attended a horological institute in London for three and a half years from 1964. Horology is the science and art of studying, designing, constructing, and repairing clocks, watches, and other timekeeping devices.
His favourite types of clocks included Carriage and English school clocks, and he said it not only took passion to remain in the horology industry, but a very steady hand, which the 77-year-old deemed to be his greatest asset.
“I don’t want to give it up until I really have to, and I probably won’t and as long as I can, I will.”
In the Waipawa Town Clock’s centenary year in 2022, Jim took the brass bearings from the massive mechanism, cleaned and regreased them and reassembled the clock’s workings, at the same time repairing the chiming mechanism, which had not worked for six months.
It’s a piece of “absolute quality” he said back then, a mechanical clock with a grasshopper escapement and a “night off” system, made in Salisbury, England in about 1909 by Gillet and Johnston, Royal Warrant holders as clockmakers and bellfounders to His Majesty King George V.
He said that while the profession itself didn’t have many people taking it on now, clocks were once a popular gift for special occasions, anniversaries, birthdays and long service.
“There are not a lot of people coming into the trade, and basically it is preserving history because most of the clocks we work on are at least 100 years old.”
He said their Waipawa service was very popular, with plenty of work to keep them busy, and repeat customers.
“We like to take pride in our work, and it’s pretty satisfying to take something that hasn’t been working for 25 or 30 years and turn it into something they remember.”
He said he needed to be very precise with repairs as a lot of the parts had to be remade within points of a millimetre.
“There is such a variety of clocks, from very delicate ones to ones made all over the world.”
He said the British-based TV show The Repair Shop had helped him with business.
“It’s revived a lot of the industry because people realise they are sitting on something quite valuable.”
Anne, who runs the store alongside Jim, said one of the more magical parts of the job for her was the stories that came with the items people wanted restored or even rehomed.
“The best thing about the shop is the people who bring in their items; we could write a book on different stories attached to different items.”
She explained that a couple had come into the shop with a wall clock with a backstory.
“It was his great-grandfather’s and when he came to this country, there was only horse and cart, and he brought his clock and his new bride, and the bride sat in the back of the carriage, and the clock sat on the man’s lap.”
She described the store as a destination shop, but said they preferred it that way.
“We don’t have foot traffic because of our location, but we are a destination shop, which is actually better because ... people that come in have a one-track mind.”
Michaela Gower joined Hawke’s Bay Today in 2023 and is based out of the Hastings newsroom. She covers Dannevirke and Hawke’s Bay news and loves sharing stories about farming and rural communities.