Timepiece puns don't tick off Bay Area clock repairman who's heard 'em all
by Rick Villaroman
SAN FRANCISCO -- Every day, like clockwork, antique clock repair technician Dorian Clair arrives at his shop of 30 years and gets ready for a day's work in San Francisco's Noe Valley neighborhood.
Looking like a clockmaker should, Clair took apart his first clock at age 8. It was gift from a friend. Sixty-eight years later, he's still at it.
For Clair, time stands still and the work is not tedious, boring or mundane. It's about preserving history.
"It's somebody's family treasure and it's now been salvaged," he said.
Keeping his clocks running on time isn't hard work -- "It's fun," he says -- but keeping his protege, Max, running on time is.
"It's just funny how a minute can sometimes feel like exactly a minute and sometimes it can feel like 20 minutes. I thought if I could fix time, maybe I could fix my latencies."
You can bet that, over the years, Dorian has heard quite a bit of clock humor.
"People occasionally open the door and stick their head in: 'do you know what time it is?' Well, just look around, you can find a clock that says the time you want."
With an estimated two- to four hundred clocks in his shop in various states of repair, the work never ends.
There's no amount of precision maintenance or technical genius that can stop the hands of time from turning but he's not trying to.
"The fun aspect never goes away so I keep at it."
For how long? Time will tell.
