CEDARBURG — Time is fleeting, hard to grasp, and some say it's the most valuable thing we have. For many, they will say they just don't have enough time.
"In the shop, too, there’s never enough time to get everything done."
Which is slightly ironic coming from a man surrounded by time, literally.
"I mean, there's always ticking going on. Sometimes when I'm on the phone, people think it's a waterfall in the background," Tim Grabenhofer, the owner of Gruhr Clock Restoration and Repair in Cedarburg, said.
Grabenhofer has been restoring and fixing new and antique clocks for 43 years. He is a horologist, which is someone who works on the science, design, and art of timekeeping.
“I could work on something that was made 10 years ago, and 10 minutes later I could work on something 200 years old," the 60-year-old horologist said.
He works on big clocks and small clocks. Old clocks and new clocks. Last year, he worked on more than 1,000 clocks.
“Definitely increase every year. There’s a shop in the local area that closes up, and then I start getting a bunch of customers from those areas," he said.
He gets about 80-100 repair and restoration orders a month. There is no sign of orders slowing down because there just aren't as many people like him anymore. He’s keeping this profession alive in Wisconsin.
“Just like the skilled trades, there’s not too many people going into them, so there’s nobody to really pick up the slack. And getting busier every year tells me I can’t retire," Grabenhofer said.
He doesn’t want to retire either. This work is what makes him tick.
Watch the story to see more of the clocks Tim Grabenhofer works on....
“As long as I’m physically and mentally able to do it, I’ll be doing it.”
But he knows time will catch up to him one day as it does with all of us.
“Everybody has a limited amount. I don’t even think about it really.”
No one can hold on to time, but Grabenhofer can at least make it last a little longer.
“A lot of people like their clocks going because it makes a house a home.”
You don’t get that from a digital clock on a microwave.
“Those are things that will be in a landfill in 10, 15 years. You’re not going to pass your stove to your grandkids," he said.
However, Grabenhofer has seen what he considers an alarming trend. Younger generations aren't holding these old clocks in the same regard as previous generations.
"The only thing that's a little concerning is that younger people don't want their parents' stuff of any sort. So they get rid of some really nice things, including clocks."
But that's not going to deter him. Orders keep coming in, and he loves the work he does. He's making homes come alive.
"(Customers) say they have no idea how many times they actually look at the clock until it's not working."
So while one can wax poetic about time, the horologist prefers to see his clocks as objects of science, gears, and mechanics.
“They are simply machines used to measure time. That’s the way I look at it — not as anything metaphysical or philosophical," he said.
But it’s hard not see the poetry - a man running out of time, trying to preserve time, surrounded by an abundance of time.
But I guess he’ll just leave that to the poets, philosophers, and the reporters.
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