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 By Mark van de Kamp
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| In his Buellton studio, Australian-born clockmaker David Walter creates exceptional timepieces. This master craftsman, who used to repair watches belonging to the British Royal family, spends part of his time repairing antique clocks but also custom builds finely detailed clocks that sell for thousands of dollars. Mr. Walter uses sheets of brass to make all the working parts of his clocks, cutting, shaping, filing and polishing everything from the legs to the delicate cogwheels. The handcrafted timepieces are for discriminating customers, and clearly it is Mr. Walter’s obsessive attention to detail and beautiful style that they are paying for. So far, he has already sold more than 140 of his custom timepieces. “Brass has been used in clocks for four centuries,” he said. “Some people can’t believe that I start with a solid sheet of brass and at the end they receive a clock with precise components.” | He works in a way that in today’s world seems old-fashioned but is in fact timeless. “Whenever I build a clock, I know at the beginning exactly what I’m going to end up with,” he said. He designs the casings and dials by drawings on paper. He uses all sorts of specialized tools, a lathe, a drill press and of course, his considerable talents. His latest achievement is drawing a lot of attention. Mr. Walter has successfully built W5, a clock he says is unlike any other timepiece in the world. An emulation of Philip Woodward’s remarkable regulator, it is an all-mechanical free-pendulum clock. The workings are difficult to explain in lay terms; Mr. Walter wrote a lengthy article about the mechanics for a specialty magazine. Suffice it to say that watching this commissioned creation run is simply amazing. Every component was carefully engineered. Both pendulums are mounted on inverted tungsten carbide knife-edges, the V portions of the knife-edged suspension fitted into INVAR blocks which themselves are attached to the top of fused silica pendulum rods made of a tungsten alloy. That’s just for starters. Mr. Walter has created all sorts of clocks that the average person has never heard of. They range from year-running skeletons, skeletonized regulators, and month-going clocks, including Daniels perpetual calendar, moon phase, equation of time, and retrograde date with instant change of all indications each midnight. A skeletonized clock has intricate parts exposed to view from every angle. Each part is a work of art; the brightly polished delicate brass gearing remind a viewer of spiderwebs or of spun candy. Work by clockmakers such as Mr. Walter is filling a demand for very high-end products. The handmade clock remains a standout exception in a world full of mass-produced quartz clocks, and battery-powered digital wristwatches. Clocks have fascinated Mr. Walter, 56, since he was a boy. Born and raised in Perth, Australia, one of the world’s most isolated cities, after finishing school he began a six-year apprenticeship with a small watch and clock repair shop. There he grew to know a great deal about the tiny, intricate mechanisms made of mainsprings, dials, wheels, levels, yokes, bridges, screws and jewels. Eager to explore, he traveled to London, without any job lined up, and walked through the famed West End where a display window caught his eye. “I walked in the front door and asked for a job,” he said. The business was the prestigious Garrard and Company. “They were surprised,” he recalled. “I don’t think anybody had ever done that before. After I was hired they pointed out that I should use the tradesman’s entrance.” Mr. Walter immediately was restoring watches and clocks for exclusive clients including wristwatches for aristocracy. After three years he moved to Vienna, Austria, where a friend in the business pointed him in the right direction. He joined the Omega Watch Company. He fine-tuned his skills for eight years, specializing in chronographs and chronometers. But he yearned to do more beyond fixing the same models of watches. So, inspired by the delicate clocks of the Austrian Empire, he began to make his own. “I made my first four clocks in Vienna,” he said. “I thought I could do better than the antiques I saw.” Over the years, he’s continued with restoration as well as creation. “I like doing the restoration. It often gives you ideas,” he said. “It’s fun to take apart something that doesn’t work and put it back so it works again.” After working in Europe, Mr. Walter returned to Perth in 1980 and opened his own business restoring and selling antique clocks. He focused more on making clocks and in 1983 made his first visit to the Santa Ynez Valley. Ultimately, he was drawn to live full-time here and moved to Buellton. Although he describes himself as “not a patient person,” the fine creations he produces could never be made in a hurry. One of David’s clocks was recently featured in Fortune Small Business magazine. David’s wife Deborah is a realtor for ReMax in Santa Barbara and also works in the Valley. She designs and makes silver and beaded jewelry. |
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Copyright 2006, Inside Santa Ynez Valley Magazine, All Rights Reserved |
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