Keeping the hands of time turning

What started as a hobby for Sean Barnes eventually turned into a full-fledged, family-run business.

Barnes used to work a desk job, handling the inventory of raw materials for a company that worked with Proctor and Gamble.

Off the clock, however, Barnes' interests turned from keeping track of materials to the ticking of clocks.

Or, rather, making clocks tick again.

Some 20 years ago, Barnes discovered a passion for repairing and restoring clocks.

"It started off with cuckoo clocks," Barnes said. "I started working on cuckoo clocks, and it kind of went from there. It was a hobby, then I wanted to learn a bit more so I apprenticed with a guy for a couple of years. I just pretty much worked on them for myself."

He said he'd go to antique stores or flea markets, where he'd find clocks and take them home to fix. Sometimes he'd sell them or give them away, and others he'd keep them for himself.

Barnes said he discovered that he could get a broken clock for much cheaper than a working clock, and he's always been good with his hands.

"So that's where it started. It was like, 'Oh, I can buy this broken one and fix it,' and that's where it all kind of came from," Barnes said.

When he started running out of room in his house, Barnes said, he started fixing clocks for others.

Fast-forward to today. Barnes and his wife, Nancy Barnes, own S&N Clock Repair, where they and their two children fix and restore clocks from all over Missouri, Illinois, Arkansas and Kentucky.

They officially opened the Cape Girardeau shop in 2017, Barnes said.

His son, daughter and wife apprentice with Barnes at the shop, learning the tools of the trade and working on clocks with him. He said his son and wife have been doing it for around three years, and his daughter has been apprenticing for a little more than a year.

Barnes said there's no official guild or really even school dedicated to learning or getting certified in clock repair in the United States. There are a couple of clock repair organizations, he said, but he described them more as social organizations than official guilds.

The man Barnes apprenticed under had worked on clocks for about 60 years. While there are some official guilds in Europe, Barnes said, it's more of a "folk trade" in the United States.

"It's handed down. You kind of have to get with somebody that's doing it and hope and pray that they're good at it. Then, once you get to a point, you kind of have to go out on your own and learn on your own," Barnes said.

Although it's harder to get into the trade and learning resources aren't very widespread, Barnes said there's a benefit to learning as an apprenticeship versus learning the trade at a school.

He said the benefit comes from the hands-on experience these masters have to share. The ones willing to take on apprentices have been in the trade for a long time, working on clocks every day and seeing all kinds of things, Barnes said.

"It's just not theory; theory on how it works. There's things going on that the schools are not gonna teach you. It's like any job, you know? So when you have a master teaching you, it's like they've been there, they've done that. That experience is much more valuable than a book or something like that," Barnes said.

Barnes said his interest in clock repair doesn't come from just one part of the work.

On one side, he said, he loves the history that comes with a lot of the clocks he works on. Barnes said he loves history and being able to get his hands on it.

Then, he said, there's the artwork involved with clocks.

Carved cases and hand-painted glass bring a certain beauty to the work.

Finally, there's the technology behind the faces and spiraling hands.

Clocks were the computers of their time, Barnes said.

"Clocks and firearms," Barnes said.

He said you can see the changes through time and the different levels of craftsmanship in different places. Barnes lamented the decline in quality he's seen as time has progressed.

A pre-Civil War clock, for example, is of higher quality than one made today. He said he's actually worked on pre-Civil War clocks that, for all intents and purposes, shouldn't work, but continue to tick on.

Barnes and his family at S&N Clock Repair are going to be fixing the historic clock set in the tower at the Cole County Courthouse. Barnes said he hopes to be up in the tower in early May to start the work.

If the more than 100-year-old Exchange National Bank clock standing in front of Hawthorn Bank is any indication of Barnes' repair skills, Jefferson City residents should hear the courthouse clock ringing on the hour once again.