Description:

During peak season (June 1 – September 1) the National Clock & Watch Museum is open 7 days a week:  Monday – Saturday 10 – 5, Sunday 12 – 4.  During spring (April 1 – May 30) and fall (September 2 – November 30) they’re closed on Mondays and in winter (December 2 – March 31)  they’re closed on Sunday and Monday.

What’s special about this museum is that they manage to take a fairly esoteric subject, “horology” or “time keeping” and they examine it from EVERY possible angle and perspective!  They manage to make it SO interesting that you don’t even need to have an interest in clocks or timekeeping to fall in love with this museum.

They look at the history of keeping time, from water clocks to sun dials to early mechanical clocks.  They talk about navigation and exploration and how it was impacted by the ability to keep time.  They explore the world to present tall clocks and wall clocks from England vs.  France vs. Germany as well as other parts of the world.  They have exhibits for the making of time pieces, another for their repair, and another for the retail / jewelery store aspect of buying time pieces!  They look at time pieces as jewelery/fashion pieces and clocks as works of art.  They’ve even had a special exhibit of watches from James Bond movies!

Seeing clocks and time pieces through time and space and utility tells a fascinating story, making what could be a pretty dry subject incredibly interesting… and beautiful!

I highly recommend this museum for anyone interested in history, science, technology and art.