The top floor and the stable block
The Atelier and its trades
A hundred and four benches, ten trades and one long table. Everything the house makes by hand is made here, and everything that matters is made here twice.
The stranger’s week
No piece leaves the Atelier until it has spent a week with a stranger: a maker of the house who had no part in making it, chosen by the Master on the morning the piece is finished. The stranger winds it, runs it, keeps it on the bench beside their own work and writes in the stranger’s book every fault they find, however small, and every thing the piece does that its drawings do not say it should. The piece goes back to its makers until the stranger can find nothing to write.
The practice dates from 1913, when the Copyist was found by a visiting clockmaker to blot its page a second before the ink had dried. It is slow, and it is the reason the house can say that a piece does what its certificate says. The stranger strikes a mark of their own beside the maker’s, and signs the stranger’s book, which is kept in the Archive with the certificate.
The trades
| Trade | Makers | Apprentices |
|---|---|---|
| OcularistBlown and enameled eyes, painted from behind. Since 1911. | 4 | 2 |
| Feather-setterCutting, steaming and setting feathers on silk. Since 1922. | 6 | 4 |
| Movement makerSprings, trains, cams and escapements. Since 1911. | 14 | 9 |
| Hand-makerFingers, joints and the fitting of hands. Since 1956. | 5 | 3 |
| EngraverDials, plaques, hallmarks and the lettering of drawings. Since 1911. | 5 | 3 |
| EnamelerIris enamel, breast feathers, dial cartouches. Since 1911. | 4 | 3 |
| Cabinetmaker and turnerCases, stands, perches and plinths. Since 1911. | 9 | 6 |
| LeatherworkerBellows, eyelids, contact bands. Since 1911. | 5 | 2 |
| RestorerHeritage pieces and returned pieces, from the makers’ notebooks. Since 1952. | 8 | 6 |
| TunerPenfield Mk I to Mk III, in the Penfield Room. Since 1979. | 3 | 0 |
The feather room
A small room at the north end of the Atelier, kept at 62 percent humidity and 19 °C all year, where feathers are cut from laminated keratin film, shaped over steam and set by hand. The room is quiet because feather-setters work by holding their breath. Visitors are shown it if they ask, and asked not to speak inside.
The ocularist’s furnace
The oldest working thing at the House. It was built for Euphemia Aske in 1911 and relined in 1952 and 2007. The house has four ocularists and two apprentice ocularists, and each eye takes between nine and fourteen days.
The Penfield Works
The Penfield Mk II and Mk III were made in the Penfield shop in the stable block, at most about 1,400 a year. The Mk IV was planned at several times that, and in 2023 the house opened a second works for it, in the old net loft on the waterfront at Everett, beside the Works where the Nexus-6 was built. It is led by Constance Ebbing, a director of the Association.
| Staff | 171, of whom 132 work at the bench |
|---|---|
| Assembly | Two halls of forty-four benches each |
| Dial shop | Dials engraved by pantograph from Tobiah Wren’s master of 2022 |
| Tuning | Nine tuning rooms, copies of the Penfield Room at the House; 37 tuners |
| Made | 61,412 instruments, April 2024 to July 2026. Production paused since 3 July 2026 |
Since the suspension the Works’ makers have serviced instruments, handled the refunds the house has offered keepers and retuned, at no charge, any instrument a keeper has sent in. Nobody at the Works has been laid off.
Seeing the Atelier
The Atelier may be visited by appointment on Tuesdays and Saturdays, when a maker will show you the benches. Photographs may not be taken, for the reason that the house would rather you drew. Request an appointment · Apprenticeships