Photos by Enrique Hernandez Bill Gesswein, owner of The Clock Doctor in Scottsdale

This year, Bill Gesswein’s family marks its 50th year of fixing vintage timepieces. But tastes are changing. Has his time come?

Clanging French bells, gonging American grandfather clocks, and the magical melodies of Swiss music boxes are the quaint sounds that ring out when you enter The Clock Doctor shop in Scottsdale.

Celebrating 50 years of fixing clocks this year, The Clock Doctor is more mini-museum than retail establishment, showcasing the largest selection of antique clocks, vintage watches and music boxes in the state. Customers from all over Arizona and the country rely on the staff’s expertise to mend their fine timekeeping heirlooms.

Founder and owner Bill Gesswein, 74, conceived his business in Germany in 1960, when an antique clock purchased by his wife, JoAnn, needed fixing. After a few failed attempts, training from a friend and, ultimately, success, he turned his new skills into a thriving clock repair and retail shop. Five years later, he moved his store to Denver, and then to Scottsdale in the late ’80s.

Today, three generations work the family business. While Bill still comes in a few times a week, he has handed over the day-to-day work to his son, Billy, who welcomed his son, Tyler, into the business.  

Clocksmithing is not just the Gessweins’ trade, but also their hobby and passion. They’re happiest hunched over workbenches, tinkering with intricate timepieces, and talking shop – bezels, dial parts, weights and pulleys, pins, grommets and click springs. Their camaraderie is palpable and their enthusiasm contagious.

Tyler Gesswein

A gold-plated French clock equipped with a bronze statue of George Washington that landed in their shop for repair, then sold for $280,000, recently generated excitement among the family of avid antique clock collectors. Bill’s current count is 40 vintage clocks (including mantel, grandfather, wall and cuckoo clocks), of which many are masterpieces of the medium. “Some clocks you just can’t let go of,” he says.

The business also repairs watches – Rolex, Tag Heuer, Cartier, Patek Philippe and more – for more than 300 customers each month, employing three full-time repairmen and specializating in vintage timepieces.

But are clocks ticking for the Gesswein family’s shop and others like it? For the hurried masses who can’t afford or don’t desire such luxury, digital watches and cell phones suffice for timekeeping. Across the country, clock shops are closing due to technological advancements and the absence of a well-trained apprentice – often a family member – to carry on the tradition of clocksmithing, which the Gessweins see as more art than trade.

“Shops lucky enough to have a son or daughter eager to join the business will still thrive,” Bill says. “Passing on knowledge and skills to future generations is critical to the survival of the industry.”

But technology has also created opportunities in clocksmithing. Recently, Bill has become an active contributor to Yahoo’s clocksmithing group, where more than 500 clockmakers and repairers share tips, stories and hard-to-find parts. “We’re getting parts from as far away as Australia from this kind of networking,” he says.

There’s no immediate danger of a lost art. New clock collectors are continually spawned, often when someone shows up at a clock shop with a recently inherited heirloom timepiece and gets hooked once they realize its value, history and artistry.

Driving the company’s repair van across the state for house calls over the years, the Gesswein family has made longstanding friends and saved many old clocks.

“I love to keep these old timepieces alive,” Bill says.