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08/02/2017 08:30 AMGrowing up on a farm in Ohio, Ray Pavkov says he has always been interested mechanical things, and he’s turned that interest into a successful career as a clockmaker. As the owner of Yankee Clock Peddler in North Haven, Ray has been applying his craft for more than 40 years.
“I was always working on the equipment—tractors break down, wagons need axles, grease,” Ray says. “My mom always used to say the first thing I’d do when I’d get a new wagon or bicycle or something, I’d take it apart and grease it.”
Noting that he always liked to work with his hands, Ray went to Kent State University to become an industrial arts teacher. Ray was drafted into the Army in 1967 during the Vietnam War, where he spent two years in Germany.
“I was a flight medic on a helicopter,” he says. “I was with the 3rd Armored Division, and whenever the 3rd Armored Division would go out on maneuvers, the 45th Medical Battalion would have to assist if they had some accidents or whatever.”
When he came back from Germany, the company for which Ray worked had been sold and his job was gone. His wife was from Connecticut, so they decided to move here.
“When I was in Germany, I bought a couple clocks, brought them back with me, and actually had no interest in clock repair at the time,” Ray says, “I just liked them because they had gears, and I thought that was kind of cool how that worked. It reminded me a lot of my tractor days on the farm.”
Ray says he used to go out to Guilford—there was a clockmaker there that Ray says he would “bother all the time” with questions. Ray says that the clockmaker saw he was interested and offered him an apprenticeship.
The State of Connecticut at that point had an apprenticeship program for making watches but not clocks. Ray says the state commissioned his mentor to write the syllabus for clock-making.
After learning the craft for 8,000 hours over a four-year period, he completed the program and received his certificate. Ray also enrolled in the British Horological Institute, which provides training and education for those who make and repair clocks.
“That was a three-year correspondence program,” says Ray. “At the end of your first year, you took a test; I had to physically make a clock part and send it to them, and it was either pass or fail. If you failed the exam…you had to do it again; you skipped moving on.”
Fortunately, Ray was able to earn his certificate for the institute. He also signed up for the American Watchmakers Institute (now called the American Watchmakers-Clockmakers Institute), and got his certificate from there as well.
“That also happened to be a three year program, so I did those at the same time,” says Ray.
Ray started his own business in 1974, and opened his first shop in 1979.
“I’ve seen a thousand clocks since then, and basically it all boils down to the same thing: A customer comes in and says, ‘It doesn’t work, can you fix it?’” Ray says, “I have to go through and eliminate what I think might be the problems.”
One thing he was taught was “don’t ever bend wires until you understand why it’s bent.” He elaborates that sometimes all a clock needs is a little tweak on a wire to make it sound right or to make it lift another level properly, so if he makes everything straight and perpendicular, “then you’ve got a headache.”
Ray says he’s seen his fair share of “hack jobs,” where it looked like someone had tried to fix a clock themselves and did so incorrectly. He says clock repair is an art form where one learns certain techniques, and not every clockmaker may have the same techniques.
“You have to know what’s right before you know what’s wrong,” Ray says. “If it doesn’t look right, if it doesn’t sound right, if it doesn’t feel right, it leads you to where you need to go.”
Ray says that he starts getting busy around this time of year, as many of his customers pick up clocks while on vacation or find one in a relative’s house that has been in the family for many years. He says it’s rewarding and gives him a sense of satisfaction when he’s able to fix a clock like that and give it back.
He also says he loves to hear family stories about clocks that have been in a family, as it reminds him of things that he’s received from his parents. Among others, Ray currently has a clock that he repaired in his shop that was originally made from a kit by a woman’s father in his basement.
“So it really meant a lot to her that I was able to get it done,” Ray says.