Story & Photos By ACACIA RODRIGUEZ

The duties of New York City’s clock master are a labor of love.

Marvin Schneider, a member of Local 1087 Prevailing Rate Employees, travels throughout the boroughs to ensure public and semi-private clocks are inspected, running on time, and freshly wound week by week.

“Analog clocks are a visual way of understanding spatial relations,” Schneider said. “When you just see digital numbers, you don’t have an image of what is left and what is yet to be achieved.”

He is joined by a volunteer apprentice and his right-hand man, Forest Morowitz. Their dedication to accuracy can be seen each time New Yorkers look up to the clocks at Manhattan’s City Hall, Brooklyn’s Borough Hall, or the Harlem Courthouse.

Schneider’s journey to develop the unique skillset necessary for clock care began through trial and error. As a child, he liked to take apart clocks and reassemble them. In the 1970s, while working as a caseworker at the Department of Social Services (DSS), he and a coworker banded together to gain access to a public clock in poor working condition. After securing the necessary documentation and insurance needed for repairs, he provided volunteer services for 10 years, treating a dozen clocks across the city.

In 1992, Mayor David Dinkins appointed Schneider as the city’s first clockmaster since the late 1800s. He held the title of caseworker and clockmaster until he retired from DSS in 1995, after which the Department of Citywide Administrative Services (DCAS) redesignated his title to clock repairer. His workload grew as antique clocks needed care and according to the needs of the city.

“I was able to provide a valuable resource for the city’s cultural heritage and its appearance in the eyes of tourists,” Schneider said.

Schneider and Morowitz don’t do this work alone. They attribute their ongoing success working on hybrid, mechanical, and electrical clocks to the support they receive from fellow tradespeople within the agency.

“DCAS has a machine, electrical, and carpentry shop,” Schneider said. “All these disciplines come into play because we have to make parts that are no longer manufactured for antiques. Where do you find rare pieces that must be replaced? You bring it to the city tradespeople who can copy or repair them.”

While time stretches on, so does Schneider’s and Morowitz’s maintenance routine.

“We do the maintenance and wind the mechanical clocks once a week, then inspect the electrical clocks and change them to Daylight Savings Time twice a year,” Schneider said.

Schneider and Morowitz’s maintenance of the city’s antique clocks also means they carry the torch of sustainability. With skilled repairers available, specialized machines are saved from being discarded as waste. Ecologically, mechanical clocks do not use batteries that must be discarded, something Schneider is mindful of each week.

“As far as the environment is concerned, a mechanical clock is the best.”

At top: Morowitz (left) and Schneider service an 1850s Sperry Clock at City Hall. At bottom: The two were granted permission to service the Bogardus Clock, the city’s only mechanical clock, which is semi-privately owned and was refurbished by community members living in the area.