With a banjo on my wall Premium

On February 8, 1802, horologist Simon Willard received a patent for what is popularly known as a banjo clock. A clockmaker of repute in the U.S., Willard worked his hands on the hands of many a clock. A.S.Ganesh tells you what made him and his clocks tick…

A fifth generation Willard in the U.S., Simon Willard was a famous American clockmaker. We mention fifth generation because the Willard of the first generation was among the founders of Concord, Massachusetts. Massachusetts was where Simon was born and died, the former in Grafton on April 3, 1753 and the latter, when time finally stood still for the clockmaker, in Roxbury on August 30, 1848.

Simon shifted from his place of birth, where he also picked up the basics of horology when he apprenticed to a clock maker, to his place of death in 1780. Simon settled in Roxbury once and for all thereafter, working there until his retirement in 1839.

Simon wasn’t the only Willard of the generation who took to clock making. Two of his elder brothers — Benjamin and Ephraim — were also clock makers, and so was his younger brother Aaron. In fact, it was with Benjamin that Simon continued his learning in the field after his move from Grafton to Roxbury, eventually superseding his brother and becoming a horologist of repute.

The fact that he was a pre-eminent clock maker of his time meant that his clients were some of the wealthiest of the era.

Portrait of Simon Willard by American painter Gilbert Stuart. | Photo Credit: Wikimedia Commons

Willard was able to move away from the traditional ways of clockmaking, turning it in the process into a successful business venture. Traditionally, a clockmaker made every part such as the weights, hands, case, etc. Willard, however, decided to put parts sourced from others together and stamping his name on the product. This meant that while other clockmakers made a handful of clocks each year, Willard’s overall count went into the thousands.