Chorus : This is goodbye to the Watchmaker, and a trade so fine and rare To the little old man with the glasses on, who soon will not be here.
Many long years in apprenticeship, on a wage that was soon spent quick Learning the craft of turning a shaft, five thousandths of one inch thick.
For the first year it’s making the tea, then through the first clocks you wade Hoping one day to sit at the bench, alongside the men in the trade.
Manuals, autos, days and dates, chronographs and stopwatches timed And finally then, the big days arrives : your apprenticeship papers are signed.
But things are changing, there’s no time now, to worry about tolerance and torque A book on electronics is just what you need, to tune up your tuning fork.
Forget the alarm clock’s ring-a-ling, for the trade we must toll the bell When the ticks and the tocks of mechanical clocks, are replaced by a mercury cell.
The factories dictated the future to us : make them faster, there’ll be more to sell In stepping up production to stamp out the piece, they’ve stamped out the craftsmen as well.
: actual date of composition is unknown, but likely sometime in the late 1970s! : and The Tune ? He did write one, but I’ve not yet come across a recording!