GOODBYE TO THE WATCHMAKER

Paul Lawler

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.



©   Paul O. Lawler   : who trained as a watchmaker in Melbourne and Sydney.
He worked as a Watch and Clock Maker in Sydney and Darwin, and also Clifden (Galway) .....

: 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!

1946-2014 (see Mudcat Obit thread)


R-J