Doing Time...
-
Bill Lawless was brought up in North Great George's Street, went to school in Ballyfermot and in Mount Street Tech. He first trained with Henry Spring, a watchmaker in 1961 - and met Paul Lawlor who established a Watch and Clock repair shop in 1976. Eight Years later, Bill joined Paul at his Wicklow St workshop. Paul looked after the 'watch' side of the business while Bill dedicated his time to repairing clocks. In 2008 Paul retired and Bill has been in business for himself since.
-
Over the years Bill has repaired clocks in the House of Lords - Bank of Ireland, Dublin Castle, the Dail and in [the Department of] Foreign Affairs too. He also fixed the clock of David La Touche, the first governor of the Bank of Ireland. It now hangs in the bank's Arts Centre.
-
It's an accident that i became a clockmaker. I was leaving the tech, and all sorts of options came up . I thought clockmaking was unusual , but to me a job is a job. When i started off doing the apprentiship, i didn't know anything. I think it's the same as any job - you start at the beginning and you learn.You're watching somebody and you're doing something and somebody is checking over what you're doing. There were no courses in those days so the apprentichip took 5 or 6 years.
Years ago people depended on clocks so much more. There was one clock in the house and that was it. Very few had watches. Then we hit the Sixties and every second person had a watch. I think more people are more time conscious now but no one has any time for anything.→ William Lawless