February 2026 Monthly Meeting

Mr William Sunderland

“Clockmaker and Collector Extraordinaire”

I met William and Josephine on the Clockmakers outing to Holland last October, organised by The Master and his wife, Robert and Linda Wren. William was the first person to greet me, and he wanted to know my connection with Horology and I him. Not more than three minutes had passed, and I had filled in details of a miniature lantern clock he had and where it resided. William has had a lifelong passion with clocks and an “expensive” meeting with the well-respected clockmaker John Hooper, gave him a starting point, the humble Lantern Clock. He wanted to collect early clocks. He was fascinated by pre pendulum clocks and the early introduction of the pendulum into horology. As a clockmaker I know it is difficult to find good examples, there are many pitfalls associated with clocks from ‘the golden age’ but William managed to navigate himself around these. A chance meeting with Chris Lowe of Richards of Burton provided the solution. Chris took him under his wing teaching him and over ten years turning the collector into a restorer and clockmaker. Owning an early Romer/Huygens pendulum clock was prohibitively expensive, one by Salomon Coster being sold in 2007 by Christies Amsterdam for £425,000. Solution, make your own.

William worked with engineering in the motor and print industries. So, in 2022 inspired by his hero’s, self-published a hard cover book with fantastic colour prints.

The Collection Domestic Clocks 1450 -1800. Not only will he bring some of his clocks which he will talk to us about but copies of his book.

All monies received from the sale/revenue of the book will be in aid of the MS Society.

Duncan Greig.