Grandfather Clock Guild Refuses to Recognize Fall-Back, Demands 2:00 A.M. Be Renamed

The Grandfather Clock Guild of America voted unanimously Sunday to refuse recognition of the November 1 fall-back, declaring that its members’ clocks ‘will chime when they chime, and the government can mind its own business.’

‘A grandfather clock is not a microwave,’ said Guild president Thaddeus Wren, 78, polishing a 1911 oak case clock that has kept what he calls ‘Wren Mean Time’ since 1987. ‘You do not simply push a button. You commune. You negotiate with the pendulum.’

The Guild’s 340 members maintain that moving a grandfather clock’s hands backward ‘disturbs the escapement’s emotional state’ and have proposed instead that the repeated 2:00 a.m. hour be officially renamed ‘2:00 A.M. (Encore).’

‘The encore hour deserves respect,’ Wren said. ‘It is the only hour that performs twice in one night. Frank Sinatra never did that.’

Younger members have pushed for modernization, including a controversial proposal to ‘just let the clock be wrong for a day,’ which was defeated 339-1. The lone yes vote came from Wren’s grandson, who was immediately assigned ‘pendulum polishing duty, indefinite.’

The Time Zone Ombudsman acknowledged the Guild’s position but noted that ‘the sun does not negotiate with pendulums,’ and advised residents near Guild members’ homes to ‘expect some extra chiming, and honestly, it’s kind of nice.’