Time Wizard Clock Repair & Sales

Autobiography

Brian repairing a floor clock movement in his
Der Uhrenmacher (The Clock Maker) apron.

My name is Brian Pendleton, I was born on August 27th, 1962 in South Laguna, California. My mother divorced when I was very young. She remarried when I was six years old, and my new stepfather was a clock hobbyist. He was a municipal administrator by trade and managed each city we lived in. We first lived in Lincoln, California where he had a small repair shop in the basement. I recall at times when he was gone at night for various official meetings, I would sneak into the repair shop and watch all the clocks that were working, and was fascinated by all the ones that were taken apart. We moved from Lincoln, California to Winooski, Vermont when I was eight. We lived there for a couple of years and then moved to Phoenixville, Pennsylvannia. My stepfather and I ran a full time clock shop together there. He had a very impressive collection of rare American wall and floor clocks, some of which I'm sure have ended up in museums. My stepfather was a skilled wood worker but did not really enjoy working on the mechanical part of the clocks a great deal. I was always fascinated by the mechanical aspect of the clocks and once I had a few years experience and got good at it, I did most of the clock repair for the shop. I helped him with the repair shop until I turned eighteen when I joined the United States Navy in August of 1980.

I went to basic training in San Diego, California. I was subsequently stationed aboard two different repair ships called "tenders" with a rating of MR (Machinery Repairman). For those unfamiliar with navy ships, a tender is a vessel which accompanies either a battleship fleet or submarine fleet on patrols. It is always on standby for repairs and manufacturing of parts for any of the ships in the battle group. A tender is like a floating factory with a fully equipped machine shop and any other repair facility needed to maintain the fleet. The first ship I was stationed on was the USS Samuel Gompers AD 37 which was a destroyer tender. Then I served on the USS McKee AS 41 which was a nuclear submarine tender. I finished out my nine year service tour at the machine shop at 32nd Street Naval Station, San Diego, California, and was honorably discharged in January of 1989.

After my discharge, I worked for several small clock shops in the San Diego area for a couple of years before moving to Salem, Oregon on an invitation from my stepfather to manage a branch of his clock store chain called Father Time Clocks, which I managed for him for six years before venturing out on my own. I opened a clock shop in Albany with a partner for a short time but eventually decided I work better on my own, and opened up my own shop in the basement of my home in Salem called Time Train Clock Repair in 1995. I ran that repair shop out of the basement for about ten years until I decided I wanted a full service clock shop with a show room offering clocks for sale in addition to repair. Upon my transition to Independence, I changed the name of my business to The Time Wizard. A name which was inspired by my son Seth, who at the time collected Yu-Gi-Oh cards, and had one called "Time Wizard". It was a comical looking character with arms & legs, with gears sticking out of it. I laughed when I saw this image and thought it was the perfect name for a clock shop. Now everyone who knows me calls me "The Wiz". I enjoy dealing with people and sharing my knowledge and experience and having a clock store where folks can come in and browse affords me a greater opportunity to do that. I have a full service on-site repair facility where I can repair just about anything mechanical imaginable. I offer anywhere between one hundred and one hundred fifty clocks for sale in my showroom, many of which are consignments.