Time to slow down

[attach]5914[/attach]When the clock strikes 6 p.m. on May 31, Abernethy & Son Clockmakers will close their doors for the final time after 34 years of business in North Toronto.

“My wife and I decided that it’s time to downscale a little bit,” the store’s founder and owner David Abernethy says. “We have another location in Richmond Hill. We’re going to focus our work from there and we’re going to take more time off, hopefully.”

Long before becoming a certified horologist he made his first attempt at fixing a watch when he was four years old, Abernethy says. By the age of 15, he knew it would become a career.

“I was in a house full of them,” he says. “My father spent his evenings working in a room I was allowed to go into only in the evenings and I could watch him and listen to what he was doing and I guess it got into my blood.”

After immigrating to Toronto from England in 1975 he worked for several years at another jewellery store before opening his own retail location on Yonge Street at Golfdale Road in 1978. He relocated to the current store at Bowood Avenue in 1982 and added a second workshop space near his Gormley Heritage District home in 1992 when he needed additional room for large commercial projects.

Abernethy, who says he’s worked on or sourced clocks from practically every country in the world, says he finds the devices impressive because they literally live on.

“I’m working on clocks that have seen multiple owners, father to son, family pieces, which are passed down six, seven, eight, nine, 10 generations and on and on,” he says.

As a local watch and clockmaker, Abernethy says he was also able to work on many significant and iconic public clocks such as at the Peace Tower in Ottawa, Toronto’s Old City Hall, North Toronto CPR Station and St. James Cathedral.

“What I like about my job in particular is my work has taken me to other continents to work all the while I was working here running this shop on Yonge Street,” he says. “I’ve been going all over the place doing special jobs for special places and special people, for royalty and for ordinary folks alike.”

Whether he’s restoring, maintaining or repairing public, domestic or sculptural clocks or watches, he’s never had a day of unemployment in his career, he says.

“Every moment has been my favourite moment,” he says. “I’ve enjoyed myself. I enjoy this work. I’ve had an amazing career. I should write a book but I don’t have any time.”

Although some of his favourite memories from the North Toronto area are work related, many are also personal as he raised his family nearby. In particular, renewing his vows with his wife of 50 years, Allison, at Bedford Park United Church for their 25th anniversary stands out in his mind.

Allison also works at the store and workshop and while he focuses on the mechanical side of the business, she tends to the artsy aspects for clock case and dial restoration.

As their North Toronto closing date draws near, he’d like to thank the community for being supportive, loyal and friendly over the years, Abernethy says.

“Both my wife and I will really, really miss the people of North Toronto that we’ve seen daily who have become almost like family,” he says. “I know their kids, I know their grandkids and some of the people who come in here I can remember them being pushed in a stroller and now they’re pushing a stroller with their own kids so that’s been a great thrill.”