The habit – once common in an era before clocks were powered by batteries – dates back to Mr Mun’s years as a teenager helping out in his father’s clock shop, where he would wind dozens of mechanical clocks on Sunday to show that they were in working condition.Unlike their battery-powered counterparts, mechanical clocks have to be wound consistently, as they run on energy stored in their springs.
The hotel ran into financial troubles in the late 1920s. Its assets were sold off, and it was demolished in 1934. The site is now occupied by the former Supreme Court building. Mr Mun Sah , Mr Kan Hong Keen , and Mr Mun Chor Koon , in the clock shop. Mr Mun Chor Weng is partially blocked at the back, having lunch after school in the 1950s. PHOTO: COURTESY OF MUN CHOR SENG
Mr Mun and his wife Tan Ling Cheng sharing a light-hearted moment during tea break in the dining room that is decorated with antique clocks, on April 7, 2024. The clock, also known as a torsion pendulum clock, was named for its ability to run for about 400 days. Word soon spread among dealers with a similar enthusiasm for 400-day clocks, who began contacting Mr Mun whenever they chanced upon interesting and rare pieces.As he bought horological books and magazines, his interest and knowledge in clocks grew.By striking deals with overseas dealers over the phone and through mail, Mr Mun expanded the range of his collection.
Mr Mun said: “Once you’re bitten by a collecting bug, the condition becomes like a terminal disease, it can only get more serious as time goes on.These now occupy nearly every wall of his two-storey semi-detached house in Bukit Timah, where he has lived since 1989. The clocks have become such an important part of him that when the family moved into the house before the clocks were brought over, it felt weirdly foreign.“I felt more at ease when I brought my clocks in.”
The walls by the stairs leading up to the second floor of his house are lined with pendulum clocks, including the Vienna regulator, a wooden antique whose resonant chime once told the time to owners of European mansions.
INTEREST COLLECTOR CLOCK SINGAPORE INTERACTIVE GRAPHICS HOME IN FOCUS THROUGH THE LENS ST DISCOVER
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