Time, or the measuring of it, is our trade – and goodness, have we been counting it since March, when our on-site short watchmaking and clockmaking courses were suspended and later our exams, as a result of the pandemic. (The distance learning course was and still is available, though, and we were heartened by how many people took it up. Watchmaking and clockmaking: the perfect lockdown activities!) Six months later and we finally have the great news we’ve been preparing for: as of next month, and assuming no changes in the rules, we will be restarting our courses.
Your safety, of course, is paramount. We have masks and hand sanitiser available and measures in place to maintain social distancing. Upton Hall is a beautiful old listed building, and while it wasn’t designed with this sort of situation in mind, it is spacious and we have ways of making it work. Tutors Sunil Silva and John Murphy are due to restart their courses in October, and in fact one of John’s, Build Your Own Watch, is already full.
We hope that you’ll come back to Upton and join us. Time may have felt like it was frozen over lockdown; people often made references to the film Groundhog Day, in which Bill Murray finds himself living the same day over and over and over again. Nobody knows better than a horologist how unstoppably time does pass, though, and we are looking forward to welcoming our students back again to learn the craft.
You can find out more about our courses here, and please do get in touch if there’s anything you’d like to ask us. We’re here again!
Rachel Reeves, Editor
