Clocks for every day of the year cover the walls in the living room of 76-year-old Werner Stechbarth’s apartment in Munich, Germany, the haul from a life spent criss-crossing the globe.
The yearly move to daylight saving time is a busy period for the pensioner, who has to manually adjust every one of his 366 timepieces.
Work started well ahead of the beginning of European summer time early tomorrow morning, when the continent’s clocks skip forward an hour.
Photo: AFP
“I start one or two weeks before and I continue after the clocks change, stress free,” Stechbarth told reporters, sitting in his living room.
His collection includes not just classic mechanical clocks, but a few digital models with LED displays. Each timepiece is set to a slightly different time to avoid them striking in unison at the top of every hour.
All the same, the room is filled with the sound of ticking and the intermittent whistle of a cuckoo.
As a chef for the German national carrier, Lufthansa, Stechbarth had access to cheap airline tickets, which he used to travel the globe collecting clocks.
“The first is from Mexico, I brought it back in 1975. It was my mother’s idea,” he said, picking out a Coca-Cola-branded piece in pride of place by the window.
Every clock comes with its own story. Stechbarth recalled how he forgot to take the batteries out of a souvenir he was bringing back from Tunisia.
“I will let you guess what the people at airport security thought when they heard the ticking in my suitcase,” he said with a laugh.
Stechbarth missed his flight, but was eventually allowed to return to Munich with his timepiece in tow.
The retiree travels less now, but still shops for clocks online or in the local antiques shops.
His initial goal to have a clock for every day of the year — a target of 366 for leap years — was reached long ago.
Excess items in his collection are kept in the basement.
The collector himself carries a watch on each wrist and another round his neck, but he still manages to be late.
“I used to be punctual when I was working. Now if it is six or seven o’clock — it’s all the same to me,” Stechbarth said.
As the day fades, “I sit in my armchair, turn off the television and listen to the ticking of the clocks,” he said.
BACKLASH: The National Party quit its decades-long partnership with the Liberal Party after their election loss to center-left Labor, which won a historic third term Australia’s National Party has split from its conservative coalition partner of more than 60 years, the Liberal Party, citing policy differences over renewable energy and after a resounding loss at a national election this month. “Its time to have a break,” Nationals leader David Littleproud told reporters yesterday. The split shows the pressure on Australia’s conservative parties after Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s center-left Labor party won a historic second term in the May 3 election, powered by a voter backlash against US President Donald Trump’s policies. Under the long-standing partnership in state and federal politics, the Liberal and National coalition had shared power
CONTROVERSY: During the performance of Israel’s entrant Yuval Raphael’s song ‘New Day Will Rise,’ loud whistles were heard and two people tried to get on stage Austria’s JJ yesterday won the Eurovision Song Contest, with his operatic song Wasted Love triumphing at the world’s biggest live music television event. After votes from national juries around Europe and viewers from across the continent and beyond, JJ gave Austria its first victory since bearded drag performer Conchita Wurst’s 2014 triumph. After the nail-biting drama as the votes were revealed running into yesterday morning, Austria finished with 436 points, ahead of Israel — whose participation drew protests — on 357 and Estonia on 356. “Thank you to you, Europe, for making my dreams come true,” 24-year-old countertenor JJ, whose
A documentary whose main subject, 25-year-old photojournalist Fatima Hassouna, was killed in an Israeli airstrike in Gaza weeks before it premiered at Cannes stunned viewers into silence at the festival on Thursday. As the cinema lights came back on, filmmaker Sepideh Farsi held up an image of the young Palestinian woman killed with younger siblings on April 16, and encouraged the audience to stand up and clap to pay tribute. “To kill a child, to kill a photographer is unacceptable,” Farsi said. “There are still children to save. It must be done fast,” the exiled Iranian filmmaker added. With Israel
Africa has established the continent’s first space agency to boost Earth observation and data sharing at a time when a more hostile global context is limiting the availability of climate and weather information. The African Space Agency opened its doors last month under the umbrella of the African Union and is headquartered in Cairo. The new organization, which is still being set up and hiring people in key positions, is to coordinate existing national space programs. It aims to improve the continent’s space infrastructure by launching satellites, setting up weather stations and making sure data can be shared across
RSS