In his small apartment in Munich, Werner Stechbarth is going through one of the busiest times of the year. With the change to summer time, the collector must adjust the 366 clocks that adorn the walls of his home.
AFP
The time change will take place during the night from Saturday to Sunday but the 76-year-old retiree is working on it well in advance.
“I start one or two weeks before, and I continue after the time change, without stress,” assures Mr. Stechbarth in the middle of his living room, whose walls are covered with pendulums and clocks of all styles.
On some models, the display is digital with LED bulbs while on others, a good old cuckoo clock comes out to mark the set times. Werner Stechbarth did not set all the clocks to the same time, to avoid the din.
However, it is impossible to ignore the ticking of hundreds of hands and the regular cuckoo of one or other of the devices.
Travel memories
A long-time cook for the German airline Lufthansa, Werner Stechbarth benefited from cheap plane tickets to travel the world and each time bring back a clock as a souvenir.
“The first one came from Mexico, I brought it back in 1975. It was my mother’s idea,” he says, pointing to a clock with the Coca-Cola logo, prominently displayed near the window.
Each piece is associated with an anecdote, like one of them, purchased in Tunisia: “I put it in my suitcase, forgetting to remove the batteries, I’ll let you imagine what the security people had. thought of the airport when they heard a ticking coming from my luggage,” he laughs.
He missed his flight but once the checks were completed, he was able to return to Munich and so was the clock.
Time, not so important
Although he travels less today, Werner Stechbarth continues to buy clocks on the internet or in Bavarian stores. It has also far exceeded its objective of having 365, or 366 in 2024, a leap year. Many of them are in his cellar.
He who wears a watch on each wrist, and another hanging around his neck, says that he is not always very punctual. “When I was working I was,” he adds.
“Now, whether it’s six or seven o’clock, I don’t care. In the evening, I sit in my armchair, I turn off the television and I listen to the ticking of the clocks (…),” says this single retiree.
Werner Stechbarth then goes to bed, in peace: he only has two clocks in his room.
© Agence France-Presse
