Father Time (Jan, 1946)

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Father Time

By Louis Hochman

IN A little place no larger than a vestibule on Manhattan’s lower East Side waterfront is one of the oddest clock shops in existence. It’s a veritable museum, crammed to the ceiling with thousands of clocks, many of them over 300 years old and representing practically every nationality in every shape and size.

The shop was started in 1892 by Fred Jensen, a young immigrant watchmaker from Denmark. Today, four generations of Fred Jensens (Junior, III, and IV) spend their time putting aged timepieces, into working condition, and dreaming up new and ever more complicated clocks. Dropping into the shop at any hour, on the hour, the visitor is greeted by a medley of chimes, gongs, organ music and tinkling music box tunes, for many of the Jensen clocks are wired for sound and can give out with anything from the “Wedding March” to a variety of Indian tunes and Danish psalms.