Meditações - to collect clocks that make you think...

BRIAN REED: Before I got to know an antiquarian horologist and he committed suicide, I'd never thought of clocks as anything special. To me, they were just like appliances that tell time. And an antique clock, I didn't think of that as any different from, say, an antique chair. But then I went to John's friend Bill's house. He asked that I not use his last name.

BRIAN REED: Hi, sir. Nice to see ya. How are you?

BILL: Good to see you.

BRIAN REED: Thanks for having us.

BRIAN REED: Bill's a longtime customer of John's, and his house is just a normal looking suburban house on a cul-de-sac. Not far from Bibb County. Until the moment I step inside, and suddenly I feel like I'm in a museum. There are rare antique clocks everywhere—in the dining room, in the living room, in the kitchen, in the bedroom, on the ceiling. Close to 100 or so. Bill tells me John restored all of them.

BILL: He's worked on this one, that one, that one, that one. This is his life's work.

BRIAN REED: Being in Bill's house, I realize that these clocks are not appliances. The clocks he collects and that John worked on are strange and beautiful. They're works of art and feats of engineering. Bill says he likes to collect clocks that make you think.

There's a clock with a turtle that bobs in water in a dish, and the turtle floats from hour to hour to tell the time. There's a clock with a woman pulling a sheet over the face of it, covering day with night time. There's one small clock encrusted in super detailed silver and gold and green-gold, which I've never even heard of—that's shaped like the kind of chair servants used to carry royalty in ancient parades. Except instead of an emperor in the seat, there's a tiny intricate clock movement.

There's an original mystery clock—that's what it's called—made by the famous French magician Jean Eugene Robert-Houdin with an hour hand floating in the middle of a glass dial, not visibly connected to any gears or clockworks, and yet, somehow it still moves like a normal clock hand. No hint as to how.

BRIAN REED: Um, this is amazing. I mean it's—I want to remember all this.

BRIAN REED: John worked on all parts of these clocks, inside and out. He'd fix the complex innerworkings, sometimes with hundreds of tiny little pieces and gears or floating turtles. And he refinished the exteriors, gilding them with gold or silver or other elements, using methods from the period the clock was made.

And then, maybe even more impressive, John built his own time pieces from scratch.

TOM MOORE: —and the joy comes from— [...]

Sarah Koenig