UNIVERSITY NEWS LAST UPDATED : 03 APRIL 2018
The School of Jewellery is delighted to welcome Rory McEvoy as a new lecturer on our one-of-a-kind BA (Hons) Horology course. Rory comes with a host of experience, joining from the Royal Observatory, Greenwich where he worked as the Curator of Horology.
The Royal Observatory is home to many horological artefacts, documenting the history of precision timekeeping for navigational and astronomical purposes, including the mid-20th-century Russian-made F.M. Fedchenko clock, the most accurate pendulum clock ever built in multiple copies.
We recently met with Rory to discuss his experience and why he’s looking forward to joining the School.
“My role as Curator of Horology at the Royal Observatory was to work a collection of around 2,000 objects, all horologicaly related” Rory said recently. “Not all of these items were necessarily clocks and watches, but items connected to time or the distribution of time. My primary function there was to research these objects, weave stories together around them and aim to connect them to our daily lives.”
“In order to research the objects I had to have the skills to take them apart, so that was a big privilege being able to study some of these magnificent time keepers, but to conserve them and maintain them at the same time.”
Rory has had a large amount of industry experience - from the traditional trade sector which included day-in, day-out repairs of antique and modern clocks to the museum sector which is a very conservative practice. That’s not all though: “In between the two I’ve worked for one of the London auction houses, where I handled a huge diversity of clocks. All of these experiences stand me in good stead to instruct and instil some interest in the historical aspect of horology as well.”
“I’ve had a wealth of experience and thought this would be a great opportunity to share that experience I’ve accrued and incorporate my research into the programme.”
To finish, Rory had some recommendations for future horologists:
“Horology is potentially a tremendously rewarding, interesting subject. There’s a breadth of learning that one person couldn’t hope to exhaust in a working life time and there are diverse specialisations within the field. I would recommend if anyone thinking about the subject has the opportunity to have an introduction or practice session with a local Horological Institute branch or clock club. Try to meet people that work with clocks and watches, talk to them and have a go if you can.”