The Watchmaker of Cork – Song Description
“I was busy living life, my friend. I never measured it.” There’s an obvious joke sitting on the surface of this song — the man who understands time better than anyone can’t manage his own — and then there’s a quieter one underneath it that took me longer to see. He spends his whole working life handing other people perfect time, and keeps almost none in reserve for himself, and I don’t think that’s carelessness. I think it’s closer to mastery. He knows exactly what a minute is worth, down to the mechanism, which is precisely why he’s stopped rationing them the way people who’ve never really looked closely at time tend to. The apprentice’s question assumes precision and presence are the same skill. The watchmaker’s answer suggests they might actually work against each other — that the more exactly you understand how time is built, the less inclined you are to let it govern you. I wrote this one as a joke about a scattered old man. I finished it thinking he might be the wisest person in the whole collection.
THE WATCHMAKER OF CORK
Verse 1
The watchmaker of Cork
Could hear what others couldn’t hear
A balance wheel a fraction fast
Would sing sharp in his ear
He’d hold a watch up to the light
Then quietly remark
“She’s gaining seven seconds, lad”
Before the morning dark
Yet if he promised three o’clock
Or maybe half-past four
You’d best bring along a newspaper
And wait outside the door
Chorus
The watchmaker of Cork
Knew every tick and tock
Could bring a dead watch back to life
And make it beat like clockwork
But half the town stood waiting
Whenever he was due
For nobody could ever tell
What time he’d wander through
Verse 2
The mayor stood outside the shop
For nearly half a day
Waiting on a pocket watch
He needed straight away
The watch was ready Tuesday
Polished, perfect, clean
The mayor finally got it Friday
Looking twice his age, it seemed
Chorus
The watchmaker of Cork
Knew every tick and tock
Could bring a dead watch back to life
And make it beat like clockwork
But half the town stood waiting
Whenever he was due
For nobody could ever tell
What time he’d wander through
Verse 3
Collectors crossed the ocean
With treasures old and rare
Knowing there was only one man
They trusted with their care
A Swiss watch from Geneva
A Patek old and grand
He brought them all back singing
With his steady, careful hands
Bridge
One day an eager apprentice
Asked while sweeping up the floor
“Master, how can you know so much
Yet always arrive so poor?”
The old man smiled and set a spring
Back where it ought to be
Then said, “The watches keep the time,
The time’s no need of me.”
Verse 4
The clocks upon the workshop wall
Were famous far and near
Each one kept perfect time indeed
Throughout the changing year
A railway clock.
A ship’s clock.
A French clock from Bordeaux.
Yet none could tell the townsfolk
When he’d walk through the door
Final Chorus
The watchmaker of Cork
Knew every tick and tock
Could bring a dead watch back to life
And make it beat like clockwork
But life is more than minutes
And more than hands that move
And he was far too busy living
To watch the hours improve
Outro
“The watches always knew the time,”
He’d say with a quiet grin
“I was busy living life, my friend.
I never measured it.”
Lyrics Michael Forty
Voice Michael Forty