The iconic clock of Puerta del Sol has stopped ringing and will remain silent for at least a little over two weeks to undergo its first «piece by piece» cleaning process in almost thirty years.
According to one of the watchmakers responsible for the work, Jesús López Terradas, the last time the pieces of this Madrid icon were dismantled and removed from their usual space was in 1996. He was present at that procedure.
The mechanism, hidden behind the minute hand visible from the street, needed to be intervened to prevent «wear of such magnitude» that would render it unusable. «It’s very simple. When a machine runs for 30 years without stopping, day and night, it wears out. It needs to be cleaned,» he explained.
A process that is now being carried out after it was detected, according to López Terradas, that «the clock was gradually losing strength.» In other words, the cleaning of the mechanism components is not just a matter of hygiene or aesthetics, but it will allow it to continue telling the time in the future.
To ensure that the Governor’s Clock (its former name) was not stopped for too long, the process has been divided into three different phases. The work began with an intervention in the elements that produce the bell sounds in the quarters. It was not until the night from Tuesday to Wednesday when complete silence fell.
The minute hand will stop completely next week when the second phase of the restoration process begins. At that point, the main mechanism will be dismantled for cleaning and adjustment in the workshop. It will remain stopped for approximately a week until it is reinstalled and connected again in the final phase of the work.
«In short, with everything that needs to be done, the hands will be stopped for only a week,» confirmed López, emphasizing that priority was given to a cleaning and restoration process that would minimize downtime.
Finally, in the third phase, scheduled for two weeks from now, the movement will be reinstalled, and the sound of the quarters and hours will be reconnected, putting the clock back into operation. «In total, between what we have done and what is left to do, it will be finished in two or two and a half weeks,» estimated the watchmaker.
Unlike the restoration carried out in 1996, when the clock was completely dismantled and moved to an external workshop while the building was also under construction, this time the process will be faster and less invasive. «It was quite worn out back then,» the watchmaker recalled.
During that intervention, the priority was the comprehensive restoration of the building, which allowed more time to be dedicated to dismantling and adjusting the clock before returning it to its original location.
Now, the strategy is different as the mechanism has not been moved in its entirety. During this process, only some components, such as the quarter sound system, have been taken to the workshop, while the rest of the work is being done on-site.
The restoration will conclude with the final assembly of the movement and the reconnection of the quarter and hour sounds. It is expected that the process will be completed in two to two and a half weeks. This will allow the iconic clock to be in perfect condition in time for its traditional prominence in the New Year’s Eve celebration in Madrid. «At the very least, it will be clean, that’s for sure,» joked the watchmaker.
FUENTE
