“Yesterday is gone. Tomorrow has not yet come. We have only today. Let’s begin.”

— MOTHER THERESA

The Idea

Antique & Modern are based in North London, 10 minutes from Junction 24 on the M25 and we specialise in the repair and sales of all types of clocks and watches, from grandfather clocks to carriage clocks, Omega watches to Longines, Tissot to Rado and beyond.

We were established in 1984, by Jeremy Gain (BA, CMBHI), as a clock and watch repairers at a time when the horology trade was winding down due to the development of quartz technology.

The Big Drop

In the 1990's the watch and clock trade was hit hard by the recession. We lost many clock and watch shops throughout the UK, including the heart of our industry in Clerkenwell. Most painfully, our biggest loss of all was the clock and watch college in Hackney.

The founder of our company, Jeremy, soon felt that it might have been time to call it a day and close the shop or sell up. It was agreed that the management would take over the shop and continue to keep his legacy going.

Vanessa E. Bennett (A.B.H.I) and Mark W. Wiles (F.B.H.I) have continued to grow the business since the changeover in 1993, each playing to their individual strengths.

Fixing The Broken

Mark runs the workshop and is a Fellow of the British Horological Institute. He is also one of the last dually recorded apprentices of the Worshipful Company of Clock and Watchmakers in nearly one hundred years. With such experience, he is more than up to the job of providing professional repairs to your timepiece with the help of his equally professional repair team.

Mark also has a great passion for his craft and has dedicated some of his spare time to teaching Horology at a local watch school (EFCH) and has also written a book for beginners called “Maintaining and Repairing Mechanical Watches: A Practical Guide”, doing his bit to keep the trade alive and well in the UK. He became a Freeman via servitude in 2011 for the Worshipful Company of Clockmakers, taking his place amongst the WCoC in April of that year. This keeps up a family tradition going back to the 1700s, with Steven and Edwin Wiles both distinguished clockmakers based in central London.

We have many esteemed clients, ranging from local celebrities to Lords and Ladies, including museums and historical buildings with large clock collections.

Antique & Modern has grown, with the help of its staff and customers, to include several specialist jewellery lines and watch brands as part of our range and with the help of Omega we became an Approved Omega Service Centre at 2015.

Examples of our work can be found as far afield as Ireland, Scotland, America, Spain and even down the road at the Brixton Lido.

In 2019 we moved to 27 Church Hill road providing more suitable premises and better access to free parking.