Clock Museum – Museo do Relogio, Portugal

Clock Museum. How interesting does that sound? Well not that much if you ask me. But I am so happy that I didn’t skip this place. We decided to come here and I am so glad that we did. What was supposed to be a ten-minute visit ended up being over an hour!

Clock Museum in Evora

Imagine 2 500 clocks. Imagine that 600 of them are ticking. Now imagine that you walk into a small room and hear the sound of 6oo ticking clocks. That was the first time that hit me – all the sounds from the ticking clocks. I would have gone mad if I worked here. I remember the clock that is in my sister’s office. It had a loud ticking sound and I hated it. It felt like the clock was there to remind me that my time was running away and that I was getting closer to dying. Drama much?

But for real, I hated the sound of that clock and at the museum, I learned that apparently, I hate the sound of all clocks ticking. It makes me feel stressed. I asked the woman working there if she was not disturbed by the sound and she said that she likes it – that it makes her calm. Funny how the same things affect people differently.

 Museo do Relogio in Portugal

Whats incredible is that this is a private collection. And this is only a part of the collection because the owner has two museums with watches so the collection is split. There are so many clocks and watches here that half of it would’ve been impressive. For me, this was also a huge nostalgic trip. There was a folded watch that I remember my parents having while I was growing up.

And then there were the tall clocks that stood near the walls. Some of them remembered me of clocks that my dad had and collected. Now it sounds like my parents were huge on clocks and that is not the case but it was super fun to see and think back to my childhood.

Rolex, Patek Philippe, Breitling and more

It is impossible to fathom how much the collection must be worth. The only thing for sure is that it is loads and loads of money. This is the place where you can see watches that you might never afford to buy yourself. Rolex, Patek Philippe and Breitling are all on display amongst other famous brands.

And then there was this piece that made me understand that watches and clocks are pieces of art. This one piece was incredible and super detailed. I loved the fact that there was a colorful globe on top of it. It really made me feel like this was taken from the movie “The Da Vinci Code” with all its glory. The clock museum is really a special place!

Restoration if you need it

But wait, there is more… This is not “only” a clock museum – this is also a restoration place. From the beginning, it was a place where they only restored pieces that were donated to the museum. But after a while, they decided to restore watches and clocks to visitors as well.

So if you have a piece laying around that needs some fixing – bring it with you!

Information about the Clock museum

Address: R. de Serpa Pinto 6, 7000-505 Évora, Portugal.
Opening hours: Tuesday to Friday: 14.00 – 17.30. Saturday and Sunday: 10.00 – 12.30 and 14.00 – 17.30. Mondays closed.
Entrance fee: 2 euros.