DWYER Brendan Patrick

Brendan Dwyer was born in Cygnet, Tasmania, in 1957, the second son of Rex and Fay Dwyer. He commenced his watchmaking apprenticeship at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT) in January 1976, with Ken Pearce, initially working at Sargisons Jewellers in Hobart and later at Juliet Jewellers in Glenorchy. He completed a four-year apprenticeship in 1980 and soon moved to work for Vela Urosevic at Precision Jewellers in Hobart.

Tasmanian Watch Company was registered as a business in 1981 with Brendan working after hours of a typical business day, repairing watches from his home in Lindisfarne. Then in 1984, the business was renamed the Tasmanian Watch and Clock Company, operating firstly from his Lindisfarne home, then his parents’ house in New Town. The business expanded and grew, repairing not only watches but clocks too. In 1988, Brendan, with his wife Rosemary and five children in tow, established a shop front and business at 151 New Town Road, New Town.

Brendan was accepted as a member of the Horological Guild of Australia in 1991 and the British Watch and Clock Makers Guild in 1993, enabling him to further pursue his passion for clocks and watches with intricate repairs of fine pieces, including Omega, Longines, and Tissot. He also expanded his interests to include the manufacture of wooden cases. Clients sought him to build quality mantel, wall, and Grandfather/ Granddaughter wooden clock cases, later expanding to build wooden barometer cases.

Brendan was instrumental in installing the clock on the Taxation building on the corner of Collins and Harrington Streets, Hobart. He often braved the heights on a cherry picker to install clocks, for example, at Blundstone Arena, Bellerive. He also repaired and reinstalled the Launceston Church Grammar School Clock.

Brendan’s work throughout Tasmania was preserving the old; notably, he worked on the GPO Clock Hobart (before its mechanization), Snug School Clock, and Government House Tower Clock. He also repaired and maintained many of the clocks in the collection at Government House. From as early as 1990, Brendan preserved and restored many of the clocks at Port Arthur. The Commandant’s Cottage Grandfather Clock to the Tower clock in the Penitentiary were part of his itinerary maintaining and servicing for many years (in fact, the last service of any clock he was able to complete was the Tower Clock at Port Arthur in February of 2014)

Launceston Church Grammar has had a mention, but Brendan was passionate about maintaining clocks, so with many being in Church buildings, his work expanded there. He enlisted the help of Andrew Markerink from New South Wales, and together, they worked on many tower clocks throughout Southern Tasmania: Mount Saint Canice, Sandy Bay; St Luke’s Church, Richmond; St John’s Church, New Town; Scots Church, Hobart, to name a few.

Brendan continued to work from 151 New Town Road for about 25 years, carrying out a range of watch and clock repairs and building and servicing. He was diagnosed with a terminal illness in 2013 and worked for a few more months after his diagnosis. Brendan died in May 2014, aged 56, survived by his wife Rosemary and seven children.