The Clock Shop
Breakdowns are an unnecessary and imperfect element. They represent a sub-optimal state with flaws added on.
The presence of a breakdown also entails a need for fixing. But all of this – the process of fixing what is broken, of taking the time to ponder why something stopped working –is only possible when you have the time. There’s a saying: “If you fall down, you might as well get some rest.” So it is that a certain ease and leisure arises merely from fixing something that’s broken. Taking the time to look closely at something coarse and cracked, putting that effort into recovering it, is not about the mere function of the broken object. It is in this restorative sense that we wish to call to mind the meaning of the word “breakdown.”
Whether it’s a broken clock or a broken lightbulb, the clocks here only tell you the time if you look inside. These are clocks that can tell you the time with a broken second hand, that let you know if you knock on a broken piece, that inform you through the blinking of a lightbulb.