APPRAISER: What a piece of clock this is. This is one of the earliest time clocks we know of. These clocks are very hard to find in this very good condition. Usually these surfaces here, which are nice and crisp and bright and original now, are damaged. Who was it that restored this?
GUEST: My dad. He received the clock in the early '70s and it was a gift from one of his clients. He always expressed a desire for it. One day it was his day and the man said, "It's yours, but please never sell it."
APPRAISER: So you're not going to sell it?
GUEST: I'm not going to sell it, and it'll be passed down.
APPRAISER: And you didn't pay anything for it.
GUEST: That's correct.
APPRAISER: And now you're going to want to know how much is it worth, right?
GUEST: That's correct.
APPRAISER: Well, a lot of people might wonder how it works from looking at it. If the employee number is 158, he would come in in the morning and...
GUEST: Punch it.
APPRAISER: Punch it in. And at the time that was done, the time of day as well as the type of work was typed right onto a reel inside, which rotates. There isn't any tape with it right now. This is one of the first time recorders ever invented. It was invented by a person named Alexander Dey, who was a Scotsman. And his brother John Dey was living in New York at the time, and the two of them got together and started the Dey Time Register, Inc. The Dey Time Company later sold out or amalgamated with the International Time Recording Company of Endicott, New York. That is today's IBM-- International Business Machines. So, in a way, this is a progenitor of the IBM company. It's hard to appraise something like this because it's a very, very unusual piece but it's not artistic, right? It's a little bit of industrial design history. However, I think that a collector who would seek out a piece like this might very well pay $1,500 to $2,000 for this.
GUEST: Well, thank you so much.
