The famous Outrigger Canoe Club Beach Clock, currently located above the stairs to the Locker Rooms, was a gift to the Club by H. F. Wichman & Company, Ltd. in 1916. The reason for the generous gift was never recorded. The original clock was a landmark on Fort Street in downtown Honolulu above Wichman Jewelers. As part of the gift, Wichman agreed to install the clock on a concert base furnished by Outrigger and to service it.
The clock was manufactured by premier Boston clockmaker Howard Clock Company (est. 1813) to H. F. Wichman & Co. specifications. When it was suspended over the Fort Street sidewalk it was perched on the back of a friendly faced animal with stubby wings; and was crowned with what could be envisioned as an Aladdin lamp.
The clock shed most of the embellishments that had made it so eye catching when it moved to the Club. The garish decorations had vanished and it was down to beach boy basics with only a skull cap of the bronze crown remaining. And even that was replaced with a wooden bonnet reading Outrigger Canoe Club in bold letters.
The clock originally sat atop an approximately nine foot high wooden pedestal at the Outrigger by the old pavilion and in 1941 it was moved to our (then) new Clubhouse and took root on the beach just adjacent to the Royal Hawaiian.
Today, with its present ‘diet’ profile it has nothing more to lose but Hawaiian time. It is truly family and one of the Club’s oldest possessions.
Before the advent of waterproof watches, the clock was long used by surfers and others to tell the time while out in the ocean.
The clock was restored in 2017 and now rests on the wall above the stairs leading to the locker rooms. Hopefully it will last another 100 years.
Research by Ron Haworth.