Time-honoured secret: Halifax Old Town Clock not as timely as you'd think

The Old Town Clock in Halifax is one of the city's most photographed landmarks and it helps people keep track of time — or does it?

These days, the timepiece isn't much more than a pretty face and it's running about five minutes fast.

"You just figure that it would keep time," said Logan Hill, who walks by the clock on his way to work at the Halifax Alehouse pub.

According to Parks Canada's website, the federal agency that maintains the clock, the commander-in-chief of the British military in 1800 "was obsessed with punctuality" and commissioned the town clock as a "parting gift … to ensure the city's forces were always on time."

Three years later, royal clockmakers completed the timepiece that has since become an iconic part of life in Halifax.

The giant grandfather clock has three sets of steep ladders with rope handrails that are used to access the pendulum, weights, wires, gears and other parts that turn the hands of the four-faced clock, and chime the three cast iron bells every 15 minutes.

The clock has ticked since 1803, but stopped during the Halifax Explosion in 1917. The resident caretaker, William White, was eventually able to fix the clock.

A caretaker hasn't lived in the building since 1960.

Inside the heart of the clock

Emily Sine, a Parks Canada employee, said that each time a worker winds the cables around three barrels, called trains, the clockwork momentarily stops, and that sets the time off course.

Adjustments to the weights and the pendulum also affect it.

Synching up the four faces of the clock adds yet another wrinkle in time.

"We do do our best to to make sure it's as on time as we can," said Sine.

She recommends looking at your cellphone if you need the exact time.

For the seasonal time changes each year, a clock company is hired to reset the time.

Noon-hour gun fires on time

Time is taken seriously at Citadel Hill. It's the home of the famous cannon that's fired every day at noon.

Haligonians have come to rely on the booming sound to know that it's 12 p.m.

Historical re-enactors with the Halifax Citadel Regimental Association set their watches to the International Atomic Time and not to the Old Town Clock, even though it sits in the shadow of the fort.

Visitors to Halifax didn't seem troubled that the clock time was off.

'I'm sure it's 11:30 somewhere'

Jill Bruvold, a cruise ship passenger from Albuquerque, N.M, was surprised but "as long as you know it's five minutes late or early, then you can still use it," she said.

Elise Edmond from Chicago enjoyed its 19th-century charm.

"Who cares that it doesn't keep the correct time. I'm sure it's 11:30 somewhere in the world," she said with a laugh.