A 25-year chase to solve 'JFK' clock mystery

Retired watchmaker searches high and low -way low - for the truth about timepiece.

- BY DANIEL MILLER

Bettmann Archive A 1954 photograph of then-Sen. John F. Kennedy and his wife, Jacqueline, shows a clock on his desk.

Bill Anderson was close to 70 when he first spotted the clock.

It looked like a ship's wheel, a kitschy bit of decor you might see at a nautically themed bar. But he was drawn to it because of its maker.

Timepieces from Chelsea Clock Co. were renowned for their design and precision. The company's clocks could once be found on Navy battleships during World War II and adorned mantels, walls and desks at the White House for presidents ranging from Dwight Eisenhower to Joe Biden.

Anderson, a retired watchmaker and collector, was particularly interested in the base of the Chelsea Comet, which was engraved with the initials "J.F.K." John Fitzgerald Kennedy?

Although watch collectors obsess over celebrity ownership, and a Camelot connection counts for a lot, the prospect of a payday was only part of the allure for Anderson.

The mystery of the clock's provenance — could it possibly be the real deal? — has animated his life for years. This, Anderson said, "is a nice game that I've got going here."

He'd purchased the clock in 1999 from a seller on EBay, a New Hampshire dealer who'd picked it up at an estate sale in Wellesley, Mass., for $280.

In the intervening years, Anderson, who is 95, has plumbed the cloistered world of clock collectors. His hunt would take him to the online message boards of watch and clock aficionados, and the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum. It would eventually lead to a refrigerated vault 200 feet below ground in a former limestone mine in rural Pennsylvania.

Anderson, who lives in Eugene, Ore., may not use the word "obsession" to describe his interest in his J.F.K. clock, but others do. All those decades he's spent trying to uncover its backstory are evidence of its almost gravitational pull.