With Britain set back an hour by winter time, the watchmaker at Windsor Castle will have the daunting task of changing the time of more than 400 watches from the Royal Collection Trust's collection of timepieces.
For those with smartphones and smartwatches, the time change to Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) occurred automatically on Sunday 25 October, while they slept and effortlessly.
However, the situation will be different for the hundreds of watches from the Royal Collection at Windsor Castle, where the time of all clocks must be changed manually to ensure accurate timekeeping for visitors and residents of the castle.
The task is carried out by Fyodor van den Broeck, the current supervisor of watchkeeping at the 900-year-old historic castle.
This is the first time that the new supervisor has set back the clocks by an hour since he recently took office.
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The mission will start at the end of the weekend, and Fyodor plans to spend about 16 hours changing the time of the castle's 400 clocks, including about 250 inside the castle itself, along with seven tower clocks.
Fyodor told the BBC: "I'm on my own (doing the job here), and another colleague at Buckingham Palace changes all the clocks there."
For some hours, there is an additional time difference that needs to be taken into account.
He added: "People are still amazed that there is a different time zone in kitchens both at Windsor Castle and Buckingham Palace, where the clocks are always five minutes ahead."
"The goal is to get food ready and delivered on time... It's a constant reminder that this is important."
Fyodor does other tasks than change the time: he spends one full day a week winding and winding mechanical clocks to keep the pendulum swinging.
On this day, he has to walk about 16,000 steps to pass through all the mechanical watches and wind them.
"I check all the clocks in the official residences inside the castle, before the public arrives, to make sure the timing is accurate," he says.
The official residences are those in which the Queen hosts official visits to heads of other countries, and ceremonies are held in which positions and titles are handed out, as well as the awarding of awards and decorations.
He asserts that most clocks are perfectly accurate but now and then, for no reason, time suddenly changes either forward or backward, something I'm just beginning to call "life".
"So I have to keep an eye on it (the watches)".
Fyodor spends the rest of the week in his workshop maintaining and repairing clocks, many of which are between 200 and 300 years old.
When a part breaks or wears out, he prepares the replacement using hand tools, a lathe, and a metal forming machine.
And about his work, Fyodor says: "(It was said that) the clocks were a way to bring God to your home, because God makes the time, and man made a machine (the clock) to know the time."
"They (watches) were the supercomputers of their day."
One of the clocks Fyodor takes care of is an ornate French clock in the formal dining room.
It was said to have been Queen Victoria's favorite watch and was gifted to her by King Louis Philippe of France in 1844.
Therefore, a huge painting of Queen Victoria was placed on a wall behind this clock.
The clock has three panels on its sides representing the three ages of horology (the art of watchmaking).
The plaque on the front of the clock depicts the first astronomical clock in the town hall of Padua, Italy, in 1364.
On the left side, a painting depicts the Dutch physicist Christiaan Huygens, showing his first pendulum clock, which he invented in 1656, and on the right side, a painting of a senator in ancient Rome holding a water clock.
The rest of the watch case is decorated with garlands of leaves, medallions, and figures of famous watchmakers.
Another clock associated with Queen Victoria's reign is the large organ clock in the King's Drawing Room, which houses a Bible that the King had placed inside a rock crystal box.
It is about 1.8 meters high. It was made by Charles Clay in 1740 and plays tunes by musician George Frideric Handel, four of which were specially composed for watches.
Clay and Handel often worked together making organ clocks, a number of which went to the royal families of Europe.
"This instrument is more than a clock," says Fyodor. "It was supposed to be a musical instrument."
Inside the base of the clock there is a brass cylindrical drum and the fingers of the organ, as well as a bellows that blows air through the flutes.
The Bible in the crystal box belonged to General Gordon, who was killed in Khartoum in 1885.
The box itself was made by Melchior Baumgartner, who wrote in German on a plate on the inside: "I made this box in Augsburg and silver-plated it in 1664".
In every corner of the clock there is a gilded bronze statue of Greek gods.
At the top is a small statue of St. George slaying the dragon, made by Francesco Vanelli, and added during the reign of King George IV in the nineteenth century.
One of Fyodor's favorite watches are those that depict Greek mythological figures Kronos (father's time) and education, and the watch is a globe suspended on a stand and rotates around itself with hour numbers drawn around it, and the sickle that Kronos carries plays the role of the hand as it indicates the exact time written on the ball.
"It's a very dynamic scene, there's a lot of movement," says Fyodor.
"At first glance you see this is a statue, it's a piece of art, and then the second you realize it's a watch."
Below the clock is a small sculpture representing an open book surrounded by learning objects: a harp, an artist's palette and a protractor.
"I've seen multiple pictures of this watch and they all give a slightly different interpretation of each other," he adds.
The figures are made of bronze and the base is made of marble, and the clock weighs about 90 kilograms, "it takes three men to move it."
The watch face is engraved with the name of the French designer of the original watch movements, Charles Guillaume Mannier.
"It is one of my favorite watches in terms of performance, because I serviced it three months ago and since then it has kept perfect time."
Another clock that pays homage to learning, specifically the learning of the arts, is the mantel clock in Crismon's drawing room.
The Greek god Apollo can be seen standing, leaning on the watch, and at his feet is the head of a sculpted woman, with the phrase "genius of the arts" written on its front.
The watch was commissioned by King George IV when he was Prince of Wales, as evidenced by the three feathers emblem on the front.
The watch case was made by Pierre Philippe Thomier, a Parisian bronze-maker and gilder in the early 19th century, and the internal movement parts were made by Benjamin Vulliamy, watchmaker to King George III from 1773.
The stunning mantelpiece surrounding this clock was made by George John Vulliamy, an engineer who specialized in bronze and who also made the dolphin lampposts seen along the Thames Bridge near the Palace of Westminster.
"You can't put a price on these kinds of watches," says Fyodor.
"There's the historical value, the provenance and a lot of the watches are just one copy, so they're priceless."
A complete maintenance is done for each watch over a period of time between 10 to 15 years, and Fyodor disassembles and cleans it.
"There will be a bit of wear (of parts) that will need to be repaired, after which I will lubricate the movement and internal gears and completely reassemble the watch."
There has been an in-house Watch Superintendent at Windsor Castle since the late 1970s, and new Superintendent Fyodor is the fourth to hold the position.
"The previous official had been working here for 20 years, and his predecessor had been working here for about 30 years, so I think he worked for life."
"I am thankful that I was able to get this job so early in my career, so I hope to be here for a long time."
