Since I was a kid, I've joined my dad at his mart table where he sells old clocks—their cases, movements and parts—or small machinery. But this is the first time I've attended a clock and watch convention of this magnitude—almost 600 tables of items for sale.

Yesterday I spotted a guy strolling by our table with a t-shirt that read, “It's a Horological Thing. You Wouldn't Understand.”

The 80th National Convention of Watch & Clock Collectors is a subculture I don't quite fit in with but I'm trying to understand.