Jas. W. Tickes and Sons

**Jas. W. Tickes and Sons**, colloquially known as **Tickes and Sons**, is a non-canonical wizarding watchmaker firm mentioned in The Family Clock; it was founded in 1789 by James Worthing Tickes, who also acquired the last license to inspect, repair, alter, improve and transmogrify Muggle articles on 16 December the same year, the day before the granting of such licenses became outlawed. He died shortly after, but the family has made sure to have a James (or on two occasions a Jamesina) Worthing in every generation, to ensure that the license can continue to be used. In the 1990s the firm is run by Myron Tickes, his sons James and Gardner and James' daughter Jessie; they have a small shop in Diagon Alley and a larger showplace in Hogsmeade.

Beside regular (and not-quite-so-regular) clocks and watches, the company makes time-turners and amorlociometers.

## Diagon Alley

The Diagon Alley shop is right across the street from Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes, and close enough to Knockturn Alley to share a back alley with some of the shops there; Florean Fortescue's Ice Cream Parlour is nearby, and Eeylops Owl Emporium is further away in the same direction. This is the original premises – the company ledger, which dates from the seventeen-hundreds, starts "some seven months prior to the opening of the Diagon Alley premises"; there are also hidden compartments installed during the French Revolution.

There are three floors. On the ground floor, there are four rooms: from the main showroom there is a doorway without a door, leading to the main workroom, behind which is a toilet and a half-kitchen. To the left from the workroom is the stairs to the basement, where there are two rooms: the safe room and the furnace. The attic has a south-facing window set in the sloping slate roof, leading to a small widow's walk with a wrought-iron railing. The back stair had been deliberately kept in a state of disrepair in order to prevent break-ins, the next-to-topmost and the fourth step down tended to fold when carrying more weight than a kilogram, but was finally repaired in late October 1996.

The showroom is fairly small, but has velvet-lined shelves and glass cases with space for a few hundred watches. There is a glass storefront towards the Alley, and a sneakoscope locks the door and sets off an alarm if "a person so much as *thinks* about swiping a watch".

In the 1960s and 1970s, the Diagon Alley shop was run by Jetty Tickes. Presumably, her son Myron took it over after her death and ran it until 1996, when he retired and let his granddaughter Jessie take over. Official opening hours are between ten and seven, with the possibility of making early appointments between eight and ten; on Sundays they close at five, and every third Sunday of the month the shop is closed.

## Hogsmeade

The Hogsmeade premises are larger than the Diagon shop, and have a more staid clientele; people come there to browse the wide range of models but tend to buy the standard variants, while the business in Diagon is more about repairs and specialty items. It is primarily run by Gardner Tickes.

## Manhattan, New York

In late 1996 James Tickes X, anticipating the coming struggle with the death eaters, bought the premises of retiring watchmaker Harrowby Jones in Manhattan, New York; with international holdings, he reasoned, the firm would be able to set up a transatlantic floo connection without notifying the British Ministry of Magic.

## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 The Family Clock, Chapter 13
2. ↑ The Family Clock, Chapter 20 (and see also the finishing line of the chapter before)
3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 The Family Clock, Chapter 1
4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 The Family Clock, Chapter 6
5. ↑ The Family Clock, Chapter 11
6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 The Family Clock, Chapter 22
7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 The Family Clock, Chapter 3
8. ↑ The Family Clock, Chapter 5
9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 The Family Clock, Chapter 26
10. ↑ The Family Clock, Chapter 29
11. ↑ The Family Clock, Chapter 10
12. ↑ The Family Clock, Chapter 28