Well, there goes that excuse. Students for many years have used the Miller Library tower clock to get a fix on the time. The clock's eccentric time keeping--its four faces occasionally featured four different versions of the current time, take your pick--offered a convenient excuse for tardiness to class. But not anymore. Old Unreliable has been replaced. The tower clock has been a fixture of the Colby landscape since it was installed during the construction of Miller Library in 1939. However, the clock itself was not finished until 1947. For the intervening eight years, the clock faces were permanently set at 8 o'clock--a time chosen because that was when classes convened. At some point, the original clockworks were replaced with an electric motor and most of the mechanical parts were discarded. Since then the clock's performance has been uneven--the gears were too small to operate its 10-foot hands--and maintenance was a headache. Enter Richard Balzer, a banker-turned-clockmaker who restores and builds old-fashioned, pendulum-regulated time pieces. He is the only clockmaker in the United States--and one of a handful in the world--who still produces mechanical clocks by hand. Balzer, who was asked to repair the clock in its current condition, instead offered to build a new one. It would last 300 years, keep perfect time and require less maintenance than the electrical kind, he said. The College gave the go-ahead and Balzer went to work. The clock was constructed in Balzer's home-based Freeport workshop, where he not only manufactures most of the working parts but also makes the machines that make the parts. He is a meticulous craftsman whose passion is reflected in the integrity of the workmanship. When he asks visitors to his workshop to run their hands over the supple curve of a Balzer-cut stainless steel pinion--with edges as smooth as a Mercedes-Benz fender--he does so not because he wants to show off but because he truly is in love with a thing well made. "The art of clockmaking is about gone and we hope we're making a contribution in keeping it alive," Balzer said. "But this is not about us--this is about creating something that will outlive our kids and their kids and their kids. "This clock is something the College will have for several generations to come." The clock is housed in a cast iron carriage and supported by an iron and steel Queen Anne platform. The entire assembly stands more than six feet tall and weighs more than a ton. The components are made with such precision that the clock runs virtually silently. The Balzer family also restored the clock faces on the Miller Library tower, which included replacing the glass on each dial. The clock was installed on March 28. It was a daunting procedure. Clock pieces were hauled up a narrow, winding staircase to finally reach the cupola, where they were reassembled. Afterward, students looking up at the tower noticed something peculiar about the time on the clock's four faces. They were the same.