About Aubrey Aramaki
For over 50 years I have been involved with antique clocks, restoring them, collecting them, and helping people preserve pieces of history that still have stories to tell.
Many people know me as the owner of the clock shop in Issaquah, but my journey into this business was anything but planned. Looking back now, it almost feels like my life was guided by unexpected turns rather than careful decisions.
Throughout Asia I was once called the "Westinghouse of the antique clock business" after exporting more than 75,000 antique and reproduction clocks to the United States and Canada. But none of that existed in the beginning. Like many good stories, it started with uncertainty, risk, and a little bit of luck.
Before clocks became my life, I was simply a young man from Bellevue, Washington, trying to find my path.
Vietnam Years
I graduated from Sammamish High School in 1965 and later became a member of the 1st Air Cavalry Military Intelligence unit. I was stationed in Vietnam from 1968 to 1969.
It was strange for me to think that I was working as a field interrogator with an interpreter. Like many young men at that age, I found myself in situations I never could have imagined.
One incident stayed with me throughout my life. There was a young prisoner, only 16 years old, who had information about the location of artillery weapons and his unit, but the assigned interrogation team could not get anything from him. I was asked to try.
I decided to try something different. I gargled Johnny Walker whisky, walked into the tent with my interpreter, grabbed the prisoner by the neck, pulled my .45 from my shoulder holster, and began yelling. Of course, he didn’t understand my words, but my interpreter told him "this American hates Vietnamese and wants to kill you". The young man immediately gave the information needed to destroy the artillery unit outside the base. My only goal was to release him unharmed so he can continue his life with his family, maybe in the USA.
Bronze star
Bronze star awarded to me for "valor"? It's been over 50 years since an incident in Vietnam happened during my stint with the First Cavalry, so I decided to write about this experience.
I was in Phuoc Vinh about 20 miles from Saigon meeting with the village chief and the heads of the NVA and Vietcong as a counterintelligence agent for the First Cavalry (sounds exciting but all I did was hand out piasters to these leaders so they wouldn't attack our military base).
One early morning my tent which housed about 10 of us was bombarded by rocket attacks. When this happened we were supposed to go directly to the bunker which was adjacent to our tent. The rockets rained down so loud and so many that I saw the other soldiers run to the bunkers but I was so scared I crawled under my cot. I felt like the rocket attack took hours but was only minutes. After the attack I crawled from under the cot and noticed blue sky. It was early morning and the tent was totally shredded with shrapnel. Even the 2x4 posts were cut in half. I stood up and heard my comrades outside yelling "is he alive?" They came into the tent and saw me totally shaken. I had a small shrapnel in my back and went to the medic and they said I should apply for a Purple Heart. I didn't do it because soldiers died to receive the medal and I felt too embarrassed to ask for one (I regret that decision now).
About a month later I was called into the commanding officer's houch. As I entered, the CO stood up alongside several other officers and they "saluted" me.
I didn't understand what was going on. As I stood there the CO read a document that said "due to your outstanding courage during the enemy attack, you held your position and fought off the enemy with no regard to your own life. Therefor, you receive this bronze star for your courage."
War teaches you many things. Sometimes it teaches you how fragile life really is, and how important it is to choose what kind of person you want to be when it is over. Years later I would often think that one day the war would end, and the only threat Vietnam might ever pose to America would be opening too many Pho restaurants. Life has a sense of humor like that.
Searching for Direction in Asia
Being of Japanese ancestry and born in Bellevue, Washington, I went to Tokyo to study Japanese language after being discharged from the Army in 1970. I wanted to learn the language of my heritage.
A year later I entered a business venture involving an advertising agency in Japan and was assigned to Korea, but it failed in 5 months and I was stuck there.
I was pretty much broke… closer to being destitute… during my stay in Korea after the failed advertising business. I borrowed money from National Bank of Commerce in Seattle and from a close friend. If I returned to the states it would have taken years to repay the bank and my friend. I didn’t mind owing the bank but I couldn’t disappoint my friend.
I was staying at an old run-down hotel in Seoul and wondered what to do. The owner of the hotel was kind enough to let me stay there for free and when I returned to the US and got a job I could send the money I owed to him. He said he felt that someday I would succeed in business and would eventually pay him back.
One day as I sat in the lobby of the hotel, an importer from St. Louis sat across from me mumbling something about missing his plane to Taipei. I asked him if I could be of some assistance. He gave me his card and told me to send him anything that might apply to his antique business. He told me to send anything C.O.D. if I thought it might be of interest to him.
I took the card to my room and threw it in the dresser drawer.
It was a couple of weeks later when I was walking back to my hotel through a back alley when my eye caught something in the window of one of the many junk shops. There was an American styled antique wall clock made in Japan selling for the equivalent of $7.
It was then that I bought the clock and my life changed forever.
"That $7 Clock Changed my life"
(Japan invaded Korea in 1910 and occupied Korea until the end of World War II. I went to a hilltop near Seoul and saw a monument of Douglas MacArthur. A Korean gentleman told me when he was young it was sometime in the mid 1940’s he witnessed a huge "black cloud" heading towards Seoul. As it neared the city it turned into a sky filled with American bombers led by General MacArthur. Bombs rained over the city for days until the Japanese were eventually driven out of the city. During that time not only the Japanese but also the Koreans felt that MacArthur was some sort of God and they bowed to his statues both in Korea and Japan, not out of fear but out of respect. "Any human with that kind of power must be God".)
I sent the clock to St. Louis air-cargo for $9 collect. With the $2 profit I could live for another two weeks. About a month later, still staying at the hotel and not having to pay room or board, I received a call from Korea Exchange Bank informing me that money from St. Louis had arrived. I was in need of the $9.00 so I went to the bank and asked the teller for the money.
The teller asked me how I wanted the money. I thought that was a strange question but I told him that I would take it in cash. The teller told me to wait and went to the back room and came back with the manager.
The manager told me that they didn’t have that much cash on hand.
I asked, "you don’t have nine dollars in cash?"
He replied, "nine dollars?". There is a check for $30,000 US dollars.
(The largest Korean currency at the time was equivalent to 1 US dollar.)
Years later I thought about the movie The Jerk with Steve Martin when he sat in front of the banker and had to count the number of zeros on the check and his head made a complete 360 degrees. I called St. Louis and told them I received the money but what was I to do with it.
The importer replied, "I’ve been trying to get in touch with you… I want more of those clocks!"
Building a Clock Business
I then borrowed money from local Korean investors using my passport as collateral and contacted the local junk collectors and asked them to collect old clocks for me.
I rented a warehouse, and the clocks started to come in. The supply was far greater than I had expected. Junk dealers from all over the country brought in all kinds of old clocks… all antique clocks in various conditions. I hired locals to restore them. "Many of the junk dealers told me that they were able to send their kids to school from being able to sell the clocks to me". My warehouse became a dumping ground for these clocks.
Within 2 years, the search for clocks expanded throughout all of Korea and I shipped more than 50,000 antique clocks to the US and Canada and when the antique clocks were no longer available I designed and had built approximately 30 different German and American styled clocks and shipped another 25,000 clocks to the US, Canada, and England.
Returning Home
By 1974 the supply of antique clocks had run out and I felt it was time to return to Seattle. I was dating a young Korean lady, Young Sun, and promised her that if I was ever able to repay my friend and the bank I would marry her and take her back to the states. I didn’t think at the time that it would actually come true.
I remember telling her about Seattle, Washington — where you can walk the salt water beaches of Puget Sound and within a 40 minute drive, walk the snow slopes of the Cascade mountains and another 30 minutes to the desert… king crab from Alaska, Dungeness crab from Puget Sound, grapes without seeds…
She told me, "now you’ll be saying you have watermelon without seeds"… uh, oh, well.
Family and Life
We now have 4 kids.
The oldest is Kelly who was principal of John Stanford Elementary School and Beacon Hill Elementary School in Seattle specializing in tri-lingual education. He was also the Executive Director of Schools for the Southeast Region of Seattle. He is currently Superintendent of the Bellevue School District.
Connie is a freelance photographer for Nordstrom, Eddie Bauer, Stanley Thermos Company and was featured in Nordstrom’s fall catalog and goes by the name Coco Aramaki.
Karen is our angel and lives at home and is diagnosed as having Rett Syndrome.
Kenneth worked for Washington Federal Bank and currently is working for a bank head quartered in Tennessee. He plays the keyboard for Country Lips and have just recorded their fourth album. He was very fortunate to be a guest pianist with Les Paul in New York in 2010. He is currently composing music for several broadway plays.
The Shop in Issaquah
Since 1974 until now, I still have my store in Gilman Village, Issaquah and have accumulated many antique clocks from Germany, England, France, and the US… many on display.
I often advise and consult clock dealers and collectors throughout the country and attend the local and national NAWCC clock shows and attend jewelry and gift shows to stay current with today's clock and gift markets.
Tuxedo
It was about 1998, a stray cat, terribly malnourished, hair all matted up, came to the front door of the store and begged for food.
When I tried to give him food, he would run away. It took at least 2 months for him to trust me.
I took him to the vet and had him totally shaved and gave him the necessary shots. He stayed in the store for the next few months as I desperately tried to find a good home for him. I felt he had suffered enough and it was time for him to have a good home.
He looked beautiful after his hair grew out and he looked like a tuxedo.
After several interviews with prospective cat owners I finally found a couple that lived in a "street of dreams" type home and had just lost their cat. I told the couple that they were the ones for Tuxedo.
When they came to the store to pick up Tux, he was nowhere to be found. They waited for 3 hours for Tux to come back but he never showed.
I reluctantly told the couple that it was not meant to be. They were so very disappointed and left.
Only a few minutes later, Tuxedo showed up and had been with me and living in the store from that time until his passing.
R.I.P. Tuxedo — passed away in my arms on Father's Day 2014.
