Sounds flippant - isn't.

A second, but significantly less traumatic, hole in my life, after Alice.
: ¬ (
Shortly after we took over J. G. Johnstone's both of us admired 
"a Night & Gibbins (Excellent, old, firm) 8-day, Westminster chiming, 1/4 striking regulator." (Wall clock to you) 
We thought that:-
"At that price we may not shift it." We were right. Though we did sell them, never one near that price. We both fancied it, so bought it at a fair amount more than cost = "Staff rate"; must have been mid/late 1990s, since we took over in 1995.
I can not, as usual, recall the time frame accurately, but DO know it got kinda lazy 1st and became a 6-day regulator. Next trick was to sulk/strike; or, to be more accurate, NOT strike. At least not when it oughter. 
If chimes were set to on we got (Say when you're sick)
Bong- -bong- -bong- -bong- -bong- -bong- -bong- -bong- -bong- -bong- -bong-bong. 
So it was silenced.

I, recently, took it up to a Jewellers we learnt a lot from in the early days and it promises to cost almost what we paid 20ish years ago for a complete S & OH - (Service & O/haul) We shall see.