Admission to the National Watch & Clock Museum is normally $9 for adults, $5 for children and kids 5 and under are free. Here are five ways to save on your visit to the National Watch & Clock Museum.
- Visit on Smithsonian Magazine FREE Museum Day. Every fall the Smithsonian Magazine offers free passes to museums around the country on the last Saturday in September, and the National Watch and Clock Museum is one of them!
- Get FREE passes from your local library. The Lancaster County library system allows you to register for free passes to several museums in Lancaster County. Check out my post on how to get FREE family museum passes from the Lancaster library system.
- Admission is free for active duty military members (ID required) and their families (up to five) from Memorial Day, May 30, through Labor Day, September 5, 2016.
- Grab a Groupon Deal. This deal will save you almost 50% off your admission tickets, and you also have the option of choosing a family deal that will get your entire family in for a discounted rate (no matter how many children you have). This deal is sometimes not available.
- Group rates are available. Consider visiting as a group with your homeschool co-op, boyscouts troop or friends and family. Groups must have 10 paying customers and will get 2 free tickets for the leader and driver. Discounted rates are available here.
The museum does have a Homeschool Day every year with special events, but tickets are not discounted.
Continue on to learn more about the museum and who should visit below!
What is the National Watch & Clock Museum?
The National Watch & Clock Museum Collection is international in scope and covers a wide variety of clocks, watches, tools, and other time-related items.
The collection of clocks ranges from nineteenth-century American clocks and watches through early English tallcase clocks, Asian timepieces from Japan and China, and timekeeping devices from Germany, France, the Netherlands, and Russia.
Chronologically, the exhibits take you on a tour through the entire history of timekeeping technology from early non-mechanical devices to today’s atomic and radio-controlled clocks. A fun and informative family-friendly experience for enthusiasts, scholars, and interested guests alike.
Visiting families are invited to join us in taking a fascinating trip into the world of timekeeping through exhibits, displays, and interactive learning stations comprised of over 12,000 treasures of time.
Who should visit?
From the sound of the name of the museum you may think adults only would enjoy it, but that is simply not the case. Our family (kids ages 4, 6, and 8) visited one afternoon and spent over two hours learning, observing and doing all the neat crafts and children’s activities that I will show you in this post.
The first thing you will want to grab on your way in the museum with kids, is their scavenger hunt. There are two different hunts based on your child’s ages.
The museum does take you through the history of telling time chronologically, so you start by learning about the sun dial and other ancient forms of time keeping. We found this incredibly fascinating, especially this hands-on exhibit that shows you how time was kept by putting bowls in water and waiting for them to sink.
As you journey through the museum, you’ll find many exhibits are very child friendly, like this one.
We loved searching for the activity stations, like this one in the very beginning where they made their own sundial.
I was glad there were several benches throughout the museum that made it very easy for the kids to find places to fill in their scavenger hunts.
Parents will enjoy reading endless captions and histories of clocks. I often would skim-read the plaques and then tell the kids about the clock that grabbed their attention.
At the next station, the kids made their own roman numeral clock. They were so excited to be able to take this home with them!
My husband and I found the room on Asian clocks particularly fascinating. I never thought about using a clock the way they did!
We visited too late in the day to see this HUGE and famous clock do its thing, so I think we’ll have to go back again to listen to it and watch it to see all that it does.
The newer and novelty clocks also were fun for our kids to look at. I was surprised to find that some of the clocks that were familiar to me, they had never seen before!
At the last kids station they each made their own watch. I really loved that they had these activities for the kids because it gave me time to look at and read about more of the unique clocks, watches and time-keeping devices!
Where is the Museum?
The National Watch & Clock Museum is located in Columbia, PA. You can visit their Facebook Page or website for more details.
The National Watch and Clock Museum is located in Columbia, PA near the Turkey Hill Experience.
We accidentally missed our turn to get back on Route 30 on the way home but I was glad we did. We turned around at the top of the hill (you’ll see what I mean if it happens to you too) and there we found this beautiful lookout over the Susquehanna River!! I highly recommend making the same mistake we did. 😉
Grab your deal to the National Watch and Clock Museum ….
