Mechanical clocks first appeared in European church towers and town halls in the late 1200s. Inside each one was a carefully balanced system of gears, weights and wheels, every part doing its job so the whole could keep time. That inner machinery became known as the "clock works".

By the 1620s, English writers were already using “clockwork” figuratively, to describe any system that ran with steady, unvarying regularity. The machine had become a way to describe order itself.

When the Dutch scientist Christiaan Huygens invented the pendulum clock in 1656, timekeeping became far more accurate. Around the same time, scientists and philosophers began to picture the universe itself as a vast, perfectly regulated clock. To say something ran “like clockwork” was to say it was dependable, predictable and precise.

The phrase even turns up at the founding of the United States. On September 25, 1776, writing late at night from his headquarters at Harlem Heights, George Washington told John Hancock, the President of the Continental Congress, that “An Army formed of good Officers moves like Clock work”. Three years later he made the same point to one of his generals “Things run like clockwork when every part does its job properly”.

We now use the phrase for everything from trains to morning routines. At heart, it still describes the same thing: many small parts, each one looked after, working together so smoothly that you barely notice them. That;s exactly how we think a home should work.

A clock only keeps good time if someone winds it, oils it and checks it regularly. Your home is no different. Behind every house that runs smoothly is regular, careful attention: filters changed, gutters cleared, small problems caught early. That’s our job. We look after the moving parts, so your home runs quietly in the background and you can get on with your life.

Your Home. Like Clockwork.