Construction and Crafting
Your primary use for clockworks is to craft clockwork items, which requires a sufficiently high Crafting skill and a house with a workshop. Typically, therefore, you'll obtain clockwork mechanisms by making them in your workshop or a friend's workshop. The workshop must contain a Level 2 crafting table or higher, which requires at least Level 25 in the Construction skill. If you don't have the Construction skill or your level is very low, you may be better off negotiating with someone else for the use of theirs.
Skills and Raw Materials
You use the Crafting skill to make clockworks. You'll need at least Level 8 Crafting to make a clockwork; making the simplest clockwork item, a toy soldier, requires a Crafting level of 13. Every clockwork you produce gains you 15 points of Crafting experience; more complex items can garner experience points in greater numbers. If you wear the Craftsman's Monocle while you work, you can start making clockwork items two levels lower than normal. The raw material for a clockwork mechanism is a bar of steel. Incorporating the clockwork into more complex items requires extra materials, such as planks of wood, pieces of silk or gold leaf.
Uses for Clockwork in the Workshop
You can use a clockwork in a workshop to make a toy soldier, a doll, a clockwork penguin suit, a clockwork mouse and a clockwork cat. Toy soldiers are sometimes used during game riots to cause more confusion. You can release and chase dolls and mice, gaining Agility experience if you catch them. The clockwork cat can be released to act as a follower. Releasing and catching the penguin suit gives you 12 points of Agility and nine points of Crafting. With the assistance of Larry the Penguin, you can wear the suit to perform eight unique penguin emotes.
Uses for the Clockwork in Other Rooms
In the bedroom of a player-owned house, you can use a clockwork to make an oak, teak or gold clock. Clocks don't do anything except make the room look prettier.In the Throne Room of a player-owned house, you can use 10 clockworks to build a trapdoor. Anyone standing on the trapdoor when you pull the lever will fall through it into an oubliette under the house.