Dispute over a timepiece is turning into a nasty little clock fight.

A small plot of land and an outdoor clock would hardly seem the stuff that major feuds between grown men are made of.

But such is the case in Rolling Hills Estates, where, much to the chagrin of city officials, a local clockmaker and developer have engaged in a verbal slugfest for nearly three years over the clock and the hamburger stand-size park it sits on.

In one corner is the clockmaker, Michel Medawar. In April, 1987, Medawar, who lives in Rolling Hills Estates, donated the unusual, ground-level timepiece to the city with the understanding that he would ensure it faithfully ticked away for 50 years.

In the other corner is the developer, Terry Cole, who owns the land at Crossfield and Deep Valley drives where the clock is located. In a contract with the city, Cole agreed to build a small park and maintain it, as well as the fountains, waterfalls and flower beds called for in the clock’s design. In exchange, the city gave him permission to add one more story to a three-story office building he wanted to erect across the street.

Medawar has consistently maintained that Cole has refused to live up to his end of the agreement, while Cole argues that Medawar has been unreasonable in his demands.

In the middle of the squabble are city officials, who have spent countless hours trying in vain to get the men to shake hands. At least one council member, Jackie McGuire, appears ready to give up.

“I don’t see anything we can do to help these men work out their differences,” she said.

Even before construction on the clock began, the two men began sniping at one another.

Medawar, a native of Lebanon who moved to the United States in 1975, says Cole immediately attempted to cut corners by refusing to build an underground vault to house the clock’s inner workings.

Although he eventually won that battle, Medawar contends that Cole has attempted to desecrate the clock by refusing to plant colorful annuals at regular intervals, sometimes even letting the ground around the clock go bare for long stretches.

He also says that Cole has failed at times to keep the fountain in good repair and has engaged in petty tactics against him. Two years ago at Christmas, for instance, Medawar says that Cole removed lights he had placed on the clock’s numbers.

“I don’t want to fight with him, I want him to be my friend,” Medawar said. “But enough is enough.”

Cole says he removed the lights because they were attached to cheap-looking plastic poinsettias and were ugly. He also says the dispute over the vault arose because Medawar kept changing the design of the clock. After a “lot of screaming and yelling,” Cole says he relented and built it.

Cole denies that he has not lived up to his end of the agreement to maintain the landscaping. Even though Medawar says there have been three-week periods when the clock has been without flowers, Cole says the longest the clock has gone without flowers has been 11 days, and that was because cold weather prevented a batch of primroses from blooming on schedule.

He does admit that he and Medawar have quite different tastes. He says he refuses to plant the bright red and yellow annuals that Medawar wants because they would clash with the imported Japanese cherry trees he planted near his office building. Moreover, the bright flowers would detract from the more subtle visual statement he is attempting to provide for shoppers at The Shops at Palos Verdes mall. The clock is next to the main entrance to the mall, which Cole owns.

Cole accuses Medawar of self-promotion--trying to sell more clocks at Cole’s expense by attempting to get the clock’s color scheme to match the one Medawar has on a sales brochure. Medawar denies the charge. At one time, Cole offered to lease the entire park to Medawar for $5,500 a month. Medawar says he isn’t going to take care of the entire park at his own expense. “What am I, stupid?” he said.

At a City Council meeting last month, Medawar tendered his own solution to the longstanding squabble. He offered to maintain the clock’s landscaping at no expense to Cole, providing Cole wouldn’t interfere. Cole wouldn’t bite.

“I will not, under any circumstances, relinquish control,” Cole said. “That man will not win.”

After Cole refused to walk away from park and clock, council members, reacting to the most recent complaints from Medawar, instructed the city’s community services director to work with Cole to ensure plantings are carried out in a timely fashion.

“We had no idea whatsoever it would evolve into this wrangling between the two of them,” Councilman Hugh Muller said. “It just seemed like we would get a nice little park.”