From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishgo/run like clockworkgo/run like clockworkSUCCEED IN DOING somethingto happen in exactly the way you had planned The concert went like clockwork. → clockwork
Examples from the Corpus
go/run like clockwork• Then we had been surprised when our ascent of the nearby Jankopiti had gone like clockwork.• Sometimes it ran like clockwork, sometimes-as I wrote at the time-it ran like the movie Clockwise.• Whereas Prost had been delayed as the Ferrari mechanics fiddled with the right-rear wheel, Senna's stop went like clockwork.• A universe that ran like clockwork also evinced design.• And if Lais and Leonore created the promised diversion the plan would go like clockwork. 