I’ve a freaky attraction towards small “watch repair” shops. Don’t know when I started this fancy towards the “men” in glass boxes. Probably, it starts with my fancy to collect used watches.

What’s unusual about their biz. Their work area is mostly littered heaping scrapes of dead watches of all imaginable shapes and sizes. In these no frill walls you can see the framed watch mechanic with his inseparable gadget – one eyed magnifying glasses. Most often these shops are run by second generation of repair folks who has inherited the skill and booty from his father.

Looking back, my fancy towards this biz started with my crazy idea of buying used watches from these shops.

It started my habit form the shops in Trivandrum. There was one shop run by man who is well past seventy . This frail looking man with a charming smile had his small shop in a small one room title shop adjoining a hotel. Every day on my way to work I pass by his shop. One day I stopped at his shop repair one of many dead watches.

He promptly did this repair work and in our regular deals I asked him for a used watch. I told him my kind of watch, something with a big dial, three button etc… He showed me few from his collection…

I choose one watch, brand “Tower”. It had a very big dial and it instantly catches anyone’s attention. Only the outer shell was the original, the engine was replaced by a cheap automated one.

I had pretty long dealings with his man, till I moved to a new work place. Later I saw that the shop was raised down for road expansion and later I came to know that he passed away..

Years passed on and recently I met another watch repair fellow. This time in Bangalore. He is relatively young, but he too has a tale to tell. He too has his glass box full of bits and pieces of watches of all shapes and sizes. Something that tells of his long tenure in this business. Probably he inherited this skill from his father…

I took a chance to capture a snap of him while he was repairing my watch.

More stories on my later blog…