Like clockwork

In his tiny cubicle on Dadar's LJ Road, Mohammad Zayauddin, 45, has everything he needs to repair clocks and watches, and tell a passer-by if there's still some life in the batteries of her remote. Zayauddin's first stint in watch repair was in Riyadh — days he looks back on with fondness. "In Saudi [Arabia], everything used to be up-to-date. We would be given the latest equipment and gloves, all inside an air-conditioned workspace. Here, the dust keeps coming in," he says, pointing to the busy road. But the pollution isn't his only concern. "There was a time when I would easily make over Rs 50,000. Today, the earnings have come down to Rs 15,000. The market is flooded with Chinese watches as well as Chinese-made machines in Indian companies. HMT shouldn't have shuttered. If such big watch companies close down, repair shops are bound to get impacted," he laments, adding, "I don't want my kids to get into this. I advise anyone wanting to get into the business of watches against it, too."