The Watchmaker

The watchmaker had been perfecting his craft for over 60 years. He began at just ten years old in his father's studio in a rickety house just above Sarajevo. Tito's socialism was inviting many to work in this rapidly expanding city; times were changing. As a young man, in the late 1960s, the watchmaker was given an opportunity to study his trade in Switzerland, renown for its high-quality clock and watch production. Inspired by high quality tools and techniques, the watchmaker's skills flourished and he returned to Sarajevo with the desire to open his own studio.

Through the years of political and social change, the watchmaker gained faithful customers and a good reputation. People recognised his high skill-set and efficiency. 

Sarajevo was under siege from 1992-1995. Normal trade gradually came to a halt during these years. Batteries for watches became harder to find. But time took on a newer, more important meaning. No-one had believed Sarajevo would succumb to war and now the town's inhabitants had started to measure time before and after the start of the siege. The watchmaker's friends, family and fellow citizens were increasingly aware how short their time on this earth was.

The war ended, and life and business slowly went back to normal for the watchmaker.

While many have left his hometown, the watchmaker had remained. While many of his friends have already entered retirement, the watchmaker keeps his business. While time stopped for many of his friends in the war in the early 1990s, the watchmaker keeps resetting watches and turning the cogs in clocks from years gone by. He does do with good humour. As a distinguished master of time, he chooses his hours of work to his convenience. He knows that life is short; that there is more to his day than work.