Bringing back clock towers to life

Hyderabad: There was a time when one chime from the clock used to have people scurrying for their meetings and many peeping through their windows to check the time. Those who couldn’t see could understand from the chiming what time it was. Such was the precision of the clock on top of the tower, with […]

Hyderabad: There was a time when one chime from the clock used to have people scurrying for their meetings and many peeping through their windows to check the time.

Those who couldn’t see could understand from the chiming what time it was. Such was the precision of the clock on top of the tower, with the clock towers being an indispensable part of daily life in the Hyderabad of yore. As clocks became smaller, advanced, and present even on smartphones, a stage came where clock towers became obsolete. But that has not driven Laxman Chugani out of business.

Said to be the only man in Hyderabad who can repair the famed Swiss watches, Chugani’s passion for watches and everything related to the time machines has kept him going. It was last year that he undertook of bringing Secunderabad’s famous Clock Tower back to life, and he did that successfully.

“I have been working on big clocks these days. People in the twin cities know that I’m good with fixing the big clocks, which made me take up this challenge and fix the big clocks around the city,” says Chugani, who now runs Ramesh Swiss Watch Company, an enterprise that has helped Hyderabad keep a tab on time from 1947.

Another of his recent missions was to fix the clock on the tower in Hanamkonda, with the local people now visiting the Collectorate just to see and hear the clock. The hourly chimes of the clock have become quite popular.

“The best part of the clock which I fix is that they don’t need to be maintained. The hourly chimes can be heard about 2 km away,” says 77-year-old, who swears by his Hyderabadi roots.

Chugani has recently fixed the clock towers at MJ Market, James Street, Nizamabad, Samalakota, Monda Market and Indalvai in Nizamabad.

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