Alpha Watch Works

You can find Alpha Watch Works near the police station on Bhavana Road in Hebbagodi. It’s a small shop, and we’ve been here long enough that most people in the area use us as a landmark. My workspace is just a small table with a bright lamp and all my picks and tweezers laid out. I spend the day looking into the backs of watches, trying to see why they aren't moving like they should. It’s a lot of sitting still and being careful with your fingers. The shop doesn't have much in the way of decoration, just some old clocks on the walls that we keep running. Sometimes the police from next door come in to get a battery changed or just to say hello. Hebbagodi is a busy place, but once I put my loupe on, I don't really hear the trucks on Bhavana Road anymore. We get all kinds of work, from simple digital watches to old mechanical ones that need a lot of cleaning and oiling. It's not the kind of job you can do if you're in a hurry. I usually have a radio playing low in the background to keep me company while I work. It’s just me and maybe one other person helping out on the busier days. We keep a ledger of all the repairs we do, and the shelf behind the counter is always full of items waiting to be picked up. It's just a simple life of fixing watches.