Meet vintage clocks collector Aseef Ismail from Coimbatore

Aseef Ismail of Times Star vintage clocks
| Photo Credit: PERIASAMY M

When traffic dies down on Avarampalayam Road, the ‘tick, tock’ of over 50 clocks envelops Time Star Vintage Clocks. The cramped 10 x 10 shop is covered wall-to-wall with vintage mechanical clocks, some of them over 120 years old. Aseef Ismail, the owner, is seated by his worktable inside, surrounded by boxes overflowing with tools and other paraphernalia. The 59-year-old is among the handful of people in the city who can repair mechanical clocks, and has a varied collection of over 100 vintage clocks.

Aseef Ismail also collects vintage clocks.
| Photo Credit:
PERIASAMY M

Aseef’s shop has been in the neighbourhood for 35 years, and he has been surrounded by clocks all his life. His grandfather, who had his roots in Kerala, founded the popular P Mohamed & Co in the 1950s in the city. “He was the authorised dealer of the Japanese Seikosha clocks,” says Aseef. As was the practice back then, the clocks that Mohamed sold had his establishment’s name handwritten at the lower end of the dial.

Most Seikosha clocks from the city bear his name, and Aseef owns one too. “A customer had brought it in for servicing. When I told him it was from my grandfather’s shop, he wanted me to have it,” he smiles. Aseef’s father Ismail learned the nuts and bolts of servicing clocks at P Mohamed & Co, eventually opening his own watch service outlet. When Aseef was in his early teens, he would peer over his father’s shoulder when he worked, gradually taking in the nuances.

Aseef Ismail has a collection of over 100 mechanical clocks
| Photo Credit:
PERIASAMY M

“He would bring home clocks that needed special care,” recalls Aseef, who took after him after completing his bachelor’s in Economics. Today, after almost four decades of servicing clocks, Aseef works 18 hours a day. “Once I close the shop at 10pm, I go back home and start work again after a quick dinner,” he says.

Aseef’s obsession with clocks has resulted in him turning a clockmaker. He is now crafting a weight-driven clock that he is making with chains from a bike’s engine. It will take several hours of work until it is functional, and Aseef tweaks it whenever he has time.

Some of Aseef’s clocks are over 120 years old
| Photo Credit:
PERIASAMY M

He talks fondly of mechanical clocks. “They are now being made only in European countries,” he says. “Most households in India had these clocks in the past. If the owners had taken care of them, there would be one at every home even today.” His collection has brands such as Seikosha, Seth Thomas, Waterbury…he even has a 120-year-old chiming clock, and a 60-year-old cuckoo clock he would not part with no matter what.  

Watch collectors from near and far bring their precious pieces to him to get them fixed. “Sometimes, it takes weeks to get these running,” he says. Given the clocks’ antiquity, Aseef gets some spare parts made at lathe workshops.

The weight-based clock that Aseef is building.
| Photo Credit:
PERIASAMY M

He owns 30 watches, and can talk for hours about clocks and the tiny wheels and springs that form their beating heart. “The chiming of a clock makes the soul happy,” he says. He finds the gentle-yet-insistent sound reminding the household that time is flowing, “refreshing”. Aseef is energetic through the day, and attributes this to his profession. “Even if I pick up my phone for a few minutes, I will soon put it away to go back to the clock I am working on,” he says.

Aseef has two children, but is disappointed that none of them want to train under him. “I want to transfer all this knowledge to the next generation,” he says. He soon hopes to move his set-up to his home in the outskirts of the city. “I want to set up a museum with all my vintage clocks,” he says. “It will be a place for just me and my clocks.”