Watch and clock repair
Repairing wristwatches and wall clocks. The national watch market is over Tk 300 crore, but Patuatuli sells watches from Tk 30, so cheap watches are never repaired.
- Last reviewed: 19 September 2026
- Version 1
Watch and clock repair
- Starting capital
- ৳5,000 – ৳1,50,000 Editorial estimate
- Manpower
- 1 – 2 people
- First sale
- 7 – 30 days Editorial estimate
- Break-even
- 0.5 – 6 months Editorial estimate
- Kind of work
- Shop · Medium difficulty
About the business
Watch and clock repair means changing batteries, fitting straps and glass, opening and cleaning movements, and mending wall clocks. The trade is shrinking but it is not dead. Prothom Alo puts the Bangladeshi watch market at over Tk 300 crore, and NBR figures show wristwatch imports of Tk 115 crore in 2022 rising to Tk 135 crore in 2023. The problem lies elsewhere. Patuatuli in Old Dhaka has more than five hundred watch shops and sells wristwatches wholesale from Tk 30 to Tk 3,000. Nobody will pay a hundred taka to mend a watch that costs a hundred and fifty new, and that is the squeeze on this trade. So those who survive have moved to the expensive end. Among foreign brands the Tk 5,000 to Tk 20,000 watches sell most, and in wall clocks the Rhythm brand sells from Tk 1,500 to Tk 50,000. Owners of these do pay for repairs, because replacing them costs far more. The start-up cost is small: a 16-piece watch repair tool set is Tk 799 on Daraz.
Unit economics
| Item | Range | Evidence | Suggest a correction |
|---|---|---|---|
| Monthly working capital | ৳5,000 – ৳60,000 | Editorial estimate | |
| Selling price | ৳60 – ৳1,200 / unit | Editorial estimate | |
| Variable cost | ৳25 – ৳450 / unit | Editorial estimate | |
| Gross margin | 58% – 63% | Editorial estimate | |
| Time to first revenue | 7 – 30 days | Editorial estimate | |
| Break-even time | 0.5 – 6 months | Editorial estimate | |
| Cash cycle | 0 – 7 days | Editorial estimate | |
| Waste / loss | 2% – 5% | Editorial estimate | |
| Daily capacity | 2 – 15 | Editorial estimate |
What you need to start
- A watch repair tool set (a 16-piece set is Tk 799 on Daraz), a watch and phone opening screwdriver set (Tk 128-190), a loupe, tweezers, a case press and cleaning fluid.Equipment
- Batteries in many sizes, straps in leather and metal, glass, spring bars and common wall clock movements. Patuatuli in Old Dhaka is the biggest wholesale source, with more than five hundred watch shops.Starting stock
- Trade licence from the city corporation or municipality, required once you take a shop or a space in a shopping centre: form Tk 10, licence book Tk 50, standard tax Tk 30, stamp Tk 150-300, licence fee Tk 100-60,000 by trade type, issued in 3-5 working days.Licence
- Opening, cleaning and reassembling a movement, diagnosing a quartz fault, and fitting glass and straps to size. This is among the highest-skill trades on this list and cannot be started without learning it.Skill
- The wholesale markets at Patuatuli, Chawkbazar or Gulistan. The watch market is almost entirely import-dependent, so parts prices move with the dollar.Supplier
- A small counter or table, good light and somewhere safe to keep expensive watches. Inside a shopping centre or beside a watch shop, the customers find you.Workspace
How the work is done
- 1Learn the work, and decide from whom. Opening and reassembling a movement is learned at the bench, and there is no way to learn it but sitting beside an old hand.
- 2Buy the tools. No large outlay is needed to start: a 16-piece watch repair set is Tk 799, and a 5-in-1 watch and phone opening screwdriver set can be had from about Tk 130.
- 3Choose the spot: beside a watch shop, inside a shopping centre or at a bazaar junction. Repairs come where watches are sold.
- 4Build a link with the Patuatuli wholesale market. Retailers from all over the country restock there, and batteries, straps, glass and movements are cheapest there too.
- 5Move towards expensive watches. Among foreign brands the Tk 5,000-20,000 range sells most, and those owners do pay for repairs because replacing them costs far more.
- 6Take on wall and table clocks as a separate line. Rhythm wall clocks sell for Tk 1,500 to Tk 50,000 and table clocks Tk 950 to Tk 25,000 - people do not throw those away when they fail, they get them mended.
- 7Learn smart watch work. Smart watches sell here for Tk 2,500 to Tk 30,000 and use among young people is rising; strap and glass replacement will come from there.
- 8Quote the price before you start, and give a receipt when a watch is left. If an expensive watch goes missing or another fault appears once it is opened, there is no settling it without paper.
- 9Sell straps, batteries and cheap wall clocks alongside the repairs. Repairs alone do not cover the rent, and it is the selling that tells customers you also mend.
Seasons
- JanNormal
- FebNormal
- MarNormal
- AprNormal
- MayNormal
- JunNormal
- JulNormal
- AugNormal
- SepNormal
- OctNormal
- NovNormal
- DecNormal
Where it works well
- Strong fitChattogram · A large city and port with many watch shops in its shopping centres and customers for expensive watches.
- Strong fitDhaka · Patuatuli in Old Dhaka has over five hundred watch shops, about a hundred of them large or medium, with wholesale markets at Chawkbazar and Gulistan too. Both parts and customers are closest here.
- PossibleBogura · The trading centre of the north, where repair work comes in from surrounding districts.
- PossibleGazipur · Dense settlement and factory workers, though most watches here are cheap, so battery and strap work outweighs repairs.
- PossibleKhulna · A divisional city where work is available beside the watch shops in its shopping centres.
- PossibleNarayanganj · Dhaka's wholesale market is close by, and dense settlement provides retail work.
- PossibleRajshahi · A divisional and university city with work maintaining wall clocks and institutional clocks.
- PossibleSylhet · Remittance families own expensive watches brought from abroad and there are few who can mend them - that is the opening.
Risks and cautions
- HighDemand: Cheap watches are this trade's worst enemy. Patuatuli sells wristwatches wholesale from Tk 30 to Tk 3,000, and about 80 percent of non-brand watches come from China. Nobody pays a repair charge on a watch that costs a few hundred taka new - throwing it away is cheaper. Repair work is therefore narrowing to expensive watches only, and those customers are few.
- HighDependency: Parts are wholly import-dependent. The general secretary of the watch importers' association says watches carry high duty as a luxury item and that the rising dollar has pushed prices up, with business costs up 15-20 percent in two years. A repairer cannot raise his charge at that rate, so the squeeze lands on him. No wristwatch brand is made in Bangladesh, so there is no alternative source.
- HighOther: Liability for damaging or losing a customer's watch. Fail to reassemble an expensive watch, or lose a part, and the compensation can equal several months' earnings - showrooms in the capital sell watches from Tk 50,000 to Tk 350,000. Taking work without a receipt leaves no way to manage that risk.
- MediumOther: No new hands are coming in. The work takes years to learn and pays little, so nobody starts. If the one craftsman falls ill the shop closes, and with no one taught, the skill ends when the shop does.
Sources
সিটি কর্পোরেশন থেকে ট্রেড লাইসেন্স প্রাপ্তির ধাপ সমূহ
Collected: 16 Sept 2026Supports: Starting capital, Time to first revenue · বাংলাদেশ
What changed
No corrections have been published yet.
Questions and answers
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Stories about this business
In the 1990s a watch was a gift of status; now only wall clocks come in
This repairer in Satkhira has fixed watches for decades and is known locally as the watch doctor. With mobile phones ending the wristwatch market, only a little wall-clock work now comes in, and a two-person household lives on it.
- Reasons
- Weak demand, Family or health
Fifty-seven years in the trade, 9am to 8pm, and 300-500 taka a day
He opened his own shop around 1975 and ran it about fifteen years, until the landlord demolished the building. He now works from a small table under an umbrella by the road, taking 300-500 taka a day.
- Reasons
- Poor location, Weak demand
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