In the 1990s a watch was a gift of status; now only wall clocks come in

This craftsman from Kheshra village in Tala upazila, Satkhira, works from a small glass-fronted box on the veranda of a shop at Katipara bazaar in neighbouring Paikgachha. He is 69 and has repaired watches for decades, known locally as the watch doctor. Age and illness have weakened him, and he now needs convex-lens glasses to see the small parts. The 1990s, he says, were the trade's golden years, when a watch was a gift of status: "Now that people check the time on a mobile, the golden age of the watch is gone." With the wristwatch market all but erased, only a little wall-clock work comes in, and by the report's account it keeps a two-person household going — no more than that.