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Yerevan Watchmaker: “They’ve destroyed the old spots but I’m still here”
Ani Gevorgyan
Zhora Hovhannisyan might be part of a dying breed in Yerevan.
For years, the 62 year-old watchmaker has plied his trade out of a car parked on the intersection of Northern Avenue and Abovyan Street in downtown Yerevan.
Zhora says that he’s been forced to move around quite a bit in his forty years of repairing watches. The old sites where he used to work – buildings, courtyards – no longer exist; the victims of urban planning.
“I was a 22 year-old student when I started to repair watches”.
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Zhora has been working at the intersection of Northern Blvd. and Abovyan St, for the past eight years. “I enjoy working with the tiny pieces in a watch,” he says. |
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The watchmaker is actually a mathematician by profession.
He even taught mathematics for a short time.
“I’ve done everything during my life. I worked as a mathematician and in a factory. But that’s all in the past.”
“I lost all those jobs. What’s left is watch repair.”
Mr. Hovhannisyan’s car is parked in a paid parking zone.
Zhora says he pays 2,000 dram (US$4.15) a month for the spot.
“I get by on what I make,” he says.
“I’ve repaired watches in various spots, but those buildings no longer exist. They destroyed them, but I’m still here.”
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