For many years, the small house at the end of Quy Hoa Street, in Kim Tan Hamlet 29, Lao Cai Ward, has been a familiar address for those passionate about collecting antique watches or needing watch repair. Inside that small house, beside an old wooden cabinet, a middle-aged woman with reading glasses and a gentle smile diligently works disassembling, assembling, and repairing watches for customers who bring them from all over.
On New Year's Day, wearing a small watch that Mrs. Mai had just repaired and was now running smoothly, Ms. Vu Thi Kim Oanh from Lao Cai ward felt as happy as if she had just rediscovered a precious item. Instead of rushing home, she sat down to chat with the shop owner about her old watch, which held so many cherished family memories. Ms. Oanh shared: “Everyone has cherished mementos in their life. For me, this small watch, though not of high material value, has been with me for a long time and holds so many memories. I am very grateful to Mrs. Mai for helping me ‘revive’ this keepsake.”
Not only with Ms. Oanh, but for the past 30 years, Ms. Vu Thanh Mai has helped many owners repair their old watches, which are important keepsakes to them. Ms. Mai said that in the past, before mobile phones existed, watches were familiar and common objects, used by many people.
Watches are not just for telling time; they are also pieces of jewelry and valuable gifts. Some watches cost only a few hundred thousand dong, while others are worth tens of millions, even hundreds of millions of dong. Each watch, whether mechanical or electronic, may look simple, but inside it is a machine with many small parts and components. Therefore, when a watch breaks down, the "time machine" stops working, and not everyone can repair it. But regardless of the type of watch, it is a machine with dozens of very small parts, so disassembly and reassembly must be done with extreme care. Repairing a watch also requires meticulousness and patience; just a little too much force or incorrect operation can damage or deform the parts. Some watches Mrs. Mai can diagnose the "problem" with just a glance, but others are difficult to diagnose, requiring repeated repairs, or even being completely unfixed.
"Even after many years repairing watches, every time I open a watch to fix a problem, from inexpensive ones to high-end watches worth tens of millions of dong, I still feel as nervous as when I first started. Conversely, the most joyful moment is when I find the problem and, after fixing it, the watch runs smoothly like new, and I see the happy smile on the customer's face when they receive their watch back," Ms. Mai shared.
About 20 years ago, when watch collecting was popular, watch repair was also quite common. Walking along the streets of cities, it wasn't difficult to spot watch repairers sitting at small stalls on the sidewalks. However, as society developed and mobile phones emerged, many people used their phones to check the time and no longer wore watches, leading to fewer jobs for watch repairers, who gradually switched to other professions. Yet, for Ms. Vu Thanh Mai, who remains passionate about watches and watch repair, despite the difficulties, she cannot abandon her family's traditional craft.
Ms. Mai recounted: “My father was born in Hai Duong, but later moved to Hanoi to settle down. In the early 1960s, heeding the Party's call, he went to Lao Cai to start a new life, living in the Cam Duong area. Along with his main job in geological surveying, he also took advantage of his free time to repair watches for customers.”
My childhood memories are unforgettable, filled with images of my father sitting for hours beside this wooden cabinet, meticulously disassembling and repairing watches for the soldiers of the 297th Brigade. As I grew up, seeing my fascination with watches, he taught me how to identify and disassemble different types of watches, such as Orient, Rado, Poljot, Seiko, Rakepta, and others. When my father was busy with work, I often helped him travel to Hanoi to buy watch parts for his clients. Back then, I would take the freight train from Pom Han to Hang Co station and then a cyclo to Hang Dao street to buy watch parts. As the eldest daughter in a family of only two sisters, I never imagined I would continue my father's watch repair business until now.
Ms. Mai showed me her watch repair tools, which included dozens of screwdrivers, pliers, tiny tweezers, and especially a small iron hammer the size of a finger and an old magnifying glass. “This hammer and magnifying glass were used by my father to repair watches when he was a young man; they’re almost 70 years old now. My father was very skillful; he even cut and sharpened steel himself to make many specialized tools for watch repair, which I’ve kept to this day,” Ms. Mai shared emotionally.
Having worked as a watch repairer for 30 years, Mrs. Mai has many fond memories of her customers. She says that sometimes, customers would bring their watches in late at night, hoping to have them ready for work the next morning, so she would spend the whole night repairing them to ensure they were ready for the next day. During exam season, some students from mountainous regions would bring their watches and calculators to her for repair or battery replacement. Knowing that these students were from ethnic minority groups and came from disadvantaged families, she would still repair them or replace the batteries for free. "I remember one student from Sa Pa who, after I repaired his watch, brought a bundle of bamboo shoots and vegetables to my house as a thank you. I was very happy and touched by their kindness!" Mrs. Mai recounted.
While chatting with Ms. Mai, I wondered why, despite her extensive knowledge of watches and the trust she had in customers from all over, she didn't open a larger shop to repair and sell watches for additional income. Ms. Mai confided, "I'm a straightforward person; I only know how to repair watches, not how to sell them. Currently, I still have many customers both within and outside the province who trust me and come to me. I also do extra work installing watch batteries, calculators, and remote controls, so I earn a little extra money. Although society is modern, many people are still returning to the hobby of collecting and wearing watches, so the watch repair business still brings a lot of joy."
Amidst the hustle and bustle of life, there is a woman who remains diligent and meticulous in her beloved work. My conversation with Ms. Mai seemed to make me pause for a moment, temporarily forgetting my own busy life, and I silently admired this simple, persistent "doctor" of the "time machine"!
Presented by: Thanh Ba
Source: https://baolaocai.vn/nu-bac-si-cua-co-may-thoi-gian-post895451.html
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