Young horologist adds innovative touch to clocks

Bengaluru: Clocktowers have always added a touch of charm to cities, specially when they are placed in areas with high traffic. A family of horologists from the coastal town of Mangaluru has provided Bengaluru with monumental clocks for the clocktower that is to be inaugurated on January 29.

The clocktower is located at the 'Bharath Ratna Dr. BR Ambedkar Stadium' in Govindaraja Nagar assembly constituency which is to be inaugurated by Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai. The clocks were mounted on the uniquely designed clocktower on January 21 and is now ready to be inaugurated.

The clocks for the tower are provided by 'Nayaks Times', a company that is known across the state specially in Mangaluru for crafting state-of-the-art clocks. Apart from this project in Bengaluru, Nayaks Times has made clocks in the coastal region of Karnataka for the Mangaluru clocktower and many other private entities.

The clocks that can be witnessed at Dr BR Ambedkar Stadium measure 6 feet in diameter and are backlit for better view at night. The clocktower has a unique triangular design and is nothing short of a modern art sculpture that is 70 feet in height. The tower also has three faces with a clock placed 55 feet high on each side.

According to State Government sources, the Dr. BR Ambedkar Stadium will also feature a sports plaza, skating track, basketball court, volleyball court, gallery, flag pole and gym room among others.

Siddanth Nayak, a partner of Nayaks Times stated, "The stadium project has been a prominent one as it lays focus on beautification of the area. The clocktower also creates common grounds for the public to relate with their surroundings in the area. For Nayaks Times, it is a matter of pride as our devices are always keeping track of time so that the people can enjoy their time."

The horloger family of Mangalore 'Nayaks' had made the clock industry proud by their innovative designs that had ruled the market of wall clocks not just in India but many parts of the West Asian countries. During the 1960s and 80s it was customary for the people of coast to gift a wall clocks made by the Nayak family.

But later the analog industry went through a recession due to the entry of digital movements for wall clocks. But the Nayaks family did continue to make analogue clocks for the niche market and got big time into making 'grandfather clocks' for the that market which kept the passion of classical design and precision classical clocks alive for over 30 years since 1990.

The young generation took over and improvised on the precision time keeping by adding microprocessor Minute Impulse controller unit which made the clocks uber precise. " In 1939 when the pioneer of handwound clocks maker Vaman Nayak began his journey into horlogerie found out that much of the content regarding the clock making in the world was in French.

To understand the nuances of art of making clocks Nayak learnt French language to just to get into deeper knowledge of horlogerie, his son Sathishchandra and grandson Siddanth have also added the Italian precision to their clocks by running the movement on the clock. "with Microprocessor Minute Impulse Controller Unit, which keeps the time precise for decades and without much servicing" says Siddanth Nayak.