Edi Lüthi's workshop is in the centre of Bern's old town. He spends his time repairing wrist and pocket watches, regulators, as well as grandfather and alarm clocks.
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Thomas Kern was born in Switzerland in 1965. Trained as a photographer in Zürich, he started working as a photojournalist in 1989. He was a founder of the Swiss photographers agency Lookat Photos in 1990. Thomas Kern has won twice a World Press Award and has been awarded several Swiss national scholarships. His work has been widely exhibited and it is represented in various collections.
Tuesday morning is market day in the capital, and the door to Lüthi’s workshop opens every few minutes with a new customer. Not a good time to revise a complicated watch, a job requiring concentration and a steady hand. Changing batteries is more the order of the day.
It is unikely that anyone under the age of 30 would end up in the second-floor store. Most clients belong to a generation that has worn the same watch for decades and expect it to be fixed.
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If you want to start a conversation about a topic raised in this article or want to report factual errors, email us at english@swissinfo.ch.