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For 125 years, Izmir's Clock Tower has stood watch over Konak Ataturk Square—and the original mechanism inside it is still ticking.
According to a statement from the Izmir Metropolitan Municipality, the clock tower, whose foundation was laid on Sept. 1, 1900 and which opened a year later, has maintained its place as one of the city's important landmarks in Konak Ataturk Square for 125 years.
Designed by French architect Raymond Charles Pere, the tower shows influences of North African and Andalusian architecture. Built on an 81-square-meter base in Konak, the 21-meter-12-centimeter-tall (69 feet 3 inches) tower consists of a four-tiered marble platform and an octagonal base.
The platform features horseshoe-arched fountains supported by small columns, along with three fountain basins and pools with water jets.
Over its 125-year history, the tower has weathered Izmir's earthquakes too. In 1929, when the clock fell silent, a clockmaker was summoned from Germany to coax it back to life.
The clocks on the tower's four faces preserve the working principle of the mechanism established 125 years ago, even as the surrounding buildings, transportation system, and coastline have changed over time.
A single mechanism made up of 22 gears drives the clocks, each 75 centimeters (29.5 inches) in diameter, located beneath the tower's fourth floor and facing four different directions.
The mechanism, which operates on the principle of weight and gravity, is wound once every six days and undergoes periodic maintenance every three months.
The clock's maintenance has been carried out since 1994 by 68-year-old master clockmaker Feti Pamukoglu.
Pamukoglu, whose views were included in the statement, described the Clock Tower as one of the rare historical clocks that mechanically preserves its original working principle.
"It is one of the rare clocks that has not lost its original mechanical form," he said, adding that it "still works as it did on the first day."
Having come to know the mechanism down to its finest details over the past 32 years, Pamukoglu explained that he no longer merely fixes faults that arise. He said he also tries to identify problems in advance that could lead to malfunctions.
The craftsman noted that any moment the clock tower in the city center stops working is immediately noticed. He said they even receive phone calls saying the tower has stopped while maintenance is being carried out.
"This place is like our child. We definitely have to carry out its maintenance," he said.
He described how calls start early each day, "The phone starts ringing at eight or nine in the morning. They say, 'The clock has stopped.' We say, 'Okay, we know, it's under maintenance.'"
He added, "It's a place that's in plain sight, that everyone takes photos in front of, and that thousands of people pass by every day."
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