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Ismail Isinir, 75, has spent more than half a century repairing watches in a 7-square-meter shop in Adana, a city in southern Türkiye.
Named "Craftsman of the Year" by the Adana Union of Tradesmen and Craftsmen Chambers in 2024, he continues the trade he first learned as a child apprentice.
Isinir began his path into watchmaking at age 11, working alongside a watch repairman in Adana.
Under his master's guidance, he learned the mechanics of timekeeping from the ground up, absorbing skills that would later carry him through decades of independent repair work across mechanical and electronic watches.
In 1975, after mastering both mechanical and electronic watch repair, Isinir opened his own shop on Ali Munif Street in Seyhan, a central district of Adana.
The space measured just 7 square meters, a modest footprint that would remain his workplace for the next five decades.
Isinir opens his shop every day except Sunday, restoring customers' broken watches to working order.
During his military service, he repaired timepieces belonging to commanders, officers and fellow soldiers, an experience he credits with reinforcing his commitment to the trade he had already chosen.
Beyond the shop counter, Isinir has taught the fundamentals of watch repair to students at a vocational apprenticeship school, passing on techniques he considers essential to preserving the craft.
He says the shrinking pipeline of apprentices, journeymen and masters in Türkiye's traditional trades concerns him.
Now in his eighth decade, Isinir says his health will determine how long he continues working, though his attachment to the trade remains unchanged.
He describes watchmaking as inseparable from his identity, saying he has no wish to give up the profession that has defined his life.
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