2 tribal men in Gujarat make wrist watch that runs ‘anti-clockwise’
The watch, which is named “tribal watch”, was made by social activist Pradip Patel alias Pintoo (32), a resident of Dolvan taluka of Tapi, and his friend Bharat Patel (30).
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The ‘tribal watch’ made by Pradip Patel and Bharat Patel. Two tribal men in Gujarat have manufactured a wrist watch which runs “ in harmony with nature” — its hands run anti-clockwise.
The watch, which is named “tribal watch”, was made by social activist Pradip Patel alias Pintoo (32), a resident of Dolvan taluka of Tapi, and his friend Bharat Patel (30).
On Tuesday, Congress MLA from Vansda Anant Patel launched the watch at the Circuit house in Navsari.
The watch will also be put on sale and display at the Adivasi Ekta Parishad, the three-day event for tribals to be held in Chhota Udepur’s Kavant from January 13 to 15.
MLA Patel says that the members of tribal community will now be taught to manufacture the watch and sell it in 14 districts of Gujarat in the coming days.
The idea to make a watch which runs anti-clockwise struck Pintoo two years ago when he visited one of his friends’ house.
“At my friend Vijaybhai Chaudhary’s house, I saw an old clock which runs in anti-clockwise direction. When I asked about it, he told me that nature’s cycles and its movements work from right to left, in anti-clockwise direction,” says Pintoo.
This inspired Pintoo who started working on it along with Bharat Patel, who works in a wristwatch shop. After months of research and hardwork, in December, they manufactured the wrist watch, which has hour, minute and seconds hands running in anti-clockwise direction.
Since then, Pintoo and Bharat have manufactured around 1,000 such wrist watches.
Patel adds, “We made new models with a photo of a tribal man and a caption ‘Jay Adivasi’. We named this watch as ‘tribal watch’ . It runs in harmony with nature… All planets revolve around the sun from right-to-left direction (anti-clockwise). Even movements in group dances of tribals are from right to left. We tribals perform all the rituals from right to left.”
So far seven different models of these wrist watches have been manufactured and the prices range between Rs 700 and Rs 1,000.
However, Patel says they need funds to expand the production of watches.
“We brought button cell to run quartz machines generally used in normal watches. We made certain changes in the machines it to make the hands rotate from right to left… I have got an order for 5,000 watches but, do not have adequate funds for production,” he says.
MLA Patel says they have assured help to Pintoo to employ more members from the tribal community to manufacture the watch.
“At present we have launched the watch in Navsari district. But we will expand it from Umargam to Ambaji covering all tribal districts. We will appoint distributors in every district, who will hire tribals for manufacturing the watch. We will also launch these watches in all the tribal districts in Gujarat, after the three-day Adivasi Ekta Parishad event. Our concept is to get all the tribals connected to each other. We have also planned to make logos by the name of save earth, Jal-jungle-Zameen, and Birsa Munda to be used on the watch.”
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