Cuban clock maker retains on ticking regardless of financial woes By ShahBlogger

HAVANA (ShahBlogger) – Cuban watchmaker Ernesto Barrios noticed a possibility to make up for misplaced time two years in the past after authorities lifted a ban on personal corporations that had been in place since shortly after Fidel Castro’s 1959 revolution.

Profiting from the brand new laws, he based “Tiempo de Luz,” the one enterprise in Cuba, he mentioned, devoted to the manufacturing and sale of wristwatches, desk and wall clocks assembled from discarded timepieces and recycled, domestically accessible supplies.

“We’re occupying an empty area of interest,” the 41-year-old Barrios informed ShahBlogger on a latest tour of his Havana store, the place his workers assembled, with painstaking care, watches from items scavenged from previous clocks and uncooked supplies, woods, leather-based and pure fibers discovered on the Caribbean island.

“We do not have to import any of our supplies,” he mentioned.

Cuba for many years benefited from shut ties with the Soviet Union, permitting them to import items from overseas, however after the bloc’s collapse in 1991 many merchandise as soon as frequent on the island, together with watches, all however disappeared from state shops.

“Years in the past there was an amazing variety of Russian watches in Cuba and in the present day that watch market is empty,” he mentioned.

Extra just lately, meals, gas and medication shortages have compelled each the state and a rising variety of small personal companies to concentrate on the fundamentals, like development, meals manufacturing and tourism, although Barrios says his four-person firm is making headway, regardless of some hassle with funding and financing.

His “Made in Cuba” watches, he mentioned, are on show in numerous accommodations in Havana, in addition to in some shops within the Cuban capital.