Our Workshop
Where Time Is Treated With Patience
Nakara Time is a workshop in Ayutthaya that looks after mechanical watches and pocket watches with care, candour, and craft.
Back to HomeWho We Are
The Nakara Time Story
Nakara Time began as a small bench in Phra Nakhon Si Ayutthaya, in a city already accustomed to the slow work of preservation. The name comes from the Thai word for the city — a place that understands what it means to care for things across time.
Our founder Khun Prawit trained for many years under a retiring watchmaker in Chiang Mai before moving to Ayutthaya with the intention of building a workshop that works at the pace the job requires. The business opened in 2009, and little has changed about the approach since — each piece is given full attention, and the owner is kept informed at every step.
We work with mechanical hand-wound and automatic movements, vintage pocket watches, and inherited or sentimental pieces that deserve a considered hand. We do not handle quartz movements, which require different tools and a different kind of service.
The workshop has remained a small operation by choice. Working with one or two trained hands rather than many keeps the standard consistent and the communication direct. When you bring a watch to us, you deal with the same person throughout — from first look to final collection.
Ayutthaya draws visitors from across Thailand and further afield, and over the years we have helped local collectors, travellers passing through, and customers from Bangkok, Chiang Mai, and abroad who send their watches by post. Each one is treated with the same unhurried thoroughness.
Our mission is a simple one: to return a watch to its owner in a condition that is honestly reported, carefully achieved, and as close to the original intention of the movement as sound workmanship allows.
The Hands Behind the Work
Our Team
Khun Prawit
Head Watchmaker & Founder
Trained over twelve years in mechanical watchmaking, with particular depth in vintage Swiss and Japanese movements. Prawit handles every assessment personally and carries out all restoration work.
Khun Nattaya
Workshop Assistant & Parts Research
Nattaya manages incoming enquiries, parts sourcing, and the careful documentation that accompanies each project from intake to collection.
Khun Chalermchai
Dial & Case Specialist
With a background in decorative arts, Chalermchai focuses on dial cleaning, lacquer work, and case finishing — always in consultation with the owner's preference for aged character or renewed appearance.
How We Work
Our Standards & Protocols
Written Assessment First
Every piece enters with an intake form and leaves the first evaluation stage with a written condition note. No work begins until the assessment has been shared and agreed.
Watchmaker-Grade Materials
We use only watchmaker-grade lubricants, period-appropriate materials, and sourced or fabricated parts — not general-purpose substitutes that shorten service intervals.
Calibration & Timing Checks
After reassembly, movements are timed on a timing machine in multiple positions and allowed to settle before collection, confirming stable performance.
Secure Piece Handling
Each watch is stored in a labelled, padded compartment throughout its time with us. Nothing is left on an open bench overnight, and all transit packaging is reviewed before dispatch.
Project Documentation
A complete record of the work carried out, parts used, and timing results accompanies every returned piece. This documentation is yours to keep and useful for future servicing decisions.
Service Coverage Period
All completed work carries a stated coverage period for the watchmaking carried out, written into the service documentation. Exclusions are explained clearly at the time of collection.
Our Expertise
Mechanical Watchmaking in Ayutthaya
Mechanical watches — whether a slim dress watch worn daily or a heavy pocket watch handed down through a family — share a need for periodic attention. The small gears, pinions, jewels, and springs that drive them are made to last decades, but they work best when the oils that cushion their surfaces remain fresh and the mainspring tension is correctly set. A routine service restores that foundation without altering the character of the piece.
Vintage mechanical watches and antique pocket watches present their own considerations. Some carry movements no longer in production, with parts that must be found in old watchmaker stock or made by hand on a lathe. The skill involved goes beyond a standard service — it calls for knowledge of horological history, an eye for authentic materials, and the patience to work slowly when a wrong decision would be difficult to reverse. Nakara Time approaches this work with the same unhurried care the original makers would have wished for.
Dial and hand restoration is perhaps the most personal of the three services offered. The appearance of a dial carries the memory of years — the slight yellowing of lacquer, the fading of lume plots, the gentle wear on numerals. Whether to conserve that character or to restore a cleaner appearance is a decision that belongs entirely to the owner. Our role is to explain the options, share our view when asked, and then carry out whatever is chosen with fine materials and steady hands.
Nakara Time is based in Phra Nakhon Si Ayutthaya and welcomes watches from across Thailand. Customers from Bangkok and other provinces frequently send pieces by registered post; we advise on packaging and confirm receipt promptly. International enquiries are also welcome, and we are glad to correspond in English or Thai at whatever pace suits the owner.
Ready to Begin?
We Would Be Pleased to Hear About Your Watch
A brief description of the piece and what you have noticed is usually enough to start. Write to us or call, and we will take it from there at a comfortable pace.
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