A 100-year-old Japanese watch that stopped working after the 2011 earthquake returned to work in February of that year after another earthquake hit the same region. A tsunami followed the devastating earthquake and the disaster resulted in the deaths of more than 18,000 people. The clock was then kept in a Buddhist temple in Yamamoto. Ten years later, in February 2021, when Japan experienced another earthquake in the region, the clock started ticking on its own.The spring clock was kept in the Fumonji Temple in Yamamoto in the Miyagi region of Japan. In 2011, the temple, located a few hundred meters from the coast, was hit by the waves of the tsunami. After the disaster, Bunsun Sakano, the priest of the temple and owner of the watch, rescued the watch from the rubble, tried to fix the watch and rewind it, but it was all in vain. On February 13 of this year, the same region was hit by another powerful earthquake. The representative of the watchmaker Seiko thought it possible that the pendulum, which no longer worked after the earthquake in 2011, would start moving again during the second earthquake in 2021.Another possibility is that the dust accumulated in the watch was loosened during the 2021 earthquake. Bunsun Sakano said he was inspired from the clock restarting. “Maybe it’s pushing me to move forward with a new determination,” said the 58-year-old. “It is like a sign of encouragement that the true restoration is yet to come”.
