Chocolate clock, Polish plagiarism as recognition, unfinished meridian in Notre Dame. How did a scientist become a world-famous watchmaker?

The one who breathes time into ancient tower clocks and creates unique new ones that amaze the world.

Oleksii Burnaiev, PhD in Physics and Mathematics, Associate Professor of the Department of Physics and Engineering Mechanics at Lviv National University of Environmental Management, and... a world-famous Lviv watchmaker.

He is a restorer and reconstructor of bells and jacquemars. A man who has seen all the tower clocks of Galicia from the inside, a member of the organizing committee of the European Conservatory of Chimes and Tower Clocks with an office in Paris.

Three Lviv clocks by Oleksii Burnaiev were included in the World Heritage of Watchmaking, which is being compiled in France. The Lovers' Clock on Lviv's Nobilis Hotel, the Brewer Monk near the opera, and the Flower Clock, the only one in the world that works in winter and shovels snow with its own hands. And the three-sided clock in Ternopil.

The newspapers “Tribune de Genève” in Switzerland and “Ukrainian Word” in Chicago wrote about him, and numerous films and stories are being made about the master.

How did a successful scholar, teacher, and associate professor suddenly become a watchmaker, a profession that is usually inherited in Europe? And how did he become famous all over the world?

How does this rare profession relate to his scientific work? After all, where did he learn watchmaking? And was he familiar with the Kharkiv tower clocks?

Read more in the Ukrainian edition...