What Time Is It on Mars? Ask Executive Clock Gallery Owner Garo Anserlian

If you want to know what time it is on Mars, just drop by Executive Clock Gallery in Montrose and ask owner Garo Anserlian. 

The longtime local business owner spoke before the Montrose Shopping Park Association Board on Thursday, one of three local business owners invited to simply talk about their business to the board and audience. Anserlian also said he had previously served on the board years ago and plans to run again. 

Anserlian, who has owned Executive Clock Gallery since 1984, spoke for a good five minutes telling the room how his business came to be and was trying to sit back down before a member of the board prodded him to "tell the Mars story."  

So Anserlian stepped back up to the podium and told his "Mars story," which it turns out is well known and has been told by news outlets around the world. But that is because it is a story worth telling over and over, so we're going to tell the story here again for our Patch readers.

Why would someone want to know what time it is on Mars? Well, it turns out, scientists that work at the Jet Propulsion Lab in nearby La Cañada Flintridge do. The story begins about a decade ago...

"Over at JPL, they were working on the Mars rover, and a couple scientists came in and asked me if I could make them a watch that works 40 minutes slow. I said, 'You’ve got to be kidding. All those scientists, and you come to me,'" Anserlian told the room. 

Anserlian, who said he moved to the U.S. from Lebanon in 1979, explained that he had been studying clock making since he was eight. 

"I started early. I liked it. I started getting better and better," Anserlian said. "I went to Germany and Switzerland to enhance my knowledge about technology, and I became a certified watchmaker."

He said he eventually also became certified at diamond grading, color stone grading, gem identification, watch repair, clock repair, jewelry repair and jewelry appraisals. He'd been a successful Montrose businessman for 20 years before the JPL scientists walked in and asked him a question that would eventually make him famous in his industry around the world. Anserlian already had customers who were JPL scientists, which is how they knew to come to him. 

"They wanted a watch that runs 24 hours, 39 minutes, 25 seconds, and they wanted it for their watches on their wrist to tell Mars time," Anserlian said. "I said I can try. They had already gone to Switzerland and some big watch companies, they denied them. I said, give me time, I can try. So they gave me like four or five months. Finally I came up with the watch."

The mission itself did not run off the watches, Anserlian explained, but said the scientists all wore them because the mission was synced to Mars time, which is just under 40 minutes slower than time on Earth. The watches were to help the scientists keep track of Mars time, especially when they were away from the lab. (Click here to learn more about the Mars rover missions of 2004.)

Making the watches run precisely slow was no easy task.

"It’s really hard to slow a watch down like that. I did many tests, many experiments, and finally I did it," Anserlian said.

Before long, Anserlian said, he was getting orders to make watches for scientists all around the world in places like Florida and Germany who were involved with the missions and needed to keep track of time of Mars.

Back in 2004, around the time of the Mars rover missions, the story was picked up by media outlets around the world. Just make one Google search of "Garo Anserlian" and you can pick and choose from many feature stories about the small town watchmaker who can tell you what time it is on Mars.

Of course, Anserlian can also tell you what time it is here on the West Coast, too. His shop is located at 3806 Ocean View Blvd. and offers repair services for a variety of clocks, whether they're vintage, modern, grandfather or wall.