Flashing an ear-to-ear smile, Karim Ahmed emerges from the back of his Baghdad shop holding a bulging plastic bag filled with cheap watches emblazoned with the image of toppled Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein.
"They are selling like hot cakes," he said proudly. "A lot of foreigners, including the Americans, are dying to take one home with them."
In the watch district of the Sadun neighborhood of the capital, Ahmed opens a watch made in Taiwan and gingerly uses pincers to place an image of Saddam cut from old postage stamps on the face.
"There, it's finished," he said. "Now I'll sell it for US$50, maybe more."
With a monthly salary for an Iraqi averaging five or six dollars in recent years, Ahmed says he has uncovered a gold mine.
In the shop windows of his boutique, a dozen gold and silver-colored watches lie in dusty boxes next to various cigarette lighters.
But the hot-sellers are placed front and center, featuring Saddam Hussein in military garb or sporting a black hat.
Some of the wrist and pocket watches, many also engraved with an image of Mecca, are set at exorbitant prices of up to US$200 -- special orders from Switzerland for the Baath party elite.
The flashy gifts were offered by Saddam and his inner circle to top government officials, athletes and ordinary Iraqis who had come to the attention of the regime.
"A lot of foreigners, including US soldiers, come here to buy watches with Saddam's photo," Ahmed said.
"But the original models are too expensive for them, which is why we came up with the idea of the copies because they all want a souvenir."
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