Watch Repair Story
Awhile back I posted about looking for a watch repair shop in North Carolina and @UnholiestJedi was kind enough to help and recommended AWCI to look for a watch repair place. Great resource. I found several. I talked with and went to visit several. One such place was in Charlotte, NC, which is the ”Big” city near where I live. It was in a haute part of town and the watchsmith was there in a little booth in the center of the shop. I was allowed to speak with him after getting snubbed when I informed that I was not diamond ring shopping and just needed a watch repaired. The watch repair guy was great and a wealth of knowledge. His prices to service watches was vastly off from others. Way off. The quote for a vintage mechanical Rado Diastar was about $350.00 US. And the price for just a service for a vintage Seiko Lord Matic was $200.00 US. I decided to try another shop. This shop is located in a small town called Kannapilia, NC. It is in a bad place in town and the building is a block bunker with small windows with bars over them. Once I am buzzed in through a door and security cameras the watch repair guy introduces himself And we talk about watches. I asked about the same 2 watches about being serviced and the prices were good. The Rado was $80-95.00 US and the Seiko was $75-80. both watches need to be serviced they are both running fine. Prices reflect that the watches were not opened to look per se and are a reflection of what a estimate is. The watch repair guy in the bunker I have used now to repair and or service a Hamilton and another Seiko. I will share those when he is done. The Seiko 5 he is working on now he’s had for quite awhile. He called one morning to say it’s ready and by lunch time he phoned back to say it was still off. I remember reading about watch repair and as a customer you get to pick 2 out of this 3: Good, Cheap, and Fast.
Ticking away the moments that make up a dull day Fritter and waste the hours in an offhand way
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Low overhead! My similarly priced watchmaker is in a tiny strip mall jewelry shop. He says it will take about two weeks, and it's more like two months, but when I paid a more premium place a couple times as much, the only improvement was that they had counter girls to offer you a drink and computer printed receipts and other stuff that doesn't really matter. Oddly both places would crack a case to estimate while you waited, so this guy is flying a little looser.
Low overhead! My similarly priced watchmaker is in a tiny strip mall jewelry shop. He says it will take about two weeks, and it's more like two months, but when I paid a more premium place a couple times as much, the only improvement was that they had counter girls to offer you a drink and computer printed receipts and other stuff that doesn't really matter. Oddly both places would crack a case to estimate while you waited, so this guy is flying a little looser.
Yes. I asked for an estimate. Both said that without opening it up the cost could be more. The overhead is a big part. Also, the fancy store seemed to prop him up as sort of a relic like the wizard of oz and that chatting with him seemed to be frowned on. Anyway no moral to the story just my journey.
Actually that whole inspect for estimate thing raises an interesting question of "what all do they look at to figure stuff out without any disassembly?" I get a feeling that there are certain common failure points that they know to key in on and that there is a general assessment of looks clean and tight or filthy worn mess.
Because the fancy place would have a printed estimate with parts like "pinion shaft" or whatever listed within fifteen minutes. And last time I was at the dinky low-cost place it felt like barely a minute until he came out and showed me the shaft through (I forget which spring) that was broken.