When watches break... finding a good watchmaker

roadwarrior

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Bruce and Rob Live - When watches break...
•Streamed live 16 hours ago: Jan 17,2021
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Bruce Williams

Rob and I talk about what we really think about micro brands, finding a good watchmaker, and a little of this and that.

 
A good watchmaker is hard to find in smaller cities
They are hard to find in the big cities too. I live in Boston and there isn't anyone I would recommend or trust with any complicated work. There is a guy in the Jewelers Building I have brought watches to he's inexpensive from the stuff he's done for me I can't complain, charged me like 10 bucks to reattach a second or minute hand that fell off when I dropped a watch, turn around in an hour or less, he's good for battery changes same price on any watch but I have no clue about more complicated work even though some of me friends that have jewlery shops in the building use him quite a bit. Since my friend Lucas closed up his shop over 25 years ago I haven't found anyone I trust 100% and the people I have been sent me too were way too expensive and kind of sketchy! If you need to charge someone to change a battery and size a watch (no pressure test) almost $200.00 your a crook in my book! I had a guy tell me that the battery for my friends RADO was $60.00 because it was a Swiss watch and used some special Swiss battery. It took a Renata 321, I get 5 of them for $5.00 I would have done the work myself but I was out of stock on 321s, When I called him out on it he just got mad. Luckily my friend Lucas took a liking to me and taught me a lot so I can size, change batteries, take apart a watch and do some servicing on my own for some reason still can't seem to put hands back. There are things I stay away from. I need a movement change in on of my SO that was a gift from my EX GF. For some reason the Ronda movement stopped working thought it was a battery issue but changing it did nothing. The movement is cheap enough but the estimates I have gotten were just ridiculous even when I said I would supply the movement! I might take a shot and bring it to the guy in the Jewelers Building! I hate to say good watchmakers/repair men are a dying breed!
 
As I've mentioned before we have a clock shop here in Hagerstown (Northside Clock Shop) which is well known in our tri-state area for repairs on all kinds of clocks...

He does some watch work...I have used him to size bracelets and replace batteries on watches that I cannot (or don't want to) do myself...never charged me more than $10 for anything...I know he has a Smith that he sends work out to that he cannot do, so if the need arises I'm sure I'll use him.

Like John says...it seems like they are a dying breed...especially the ones that don't rip you off...
 
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repOman IMO that is a fair price I think anything between 10 and 15 bucks is reasonable no matter what the brand unless you get into some crazy quartz that has a rechargeable battery. My Ferrari Smart Watch by Movado needs the rechargeable battery replaced and no one does it no one can even tell me a thing about it not even Movado. The quartz watch part itself still works fine it has to have a separate regular battery. I barely used the smart watch part of it but the rechargeable battery barely lasted a few years long enough it was not covered by the warranty.
 
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