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I have been asked numerous times over the past months about the watch repair industry and have had many people concerned about sending their watch to me through the mail. Therefore, I would like to take this opportunity to shed some light on the subject.
THE JEWELER AND THE WATCHMAKER
How many of you think when you drop off your watch at the jewelry store it is fixed there? If you said yes you would be wrong 90% of the time, only about 10% of jewelry stores have a watchmaker on staff. At one time it is true nearly every jewelry store had a watchmaker, in fact many were owned by watchmakers. It was once an accepted fact that it took 1-3 watchmakers to service the average size town. The dawn of the quartz watch spelled the end of watchmakers in jewelry stores. With the decline of sales of mechanical watches, jewelry stores could no longer afford to keep a watchmaker on staff, watchmakers that owned jewelry stores either closed up or switched exclusively to selling jewelry, sending the watch work out to someone else or flat refusing it. There were once at least 35,000 watchmakers in the United States, today there are fewer than 5,500. The next time you go to a jeweler, ask him weather watches are fixed on the premises or if they are sent away for repair. If he doesn't have a watchmaker on staff then the answer is obvious.
So, WHERE does your watch go when you take it to a jewelry store??? The answer is it is usually MAILED or SHIPPED, either to a manufacturer’s service center, a trade shop, or to an independent watchmaker like myself.
Trade shops often do between 20 and 100 watches a day, each watchmaker there is expected to do between 8 and 16 watches a day. Manufacturer’s service centers also do large volumes per day. Independent watchmakers may do between 2 and 8 watches a day. In most cases if your watch is under a manufacturers warranty it will go to a factory service center. If your watch has no warranty it will go to the place of the jewelers choosing, usually the cheapest place they can send it so they can mark it up to make more profit. Independent watchmakers that refuse to give "trade pricing" (a discount to the jeweler of up to 50%) are often shunned because the jeweler can't make enough profit (at least to suit them). How can trade shops do the work this cheaply? They do "dunk, swish, and lube" jobs where the watch movement is NOT disassembled but put in the cleaner in one piece, the last rinse jar having a "rinse-lube solution" that is "supposed" to lubricate the watch. This is a very quick way of cleaning a watch because little disassembly takes place. In reality this method only works for newer watches that have little or no wear, and even then it is STILL necessary to lubricate the pivots with watch oil if any kind of decent job is desired. Trade shops will also not spend excessive time regulating a watch, they can't because every minute they spend is more $ they loose. So, the next time you take your watch to the jeweler for repair, ask them who will be fixing it and where, the answer may surprise you.
As for myself, I have yet to loose a watch in the mail or have one damaged and I do complete disassembly of watches when I clean them, not "swish and lube" jobs.
I hope this page has helped allay any fears prospective customers may have about sending their watches through the mail. If you have other questions no answered on my website e-mail me please!!!
Here is a little tid-bit from early 1900, seems they faced the same problems then as watchmakers do today!
The following article appeared in the Jeweler's Circular -Weekly and Horological Review from April 13th, 1910. Courtesy of the NAWCC Library and Kent Singer for scanning it.
The Horological Review was a trade magazine, and as such, there is some jargon that they assume all watchmakers will know, but I don't think other people will lose much because of it. The differences in writing styles, grammar and even spelling (see 'employee') between 1910 and now is interesting, as well as the differences in prices.
It is well known among men in the profession, however, that a watchmaker who understands his trade thoroughly does not find his work laborious, monotonous or detrimental to his nervous system. On the contrary, a good watch repairer finds his work interesting; he puts life into something that is literally dead and useless, and after his work has been performed, the timepiece again becomes an essential factor in the modern system.
It is the speed under which the repairer is demanded to execute his skill that enervates him. The indiscreet judgment, the demands of the public and, in many cases, of his employer are the things that add to his tribulations.
A good watch repairer will find pleasure in putting a watch in first-class condition if he is allowed ample time to do the work, but his employer frequently fails to prepare his customer to pay for the time that is required for such work. The employer will generally give an estimate on the repair haphazardly, and promise a satisfactory result. When he hands over the job to his watchmaker the price is plainly marked on the tag, and that suffices to instruct the watchmaker as to how much time he may spend on the watch. Let us assume the price is marked $1 for a mainspring.
The watch is taken apart, and besides the broken mainspring there is a tooth broken in the barrel (which is very likely to be the case). That means a loss to the employer, and naturally it means that the watchmaker must put on more speed and hurry through the job.
A watch is sometimes given to the repairer by his employer with instructions to clean and regulate it. The price is placed at $1.50. When the watch is taken apart the conscientious repairer sees at once that the balance staff (that has been maltreated by a former repairer) must be replaced by a new one, jewel holes must be fitted properly, the jewel pin is several degrees too small for the notch in the fork, some train pivots must be repolished and their respective holes closed, the side-shake must be taken up, and several other jobs which the repairer knows are essential in order to obtain the results demanded by the owner of the watch.
Lack of foresight on the part of his employer, however, does not justify him in doing all that is required. He is compelled to economize his time. Instead of polishing three pivots he will polish only one; he will perhaps change the jewel pin, but the extravagance of replacing the balance staff is out of reason, for that job not only requires the labor and time of the workman but also an extra money expenditure which is generally avoided by a considerate employee [sic].
The final outcome of such jobs is detrimental to the repairer's peace of mind, and robs the boss and his employee [sic] of their fraternal understanding, for it is an inevitable occurrence that such jobs are eventually brought back to the store accompanied by that well-known song and dance that is freely given to a watchmaker if the job is unsatisfactory.
If the customer is combative he will venture to add that all his watch needed in the first place was regulating, and evidently he paid $1.50 for a job that was never executed. Such remarks are apt to put a crimson flush on the repairer's face and discourage the best of workmen. As for the boss, who has by this time either forgotten or was never aware of the fact that his watchmaker had difficulties to make both ends meet on the job, owing to the lack of time, he offers reasonable excuses to his customer -- assures him of positive satisfaction, and this time without charge, if he will leave the watch for a few days observation. Then the employer is ready to put the whole blame on his watchmaker for not properly timing the repairs.
Such are mainly the conditions that cause the discomforts of the employer and add to the trails of the man at the bench.
Every competent repairer is willing to do good work, but his desire is in many cases blocked by certain limitations and restrictions. It is impossible to obtain high-grade results from a low grade watch. There are certain grades of watches that are not modeled for close timekeeping, and in order to obtain the results, which some laymen expect from such timepieces it would require several days' labor of a skilled repairer, who would have to reconstruct the watch.
It would be a great aid to the man at the workbench if his employer would instruct his customers concerning the results to be expected from his watch.
A low-grade cylinder movement cannot be timed as closely as a 17-jewel movement, nor can a seven-jewel movement be adjusted to heat and cold or time in five positions.
Such facts must not be left unexplained to the owner of a watch. Every watch can be put in running order, but real accurate time can be obtained only from a movement that was modeled to give such time.
It seems strange that watchmakers have failed to inaugurate a system similar to that adopted in other trades. A plumber, for example, seldom gives estimates on repairs before the job is completed. He invariably takes his time in doing the job, and charges for his labor in proportion to the time rendered, regardless of the result of the job.
The watchmaker is less fortunate. If a watch is taken in to be repaired and the price is fixed at $1.50, the time spent on such a job by the repairer is generally an expenditure to the boss of 75 cents, material averages 15 cents on each repair, and benzene, oil, light and rent 25 cents, leaving 35 cents as a net profit for the "boss" under the most favorable conditions. For this sum of 35 cents he is practically requested, owing to the prevailing custom, to hand over to his customer a paid-up insurance policy on his watch for one year!
Such are the present difficulties that confront the watch repairer. He must determine how to do justice to his profession, to his boss and to the public.
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