Watch Repair in San Francisco

[ChipSlap]

I was having difficulties with my 1yr-old UPO. It had stopped one day, and I didn't do anything with it except sticking it in the drawer for a month while I dealt with non-watch-related stuff. I finally got around to looking on this board for a rep-friendly watch doctor near my home (Hayward CA, working in South San Francisco).

Chieftang mentioned "a guy in Union Square who is said to be excellent." but hadn't used him personally. The place is called Downtown Watch Repair. I took my UPO and an old non-functional Titoni in for a look. Fittingly enough, his shop is almost directly above Shreve (purveyors of Panerai, IWC, and Patek Philippe.)

I could see the Rolex and Omega certifications on his wall. He first told me that my Titoni was too far gone to fix economically. I then showed him the UPO, telling him it was a replica. He was impressed with the quality of the rep, and opened it to check it out. It was a relief to hear him tell me "It's Swiss, I can work on this." He checked it out and, like an auto mechanic, couldn't find anything wrong with it. He set it and wound it, and it worked fine. He handed it back and said "Looks like I can't make any money off you today." I've been wearing it for a few days and it's given me no trouble. I don't know what my problem was.....brainfart?

Although, he didn't actually repair my watches, he struck me as honest--turning down work on watches that didn't need nor warrant it. He was also willing to work on reps if they are the Swiss movements he is comfortable with.

Hope this info can be helpful to someone.

[HauteHippie]

Hehe, nice report. I am sure most watchmakers will refuse to work on Asian movements. I wonder what they'd think about The Zigmeister's 4 year stress test results of the A7750.

BTW, how old was this guy and did his shop have a lot of pre-war tools in it? I don't make it up to the city often (if I can help it), but would love to see the shop sometime. Descriptions of it that I've read made it sound like something of a museum.

PS Supposedly there's also a place in San Mateo or Belmont or somewhere around there on the other side of 92 from you called Precision Time-Tech. They are supposed to be good too and they have been mentioned on a few of the fora in the past.

[ChipSlap]

He looked exactly like I'd want a watchmaker to look: mature, but not ancient. I'd place him btw 55 and 60. His shop was plain and utilitarian, but there were a couple dozen watches in his display case. I didn't ask about whether they were for sale. I saw no elaborate old tools, but wasn't looking for them.

[amptor1]

That's good to know, I didn't know that guy works on replicas. I believe Shreive sends work to him as well. My dad took his watch to Shreive and then a friend of his told him about the guy upstairs and he took it to him. He ended up going to a jeweler in San Rafael and getting it fixed there and it works perfectly fine now since I haven't heard him say a word about it any more. They replaced some parts in the movement.

I'll have to check it out, that guy in particular you are talking about if it is the same guy I'm thinking about has a lot of experience and is highly skilled. There are other places in the bay area that work on replicas, but avoid the one on Broadway in downtown oakland. If you saw what they did to my 42.5mm PO you would probably scream. I need to find someone to re-lume the dial on that watch because of that guy, ripped me off for $50.

I didn't ask the place in San Rafael if they work on watches. I was going to ask if they work on ETA but right before I could get the question out of my mouth, the lady there started telling a story about someone who bought a replica and brought it in and they refused to work on it. So I just showed them my Seiko and asked if it was authentic since I got it on Ebay and it was.

Edited March 5, 2009 by amptor1