Watch repairing isn’t as dull as you would imagine. I got started almost 20 years ago when I lived in Fleetwood (just outside of Blackpool). I was on a YTS scheme at the time learning to be a chef, however, I was not so good at taking orders and didn’t really get on with the head chef at the time. One day he pulled me in for some “extra training” and I went in that Saturday hoping to learn how to cook and was presented with a bucket of soapy water and a rag to clean the walls down. I loved the cooking but the catering trade was not for me. I believe if you are going to do have a career then it helps a lot if you enjoy it.
So, I did not last long as a chef. My aptitude may have been wrong, but I was only 16 so there you go.
It was then, I saw an advert in a local newspaper advertising for a trainee watch repairer in Blackpool. This was also on the YTS scheme which promised a massive weekly salary of £16.50 – well OK, maybe that was not so massive (my mates were earning an average of £50 a week at the time) but the subject was intriguing.
I called and spoke to the workshop manager who asked me to come down and take a look. Well it was a small cubical in a large store on Blackpool seafront (since demolished). I remember though that from day one, I was hooked.
I was not given the job there and then, but the manager allowed me to sit in and simply watch him do his work. I traveled from Fleetwood to Blackpool every day for two weeks just to sit and watch and I even started serving customers and helping out.
I guess that made an impression as I was called down to the company HQ in Southport and was offered the trainee (or apprentice) position.
So I joined the branch in Blackpool as an apprentice watch repairer and the manager was brilliant. I have since worked in Blackpool, Central London, Harrow, Bromley and Lakeside, Thurrock before I decided to start my own business.
I have since worked from home for the last 10 years. I enjoy my work and take great pleasure in the satisfaction of restoring a watch to its former glory.
