Prescott Watch and Clock was created to fill the need for quality watch and clock repair in in the Quad City area. Most people who take their watches to jewelry stores or Fix-it-Fast locations don't realize that their watch is being sent out to sweat shops around the country to be worked on by unskilled technicians that may take weeks or months to complete. Adding insult to injury the jewelry stores will mark up the repair cost 100% to 200% for doing basically nothing.
Clock repairs taken to jewelry stores are never repaired on-site and are sent out to be worked on in someone's garage or basement with the jeweler again pocketing a 100% to 200% markup for doing nothing but passing the work back and forth across his counter-top.
Here's a typical Fix-it-Fast-like quote saying, "Our Fix-it-Fast repair centers are staffed with professionally trained, Expert Watchmakers that service all brands of timepieces, from Timex to Rolex. Whether it's a wristwatch, pocket watch, stopwatch, clock or any other timepiece, we have exceptional craftsmen ready to service your needs." This is hilarious as I worked at a place similar to Fix-it-Fast for a short time and virtually anything beyond battery replacement was sent out to a hack in Los Angeles of which the manager of the Fix-it-Fast had constant complaints about the quality of the work, his own personal Rolex being butchered. This same manager was attempting to do watch and clock repair way above his skill level and I had to fast fix several of his goof-ups. The statement that their repair centers are staffed with "professionally trained, Expert Watchmakers" is laughable as the college kid I worked with had been there for four months and had no training whatsoever to the point where I even had to teach him how to sharpen his screwdrivers. Do you really want a 20 year old kid working for minimum wage practicing on your watch?
Here is another Fix-it-Fast story for you. I just had a customer stop in yesterday (lets call him Bob) saying that he took his deceased father's Automatic Omega wristwatch to Fix-it-Fast for repair. The manager told him the damage was severe and that it needed a new balance staff and auto-wind arbor among other things (I actually have the estimate which is written on a Fix-it-Fast business card if you would care to see it), and he told Bob that the repair cost would be over $300.00 which Bob wisely declined. When Bob brought it to me I saw that it needed none of those things and did a simple clean, oil and adjust (COA) for $100.00 and included a new crown at no charge. How do people like this stay in business??? But of course they have to do something in order to pay the eight to ten thousand dollars a month rent for their fancy mall locations, and so they take it out of your pockets.
In another example, a local "Trade" watch repair shop in the area claims in telephone book ads that "All Work is Done on Premises", which is a false statement as I did his watch repair out of my home for months and I don't know who is doing his watch and clock repairs now. The owner has no formal training or degrees whatsoever and just picked up what skills he has along the way working for jewelers. A recent former customer of his says that the wait-time on watch repairs is now three months! Hard to believe. My turnaround time is and always will be one to two weeks and rush jobs are never a problem. Another recent customer of his said that this "watchmaker" said that his old watch was too badly damaged to repair and them asked him how much he wanted to sell it for. Too badly damaged to fix but he wants to buy it?
Another customer of this "watchmaker" recently brought his wife's expensive watch that had been sitting in this "Trade" shop for four months awaiting repairs. FOUR months and it hadn't even been looked at. I had it back to the customer cleaned and running like new within a week. Just yesterday I got a call from a gent who had his Rolex worked on in Prescott Valley but has had nothing but trouble with it and after taking it back two or three times, he finally gave up and is bringing it to me.
The horror stories from people being abused by local jewelers is almost a daily occurrence anymore, like the local downtown Prescott jeweler who recently told a customer that the battery for her Baume and Mercier wristwatch would cost $70.00 because it was a "special" battery. This is an outright lie as all watch batteries are the same no matter whether they go into a high grade or low grade watch and cost the jeweler no more than $1.00 each from his supplier. And then there is my recent new customer Les, who will never go to a downtown jeweler again as he was charged $800.00 for a Rolex repair that I would have done for $300.00 and done it better quite frankly. So this jeweler paid $400.00 to someone in Phoenix or wherever to fix the watch and then marked it up another $400.00 to Les. And then brags about being in business for 50 years. I wouldn't be proud of overcharging people for 50 years. I would have trouble sleeping nights.
Let jewelers work on jewelry but bring us your precious timepieces!
Clock repairs taken to jewelry stores are never repaired on-site and are sent out to be worked on in someone's garage or basement with the jeweler again pocketing a 100% to 200% markup for doing nothing but passing the work back and forth across his counter-top.
Here's a typical Fix-it-Fast-like quote saying, "Our Fix-it-Fast repair centers are staffed with professionally trained, Expert Watchmakers that service all brands of timepieces, from Timex to Rolex. Whether it's a wristwatch, pocket watch, stopwatch, clock or any other timepiece, we have exceptional craftsmen ready to service your needs." This is hilarious as I worked at a place similar to Fix-it-Fast for a short time and virtually anything beyond battery replacement was sent out to a hack in Los Angeles of which the manager of the Fix-it-Fast had constant complaints about the quality of the work, his own personal Rolex being butchered. This same manager was attempting to do watch and clock repair way above his skill level and I had to fast fix several of his goof-ups. The statement that their repair centers are staffed with "professionally trained, Expert Watchmakers" is laughable as the college kid I worked with had been there for four months and had no training whatsoever to the point where I even had to teach him how to sharpen his screwdrivers. Do you really want a 20 year old kid working for minimum wage practicing on your watch?
Here is another Fix-it-Fast story for you. I just had a customer stop in yesterday (lets call him Bob) saying that he took his deceased father's Automatic Omega wristwatch to Fix-it-Fast for repair. The manager told him the damage was severe and that it needed a new balance staff and auto-wind arbor among other things (I actually have the estimate which is written on a Fix-it-Fast business card if you would care to see it), and he told Bob that the repair cost would be over $300.00 which Bob wisely declined. When Bob brought it to me I saw that it needed none of those things and did a simple clean, oil and adjust (COA) for $100.00 and included a new crown at no charge. How do people like this stay in business??? But of course they have to do something in order to pay the eight to ten thousand dollars a month rent for their fancy mall locations, and so they take it out of your pockets.
In another example, a local "Trade" watch repair shop in the area claims in telephone book ads that "All Work is Done on Premises", which is a false statement as I did his watch repair out of my home for months and I don't know who is doing his watch and clock repairs now. The owner has no formal training or degrees whatsoever and just picked up what skills he has along the way working for jewelers. A recent former customer of his says that the wait-time on watch repairs is now three months! Hard to believe. My turnaround time is and always will be one to two weeks and rush jobs are never a problem. Another recent customer of his said that this "watchmaker" said that his old watch was too badly damaged to repair and them asked him how much he wanted to sell it for. Too badly damaged to fix but he wants to buy it?
Another customer of this "watchmaker" recently brought his wife's expensive watch that had been sitting in this "Trade" shop for four months awaiting repairs. FOUR months and it hadn't even been looked at. I had it back to the customer cleaned and running like new within a week. Just yesterday I got a call from a gent who had his Rolex worked on in Prescott Valley but has had nothing but trouble with it and after taking it back two or three times, he finally gave up and is bringing it to me.
The horror stories from people being abused by local jewelers is almost a daily occurrence anymore, like the local downtown Prescott jeweler who recently told a customer that the battery for her Baume and Mercier wristwatch would cost $70.00 because it was a "special" battery. This is an outright lie as all watch batteries are the same no matter whether they go into a high grade or low grade watch and cost the jeweler no more than $1.00 each from his supplier. And then there is my recent new customer Les, who will never go to a downtown jeweler again as he was charged $800.00 for a Rolex repair that I would have done for $300.00 and done it better quite frankly. So this jeweler paid $400.00 to someone in Phoenix or wherever to fix the watch and then marked it up another $400.00 to Les. And then brags about being in business for 50 years. I wouldn't be proud of overcharging people for 50 years. I would have trouble sleeping nights.
Let jewelers work on jewelry but bring us your precious timepieces!