Do You — or Don’t You: Do You — or Don’t You
Accept Watch Repairs?

BY INSTORE TEAM

Published in the December 2011 issue

78% YES, I DO 

We have been shipping them
out for over 10 years now.
Watchmakers are hard to come
by, and in this day and time, we
could not make any money by
having one. — Don Bullock;
Bullock’s Jewelry, Roswell, NM

We have a state-of-the-art
watch repair facility. Watches
are a huge part of our business,
and we need to be there for
after-sales service too. —
Patrick McGlone; Azura —
The Color Store, St. Thomas,
USVI

We do general watch repair
in-house. For cleaning and
oiling, we send it out to a
trade shop as we do not have
the time to do this work. —
Marc Altman; B&E Jewelers,
Southampton, PA

I have been outsourcing it to
the same guy for five years
running, and it works well. I
have had crystal replacement
customers turn into jewelry
customers many times. — Cliff
Yankovich; Chimera Design,
Lowell, MI

I outsource to a local
watchmaker who picks up and
delivers. If I ever have to start
shipping watches, I will stop
doing watch repair. — Chris
Snowden; Snowden’s Jewelers,
Wilmington, NC

After 96 years of in-house, last
year we went to outsource.
Service is not as fast or smooth
as it was, but the profit picture
is much better. — Frank
Eilberg; Marlen Jewelers,
Rocky River, OH

I do in-house watch repair,
jewelry repair and clock repair
and everything else. Just call
me a jack-of-all-trades. —
Albert Yocum; Yocum Jewelry,
Marceline, MO

We outsource, but we are really
thinking about dropping the
service. We are always in the
middle and many times actually
lose money. — Jennifer
Aydelotte; Grunwald & Kiger

Fine Jewelers, Mason City, IA
I have 12 stores that outsource
to me. There is a lot of money
to be made. Stores just need to
set up a system. — Joe Donlon;
Donlon’s Quality Time, Ventura,
CA

22% NO, I DON’T 

We don’t because they are a big
pain in the rear, and we always
lose money on them. — Karyn
Burg; The Corner Studio,
Sheboygan Falls, WI

I’m not a full-service jeweler,
and I have no interest in
diamonds or watches. — Janne
Etz; Contemporary Concepts,
Cocoa, FL

I used to, but it took so long
and took me away from jewelry
repair, which I do best. Was
a money and time loser. —
Laura Pool; Laura’s Jewelry
Designs, St. Robert, MO

I refer my customers directly
to a watchmaker who has
been in business for over 40
years. I don’t want to mark up
someone else’s labor and have
to deal with communication
that is indirect. It works
really well to refer them
to a specialist in the field.
— Elizabeth Breon; Coast
Jewelers, Florence, OR

At one time, we did sell and
service watches. They were
consistently our lowest profit
margin but our No. 1 source
of complaints. No watches,
please! — Francis Lynch; The
Jeweler Studio, Mount Dora, FL

Watches are too easily replaced
now. — Debra Burtner;
Burtner’s Rock & Gem, West
Newton, PA