Do you know a trustworthy and competent Houston area watch repair shop that you would trust working on a 100 year old watch?

Hal Martin's on Westheimer is who I would call

http://www.halmartins.com/contact-us

I'll throw in what I learned about antique-ish watches.

I have a 55 year old Longines and the automatic movement broke. It could still be manually wound. I took it to Tourneau in the Galleria to see if they could fix it. The gentleman who did repairs kept it for a couple days before calling me. He said the parts required were no longer available and said if I really wanted it fixed "properly" to send it to Longines in Switzerland. He said they keep an extensive inventory of parts for old movements. I thought that would end up costing far more than the watch was worth, so I passed.

The other alternatives were replace the movement, which would ruin the value of the watch or get someone to custom make the parts which might be more expensive than sending it to Longines.

So a lot depends on what kind of repair you want. Authentic vs jury rigged.

Thanks, I got an estimate from one place for about 2/3rds the likely value of the watch. I may try Hal Martins.

100 year old watch? Is it a pocket watch? If so, I don't send my antique every day carry pocket watches (Hamilton and Elgins) to an every day 'watch repair guy'. Never heard of the people listed here, but if it is a pocket watch, I'd suggest you use someone familiar with pocket watch repair that has a stock of parts you cannot find just anywhere.

EDIT: I had to fix the auto correct, but it censored t w at in the one-word pocketwa tch . LOL.

The guy I use is not in Houston, but he has done good work on several of my old watches. He seems to have access to most parts always. Fair prices. Located in Kerrville.

Scotch Watch
www.scotchwatch.com
Blake Scott
admin@scotchwatch.com

TAM85 said:

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Thanks, I got an estimate from one place for about 2/3rds the likely value of the watch. I may try Hal Martins.

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It won't be cheap. Mechanical watch service isn't cheap - couple hundred bucks minimum for a basic cleaning/service on modern watches. Vintage service + parts will be more.

Yes, its an Elgin pocket watch.

I had Hal Martin's work on my 1920's Omega and it wasn't too bad if I remember.

I would send it to RGM Watches in Pennsylvania. The owner is a fanatic about American timepieces.

Thanks, I will check out RGS' website. I got the initial estimate from the Little Watch Shop on Shepherd. They identified the watch and year quickly and took about 10 iinutes to come up with the estimate.

Mr. K's Watch Repair
You will not meet a crazier kookier guy than Mr. K... but he has more passion for watches and clocks than anyone I've ever met. I brought my Uncle's Vietnam war watch to him to be completely refurbished. I literally knew nothing about it except my it was given to my Uncle by the Army. Couldn't even find the manufacturer with a Google search.

I walked in, put it down on the counter and the first thing out of his mouth was "aaahh... the US Army gave these out to infantry men in the Vietnam era..." and then proceeded to tell me all about who made it, where it was probably made, etc. My jaw hit the floor.

Seriously, his shop is worth visiting even just for some laughs...

Practically perfect reviews on Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/mr-ks-watch-repair-houston

Mr. K is good,...... and SLOW!

Took close to SIX MONTHS to get mine back. But it works now!

TAM85, where did you end up going? I came upon an Elgin pocket watch myself and am looking to get it worked on.

I took it to the Little Watch Shop on Shepherd. They did the work in a couple weeks. I picked it up and had an issue with how long it ticked with a full wind. I took the watch back, told the guy the problem. He said yes I remember working on this watch and he fixed that issue for no additional charge. It has been working well ever since.

Mr K is awesome but yeah slow AF

Thanks yall

Looks like you can get running elgin pocket watches on eBay for under a hundo all day long. Maybe buying one and swapping the movement is cheaper than having yours repaired?

Poopy, that is true; however, at least in my case, its more sentimental. I would rather pay $100 to keep my great-grandpa's pocket watch as original as possible as opposed to gutting it. I guess this could be different for every individual.

So after 5 months (2 month estimate), I drove to Mr. K's as they had not answered their phone or returned my voicemails. They returned both mechanical watches with no repairs done. They said the Elgin is too rusted and the New York Standard, he does not think he can procure all the needed parts.

I have reached out to RGM to see if they can help; however, they do look expensive.