Last year, I contacted Gruen Watch Repair to see about repairing my grandfather’s Gruen ‘tank’ watch. Then I lost my job. Now that I’m employed, I thought I’d contact them again. ‘Error establishing a database connection,’ say Safari and Firefox.
Can anyone suggest someone who repairs vintage Gruen watches, preferably not Rolex-priced?
If you want a semi-local, option, I used to work I the same building as these guys and understood them to have a strong reputation.
It’s disconcerting when they mention Rolex service costs. My GMT Master II is due for an overhaul, and the Submariner was over $1,000.
Across the industry, watchmakers are in critically short supply. No one is training new folks in any kind of kind of volume. It’s getting harder and harder, even for factory service centers, to get the people we need. When I sent my Navitimer in for a warranty repair, they gave me an estimate of eight months.
Layer on to that that vintage watches have a real problem with parts availability. Watchmakers often now have to either cannibalize watches or fabricate all new parts by hand. It’s been more or less 50 years since Gruen parts have been made.
Flip side of all of this is any watchmaker practically speaking has to be a Rolex shop. At this point, Rolex production has dwarfed pretty much every other manufacturer combined. Not featuring Rolex services means that you’re limiting your ability to earn a living by ignoring the far biggest slice of the pie.
Ironically, Rolex service is expensive to some degree because parts are still available as new and Rolex charges unholy prices for access. Breitling service is a little better but not by much. Pretty much the cheapest possible maintenance service starts at $850 and just goes up as parts are needed.
God help you if you have a Lange or one of the high horological brands. Start thinking in terms of many thousands.
I watch Marshall on Wristwatch Revival on YouTube.
Marshall was getting a lot of requests to repair watches. He initially had a Merch website. He’s added watch repair. He’s assembled a team of experienced people.
Marshall Sutcliffe mentions his tool kits and repair service in all of his recent videos. It’s definitely his web site and company.
I like that photos are taken during the repair.
I have three of my dad’s watches that need routine servicing. I’ve looked for local repair with no luck. So, thank goodness for the Internet and YouTube.
Article about Marshall and his YouTube channel.
https://www.king5.com/article/entertainment/television/programs/evening/restoring-old-watches-has-made-seattle-man-a-youtube-star/281-d646e61c-de80-4cf1-8fe7-bcbb0bbdd630
I love watching Marshall’s videos, but take them with a grain of salt. He’ll tell you he’s not formally trained, and if you fall down the rabbit hole of watching some of the videos from the long-time pros, you’ll come to see that too.
In particular, he wildly over-lubricates, although I think he’s getting better.
I remember Marshall’s early videos three years ago. He was pretty inexperienced. There’s one where he forgets to let down the main spring. 
He had parts jumping.
He’s learned a lot in three years. Marshall is still a hobbyist. He’s serviced several chronographs. That’s a big step up from a basic watch.
He claims certified watchmakers do the service he offers. I plan to send one of my dad’s Seiko and see how it goes.
There’s no local option for mid-value watches. I’m not comfortable blindly sending a Seiko to some service Google finds.