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Watch and Clock Repairers: Career Overview

Repair, clean, and adjust mechanisms of timing instruments, such as watches and clocks. Includes watchmakers, watch technicians, and mechanical timepiece repairers.

The Daily Work of Watch and Clock Repairers Perform?

Typical responsibilities of watch and clock repairers cover:

• Clean, rinse, and dry timepiece parts, using solutions and ultrasonic or mechanical watch-cleaning machines.
• Adjust timing regulators, using truing calipers, watch-rate recorders, and tweezers.
• Reassemble timepieces, replacing glass faces and batteries, before returning them to customers.
• Disassemble timepieces and inspect them for defective, worn, misaligned, or rusty parts, using loupes.
• Oil moving parts of timepieces.
• Estimate repair costs and timepiece values.
• Repair or replace broken, damaged, or worn parts on timepieces, using lathes, drill presses, and hand tools.
• Test timepiece accuracy and performance, using meters and other electronic instruments.

Key Skills and Knowledge

Effective watch and clock repairers combine a mix of skills and domain knowledge.

Most Important Skills

The abilities most important for this role, rated on an importance scale of 0 to 5:

Top Knowledge Areas

Types of Watch and Clock Repairers Jobs

This career also goes by job titles like:

• Antique Clock Repairer
• Antique Clocks Repairer
• Auto Clocks Repairer
• Caser
• Chronometer Repairer
• Clock Mechanic
• Clock Repair Technician
• Clock Repairer

Job Outlook

The U.S. employs around 386,566 watch and clock repairers working in the United States today. Employment is projected to grow by +13.6% over the projection horizon.

Salary for Watch and Clock Repairers

Statistic	Value
Annual median	$56,376
Hourly median	$27.10
10th percentile	$36,240
25th percentile	$46,308
75th percentile	$66,444
90th percentile	$76,511

Wages vary widely based on experience, location, and industry.

Pay by State

State	Annual median salary
Texas	$84,740
Colorado	$81,680
New York	$77,020
Mississippi	$70,220
Florida	$63,970
Massachusetts	$61,520
Pennsylvania	$58,320
California	$54,490
Illinois	$52,400
Maryland	$51,110
Virginia	$41,990
Georgia	$36,260

Pay by U.S. Region

Earnings for watch and clock repairers differ across the country. The following regions pay the most:

Region	Median annual wage	Share of U.S. jobs	Location quotient
Southwest	$84,740	28.9%	1.08
Rocky Mountains	$81,680	8.9%	1.63
Middle Atlantic	$55,546	28.9%	1.81
Great Lakes	$52,400	17.8%	1.52
Southeast	$50,814	15.6%	1.89

Top Metro Areas

Metro area	State	Median annual wage	Employment
New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ	NY	$64,210	120
Chicago-Naperville-Elgin, IL-IN	IL	$62,840	70
Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach, FL	FL	$61,450
Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington, PA-NJ-DE-MD	PA	$58,330
Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV	DC	$41,990

Industry Breakdown

Most watch and clock repairers are concentrated in the following sectors:

Industry	Employment	Median annual wage
Retail Trade	750	$63,340
Other Services (except Public Administration)	190	$49,720
Manufacturing	90	$45,070

Watch and Clock Repairers work in the following industries:

Tech Stack

• Accounting software: Intuit QuickBooks (hot technology)
• Spreadsheet software: Microsoft Excel (hot technology)
• Office suite software: Microsoft Office software (hot technology)
• Word processing software: Microsoft Word (hot technology)
• Enterprise resource planning ERP software: SAP software (hot technology)

The Day-to-Day Environment

Daily working conditions for watch and clock repairers reflects the following characteristics:

• Spend Time Using Your Hands to Handle, Control, or Feel Objects, Tools, or Controls
• Indoors, Environmentally Controlled
• Importance of Being Exact or Accurate
• Spend Time Sitting
• Determine Tasks, Priorities and Goals

How to Become Watch and Clock Repairers

Entry-level watch and clock repairers positions require some college, no degree as the typical entry-level education. This occupation sits in Medium Preparation Needed (Job Zone 3), signaling the level of preparation typically expected.

Related Careers

Similar Occupations

• Electric Motor, Power Tool, and Related Repairers (Primary-Short)
• Industrial Machinery Mechanics (Supplemental)
• Maintenance Workers, Machinery (Supplemental)
• Camera and Photographic Equipment Repairers (Primary-Long)
• Musical Instrument Repairers and Tuners (Primary-Long)
• Coin, Vending, and Amusement Machine Servicers and Repairers (Primary-Short)
• Coil Winders, Tapers, and Finishers (Supplemental)
• Electromechanical Equipment Assemblers (Supplemental)

Where to Study

Students preparing for watch and clock repairers typically earn programs in:

Mechanic and Repair Technologies/Technicians

1 programs across 1 majors

• Precision Systems Maintenance

Sources

This profile draws on the following authoritative sources:

• U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics — Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) for employment and wage data by state and industry.
• BLS Employment Projections for total employment and growth forecasts.
• O*NET (Occupational Information Network) for skills, knowledge, tasks, work activities, work context, technology, and education-zone data.

SOC code: 49-9064.00 (Watch and Clock Repairers).