I hope this doesn’t sound sexist because it’s definitely not meant to be but I think I know a total of 5 watch makers personally then just the few I see talk on forums etc and it’s seems to be a predominantly male profession but I have no statistics on it. A couple weeks ago I drove by a shop that advertised watch and clock repairs as well as a sign saying they sell old and new watches. Of course I had to stop in. The place was loaded with beautiful clocks, Wall clocks and grandfather clocks. there was a very nice lady behind the counter who first scoffed at me when I inquired about any vintage seikos. She went on a bit of a rant about people not wanting to buy them do to repair costs and difficulty getting parts. For a minute I felt like I was being scolded so I apologized and just told her I collect watches and was just looking, didn't mean to bother her. She looked at the omega I was wearing and changed her tune. She told me her father worked for Howard Miller for 35 years, she began repairing clocks when she was 6 years old. She then learned wrist watches from a friend of her fathers she has this shop which she does sell clocks and watches out of but she mainly uses the space as her repair shop. She showed me her working area and I was stunned at the amount of clocks she had waiting for repair. Looked like she had maybe six wrist watches on her bench but I didn’t want to get too nosey. She spent a while complaining about trying to get parts for 200 year old clocks. I told her about someone I knew needed to get a part fabricated and he was amazed at what it cost him. She began howling with laughter as I guess she goes through that a lot. I told her I had a lot of respect for watch makers, being that I’ve done mechanical work in the past and I always found the smaller the scale I worked on the more tricky things could get. She went off on a bit of a political tirade against our states governor who recently issued more edicts on businesses. perhaps this is getting too long didn't read now I just found it interesting. I do have a bracelet I need resized I don’t have the proper flat head size to do it. I was going to order them on amazon but I think I’ll have her do it just to give her a little business, I know it’s not much but she is quite funny to talk with I just need to make sure I can spare a half hour as she is very loquacious.
My old local watch maker was the widow of a watchmaker that taught her the trade after they were married. She was very knowledgeable and could fix anything. She's been dead for nearly twenty years now but I will always remember her for taking her time with me, explaining her work, and teaching me some of the basics.
A CMW I knew recommended Tamara Houk in Illinois when she ran her own shop. She worked for Breitling for a while and it looks like she retired a couple years ago.
It’s is probably much more common than I think. If I use the Watchmaker’s I know as a barometer it’s a very poor statistic. It just seems when I talk to them they usually refer to “he” as they mention their cohorts. I work in a field that is predominantly female, although since I reentered the field a couple years ago I notice males are much more common, and my wife works in a field that statistically is more male so I’m not trying to stir up any controversy here, I think as long as you can do a job you should be able to.
Women were commonly hired for assembly line work such as making radios because they were thought to be more dexterous and nimble and of course also smaller hands, on average. I wouldn't be surprised if Swatch Group employed a lot of women to assemble new watches.
I might be corrected if I am wrong, but Otto Friedl Watchmakers (Otto is now deceased) in a Vancouver B C is run by Otto’s daughter and son in law. I have reason to believe that Otto’s daughter is a watchmaker.
If you think about the crafts that women were allowed to do back in the day and how intricate they were, it's no surprise that a woman would be a skilled watchmaker. And, in this day, lucrative as well!
Apparently most of the employees of HMT in India were women. You can find many old photos of women working at major watch factories assembling movements and other production line work.
Quite thought provoking... although I have never met a female watchmaker, I do not doubt, that in a male dominated industry that women have played a role and that role is only getting larger. A little research... a good video and a good read. "Until 1785, watchmaking was a forbidden field for women in France and England. In Switzerland, on the other hand, women were able to join the ranks of master watchmakers as early as 1690, with precision roles like manufacturing fusee chains or finishing screws, hands and hinges. In 1843, the city of Geneva established the first watchmaking school for young girls, while other countries followed suit much later, in 1910. Since 1920, there have been as many women as men in Swiss watchmaking factories. Did you know that the Swiss watchmaking sector owes its reputation in part to female Italian migrant workers? From the end of the 1950s, Swiss manufacturers called on the services of Italian workers in order to remain competitive. This cheap, unqualified work force contributed to the modernization of production methods through their work on the assembly lines, in which the local workers showed no interest. It was the only way for the sector to continue developing in the face of the strong growth of international competition. Ever since, women have been present at all levels of the industry, even if they remain largely under-represented in management positions. According to the 2018 census of workers and companies in the Swiss watchmaking and micro-technology industries, undertaken by the Employers' Federation of the Swiss Watch Industry, 44.2% of the sector were women, 1.2% of whom held management positions. Incidentally, Switzerland has only 6.7% female managers, while the international average rises to 9%. So the watchmaking sector is no exception." Link:http://inside.code41watches.com/women-in-the-history-of-watchmaking
All my watches spend their time with my female watchmaker. She is a master watchmaker who has taken over her father's business here in germany.
Women also have better hand-eye coordination than men. In shooting sports, women tend to be far faster at mastering the sport than men. Women also tend to be far more methodical than men. We had a female senior staff photographer in my office (she has retired) who had an encyclopedic knowledge of every piece of gear in our shop. When many of us were trying to fumble through a piece of new gear, she would have all the answers....because she read the manual.
I was pit officer at a service rifle match and the annoncement came over the radio that one of the lady shooters beat her husband. She was in the pit pulling targets and that beaming smile lit up the planet. Not only are women better suited physically to shoot rifles, they don't have any bullshit ego, they're more patient, and they see better. The best Russian snipers in WWII were all women for a reason. Women are my favorite people.
A whole lotta generalizing, blowing smoke and virtue-signaling goin on in this thread. What happened is there some wives looking over your shoulders?