Female watch makers

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.

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 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. 🙄🤦