Recommend a watchmaker in the DMV area?

sonicosa

The black dial Geneve I have listed for sale was one of the watches I brought to Annandale for a quote and was told $600 and at least 12 weeks. I couldn’t justify paying nearly as much for the service as I paid for the watch, which is why I decided to (try to) move it on. He didn’t specify if parts would be additional or included in the $600 price. $300 I could totally live with, in fact I’d be quite excited.

Syzygy

+1 for Maryland Watch Works. Eugene has always been honest in telling me if it's worth the effort if the cost or scarcity of parts is too great for the specific watch. He did a fantastic job bringing a family heirloom Tissot Seastar back to life after it had sat for nearly 40 years in a sock drawer after it died. IIRC the total cost was $300-$350 parts included. This was back when he was still with his uncle Matthew at The Watch Pocket in Four Corners, Silver Spring before he moved up to Hagerstown to open his place up there.

I would also recommend Matthew at The Watch Pocket for the same quality and ethics. He's serviced an old Waltham I snagged off the bargain thread for my lady, again, fantastic work and estimate was around $250-$300 and I believe it came in a bit less than the low end. Another one I took to him, he just raised an eyebrow and said something to the effect of "this is a hundred dollar watch, and after service will be worth maybe $106...parts are scarce, so it'll take a long time to get them, if we're lucky, and estimated cost to service is about $300-$500 depending on parts cost...are you really sure you want to do this?"

I'd recommend both Eugene and Matthew as they are from a three generation watchmaking family and have always been very honest and knowledgeable when I've worked with them.

Edit: Mind you, all mine have been three handers, I'm sure their estimates for watches with more complications will be higher than noted above, that said, they do always seem to give a solid honest ballpark and have hit their target each time.

Dsloan

For those who were interested, I ended up handing off a few watches to Maryland Watch Works this morning.

Thanks for everyone who made suggestions - there were a couple shops that I considered but MWW was just the most convenient for me to get to, and their communication was really good - detailed emails, promptly sent, etc.

It'll be a few week before I can report back on how things end up going. But, my first impression was very positive: they quickly assessed all my timepieces, didn't try to pressure me into servicing items that could just be regulated, the prices seemed very reasonable, and the estimated turnaround time was only 2-3 weeks (assuming there are no difficulties tracking down parts). And they were easy to talk to - we ended up chatting about vintage Seiko for awhile.

Dsloan

Hey Everyone, I finally have an update about my very positive experience with Maryland Watch Works. I'll preface this by saying that I'm still a relatively new collector, and this was my first watch repair experience, so I may have some blind spots. But, nonetheless:

What did I have done?: I had a Seiko Navigator Timer serviced, and ultrasonic cleaning of the watch and bracelet. I also had a Bulova chronograph with a cracked crystal that needed regulation. Eugene and his team got it all done in just over 2 weeks and the final price matched his estimate. The Seiko ended up being around $300; The Bulova, including parts, was less than $100.

Other nice things I can say:
- Eugene was very easy to communicate with over email and in person. He was willing to field random questions and ideas even though I was a new customer spending relatively little money in the near term.
- He was great about giving me his honest opinion, walking me through my options, and also didn't pressure me to spend money on unnecessary work.
- Today, I brought in a couple of Heuers that are a bit more precious to me. I thought both would need a service, but he swapped some gaskets in 5 min on one of them and fixed the issue, free of charge. On the other (a caliber 11, which is notoriously pricey to find parts for) he made sure to test and try to diagnose the issue before starting work (he was worried about skyrocketing costs if the chronograph module needed parts, but seems like that is not the case).
- He's got an Omega parts account, so that may be of special interest to OF members.
- And, he tells me that he's open to having customers help track down parts; I know some savvy OF members would prefer to track down replacement parts themselves, as opposed to paying the watchmaker to scrub through the internet trying to find rare items.
- And, if you want, he'll show off whatever interesting/challenging repairs he's got in progress. Today, he was in the middle of tracking down parts for a Speedmaster 4.5 and a Great White GMT.
- There are a couple of decent coffee shops within walking distance of MWW.
- If you don't want to drive back and forth to Hagerstown, it sounds like he's happy to pack and ship. My schedule's pretty busy so I may do that next time. But, I got to listen to 4 episodes of the Heavyweight podcast on the trip today, which was nice and relaxing (additional plug for that great podcast).

Here's a vintage Seiko, cleaned of 50+ years of some stranger's dead skin cells, ready to become a repository for my own cellular detritus:

And, here's the trio, including a newly regulated Bulova, a Heuer Regatta Flyback with fresh gaskets, and a useful little travel pouch that came free with servicing.

For good measure, a couple of pics of the shop. I really wanted to buy the Seiko chronograph he had on display, but I've got to sock money away for the inevitable repair bill on my Heuer Autavia.

Walrus

I can’t read what it is but I like the dial on the one to the right of the semi pouge