A watchmaker’s job entails creating and repairing watches and other timepieces. Though professional clockmakers used to build and repair clocks, with changes in modern construction and technology for timepieces, watchmakers now repair and build clocks as well. In the past, watchmakers would often build watches handcrafting the individual components and then carefully fitting them together to create the final product. Today’s watchmaker, on the other hand, is more likely to repair watches than to create new ones. Some watchmakers continue to make watches as a personal hobor to sell to a small group of watch collectors.
One of the primary responsibilities of a watchmaker has traditionally been the design and construction of watches, as the name suggests. This entailed not only the assembly of watches, which is a skill in and of itself, but also the proper design and fabrication of the watches’ internal mechanisms and housing. Making a watch is a precise and delicate process, especially for analog watches that rely on tiny mechanisms that must fit together perfectly and work together to move the watch’s hands at precise intervals. Watchmakers often spend years learning how to design, construct, and repair watches at a school that specializes in horological studies.
Watches that have been damaged or stopped working are usually repaired a watchmaker. Because watches are typically manufactured through machine construction and are often digital rather than analog, this has increasingly become the primary responsibility of most watchmakers. Watch repairs can range from as simple as replacing a battery to more complex work such as changing hands or other internal parts, as well as fabricating new parts to use in the repair. Even if a watchmaker has undergone extensive training, he or she may still fabricate and construct pieces of timepieces.
Due to technological advancements, a modern watchmaker could now work with computer components to create digital watches with mechanisms as complex as traditional watches. Microcomputers and digital displays are used instead of small, interconnected gears and hands that rotate in precise rotations in these watches. A watchmaker who makes digital watches is more likely to have studied computers and electronics rather than horology and watchmaking mechanics. However, some watchmakers can continue to use analog technology to create watches for those who prefer a more traditional look.