Watch and Clock Repairers
Repair, clean, and adjust mechanisms of timing instruments, such as watches and clocks. Includes watchmakers, watch technicians, and mechanical timepiece repairers.
Most important skills
- Repairing
- Critical Thinking
- Operations Monitoring
- Active Listening
- Speaking
- Equipment Maintenance
- Troubleshooting
- Quality Control Analysis
Key knowledge
- Customer and Personal Service
- Administration and Management
- Mechanical
- Administrative
- Engineering and Technology
- Production and Processing
- English Language
- Sales and Marketing
What the work involves
- Oil moving parts of timepieces.
- Repair or replace broken, damaged, or worn parts on timepieces, using lathes, drill presses, and hand tools.
- Clean, rinse, and dry timepiece parts, using solutions and ultrasonic or mechanical watch-cleaning machines.
- Disassemble timepieces and inspect them for defective, worn, misaligned, or rusty parts, using loupes.
- Reassemble timepieces, replacing glass faces and batteries, before returning them to customers.
- Test timepiece accuracy and performance, using meters and other electronic instruments.
- Fabricate parts for watches and clocks, using small lathes and other machines.
- Estimate repair costs and timepiece values.
Strongest interest areas (O*NET): Realistic, Conventional, Investigative.
Qualifications and licensing
- Most common education
- Post-Secondary Certificate (45.8% of respondents)
- Related experience
- Over 2 years, up to and including 4 years (41%)
- On-the-job training
- Anything beyond short demonstration, up to and including 1 month (33.6%)
- Preparation level
- O*NET job zone 3: Job Zone Three: Medium Preparation Needed
- Licensing
- Not yet verified. Check your state licensing board.
Check before planning
- Licensing for Watch and Clock Repairers is not yet verified for any state: check the state licensing board before planning.
Limits
- Distributions show what current workers or occupational experts report, not legal minimums.
- Requirements vary by employer and state; time to qualify is not estimated.
Source: O*NET 31.0 Database (USDOL/ETA, CC BY 4.0); BLS Employment Projections · dataset 2026.10.8 · method e3-qualification-1.0.0
Work environment
How the typical conditions of this occupation compare with 911 occupations in O*NET (very low = the lowest fifth).
Levels are relative. Most occupations involve a lot of contact with people, for example, so “very low” can still mean regular contact; the last column shows what workers actually reported.
| Condition | Level | Compared with other occupations | Most common answer (O*NET survey) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Contact with others | Very low | Lower on contact with others than 90% of occupations compared | 56% of surveyed respondents chose “Contact with others about half the time” |
| Dealing with the public | Moderate | Lower on dealing with the public than 56% of occupations compared | 39% of surveyed respondents chose “Extremely important” |
| Teamwork | Very low | Lower on teamwork than 95% of occupations compared | 34% of surveyed respondents chose “Important” |
| Freedom to make decisions | Very high | Higher on freedom to make decisions than 88% of occupations compared | 63% of surveyed respondents chose “A lot of freedom” |
| Time pressure | Moderate | Lower on time pressure than 54% of occupations compared | — |
| Conflict situations | Very low | Lower on conflict situations than 97% of occupations compared | 56% of surveyed respondents chose “Never” |
| Dealing with unpleasant or angry people | Low | Lower on dealing with unpleasant or angry people than 77% of occupations compared | 47% of surveyed respondents chose “Once a year or more but not every month” |
| Consequence of error | Very low | Lower on consequence of error than 80% of occupations compared | 37% of surveyed respondents chose “Not serious at all” |
Work-pressure profile
- Time pressure: moderate
- Conflict situations: very low
- Dealing with unpleasant or angry people: low
- Consequence of error: very low
Each part is shown on its own. There is no combined stress score, and conditions vary by employer and role.
Full answer distributions
Contact with others
- No contact with others: 0.88%
- Occasional contact with others: 0.97%
- Contact with others about half the time: 55.59%
- Contact with others most of the time: 14.97%
- Constant contact with others: 27.59%
n = 18, Incumbent 08/2018
Dealing with the public
- Not important at all: 36.02%
- Fairly important: 0.72%
- Important: 1.69%
- Very important: 22.9%
- Extremely important: 38.67%
n = 18, Incumbent 08/2018
Teamwork
- Not important at all: 24.13%
- Fairly important: 0.72%
- Important: 34.03%
- Very important: 14.5%
- Extremely important: 26.62%
n = 18, Incumbent 08/2018
Freedom to make decisions
- No freedom: 0%
- Very little freedom: 0%
- Limited freedom: 1.44%
- Some freedom: 35.63%
- A lot of freedom: 62.93%
n = 18, Incumbent 08/2018
Time pressure
- Never: 0%
- Once a year or more but not every month: 13.62%
- Once a month or more but not every week: 14.35%
- Once a week or more but not every day: suppressed by O*NET (low precision)
- Every day: 22.14%
n = 18, Incumbent 08/2018
Conflict situations
- Never: 55.74%
- Once a year or more but not every month: 16.19%
- Once a month or more but not every week: 14.69%
- Once a week or more but not every day: 12.65%
- Every day: 0.73%
n = 18, Incumbent 08/2018
Dealing with unpleasant or angry people
- Never: 22.51%
- Once a year or more but not every month: 46.75%
- Once a month or more but not every week: 3.86%
- Once a week or more but not every day: 26.87%
- Every day: 0%
n = 18, Incumbent 08/2018
Consequence of error
- Not serious at all: 36.59%
- Fairly serious: 14.97%
- Serious: 26.9%
- Very serious: 21.54%
- Extremely serious: 0%
n = 18, Incumbent 08/2018
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O*NET-SOC 49-9064.00 · SOC 49-9064 (exact, high confidence) · dataset 2026.10.8