South Euclid watch repairman does traditional work, with an eye to the future - cleveland.com

SOUTH EUCLID, Ohio -- In 2020, when so many people tell the time of day by giving a quick glance at their cell phone, one might think there isn’t much of a niche these days for the traditional watch repairman.

Brandon Myers, who actually makes a living as a watch repairman and by selling watches, would disagree.

“There’s sentimental value,” Myers said of watches and the desire of people to have them repaired, rather than toss them in the garbage. There’s also the fact that watches can be stylish and considered a fashion accessory.

Whatever reason people have for owning or wanting a watch repaired, Myers is ready to serve. He opened, in May 2019, Woodbine Watch Service at 14429 Cedar Road, just west of Green Road, in South Euclid. He works out of the same storefront from which Pollak Watch Service did business for the previous 16 years.

Myers, 45, who has operated other businesses in the past, said he first became interested in the watch business after taking a trip to Hawaii, where he purchased a WeWood brand exotic hardwood watch.

“I brought it home and everybody was saying, ‘Oh my God, where’d you get that wood watch?’ I did some investigating and found that they were very popular online with millennials, and that they were only an online product.”

Myers went on to open, two-and-a-half years ago, a kiosk store at Beachwood Place mall, with the intent of allowing people to see the exotic wood watches in person, knowing that they’d recognize them from online browsing.

“I have a business-oriented mind,” he said, “so when I see something that can be turned into a business, I do something about it.

“Everybody is buying online, and I thought that this (wood watches) is something that has to be seen in person. I’d hear it all the time (from shoppers), ‘Oh, that’s something I saw online.‘”

While operating his kiosk, Myers said that he noticed the foot traffic had slowed at the mall. But also that he may not have been offering what people wanted most.

“I was being asked all the time if I sold batteries for watches or did repairs. I realized that the money was in watch repairs,” he said.

He went right to work, learning online and from experienced area watch repairmen how to make repairs and began to do so. Because of a conflict with another, similar business at the mall, Myers decided to leave and open his own storefront.

" I started driving down the streets and saw this place,” he said of the Cedar Road storefront. Pollak’s had ceased business in South Euclid in November 2018, and Myers took up the location. He is thankful to Pollak’s, because he has inherited many of its past customers.

In addition to his watch repair work, Myers, a Cleveland Heights resident, sells new and used watches, mostly ranging in price from $49 to $160, although he has some that cost as much as $500 and is planning to soon broaden his collection of offerings.

He sells new wood watches by the likes of Jord, Tence and, of course, WeWood.

Realizing that electronics are ever advancing, Myers does have an eye out for the future.

“My main goal right now is to start focusing more on smart watches, because none of the old-timers (watch repairmen) did it -- they only did the mechanicals. But believe me, the watch, the regular watch -- the Seikos, Citizens -- they’e not going anywhere.

“When you go into a jewelry store, yes, the smart watch is coming around and people are using their cell phones more, but at the malls, the jewelry stores never went out (of business). The clothing stores did, but you can’t buy your wife a diamond online. You can’t buy gold online; you have to go there in person to look at it.

“And when you go into jewelry stores, the first thing you see is what sells the most. So the display case at the front of the store, all you see is watches -- the high-end Gucci and Movados.”

Myers said that certain brands, like Movado, no matter the time of year, don’t go on sale. “They still hold that value,” he said.

Myers said that some people, used to seeing only older men at work on watches, come into the store and see the magnifier in his eye tell him, “You’re too young to be a watch repairman.”

“I tell them everyone who repairs watches was younger at one time.”

Woodbine Watch Service is open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Mondays through Fridays, and from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturdays. It can be reached at 216-754-0647.

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South Euclid watch repairman does traditional work, with an eye to the future - cleveland.com
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