Terry Nelson Antique Watch Repair

I paid an exorbinate amount of money to get my pocket watch in working order. Guess what? It was sent back in a condition that placed the bezel in a no functional condition. Sending it back to be fixed, I was blamed for the bezel not being right and accused of not shipping the timepiece back correctly; not a word regarding his failure to fix the time piece correctly; all problems were my fault. Not only that but because he was mad at me for having the audacity to question him, he charged me more money rather than adhering to his 1 year warranty. This guy is truly a piece of work. I would rather destroy a timepiece than to send it to him for service. No doubt he would argue against me. No problem for me because he knows he is disingenuous and would not face me me Mano y Mano. I would look for other watch repairers before sending my valuables to this guy.

I had an outstanding experience with Mr. Nelson’s watch repair. I love vintage watches and the only problem is servicing of the watches. Surprisingly there are very few good vintage watch repair stores here in the San Francisco area. The one shop I’ve used (Downtown Watch Repair) does excellent work but has limited hours and no internet presence. I decided to take a chance and send my watches off to Mr. Nelson. His website gave me some comfort as it is very detailed and it appears he knows his watches and is highly qualified.
I’ll keep this short. Terry gave me a timely assessment of the watches and the estimated cost of repair. He provided several options and I went with a full servicing on my gold Gruen and Longines watches. The servicing was the highest quality. My Gruen did not run before and the gears made a horrible grinding sound. Now the winding mechanism is smooth as silk and it keeps near perfect time (± less than 1 minute a day!). A remarkable achievement for a sixty-​five year old watch.
I had to have a dial restoration on my Longines and he did send it out to a colleague for the work. Mr. Nelson discloses on his website that his dial restoration work is sent elsewhere. Having worked in the jewelry industry I know that many jewelry stores outsource work to independent shops. Sadly most stores do not disclose this fact which is not the case here.
Mr. Nelson’s price are quite reasonable and his emails were timely and precise. I’ll be using him again for all of my vintage watch needs.

I found Terry through his website and some online forums, and noted that he claims to specialize in antique, mechanical american watches. He also advertises «Guaranteed Restoration Services»
I won’t go into the full details of how I“m entirely unsatisfied with the «full restoration» Terry claimed to perform on my grandfather’s wristwatch; however, I’ll provide a few notes regarding the way he does business and my observations:
— He will under no circumstance speak on the telephone, which resulted in hours of wasted time and frustration trying to resolve the issue and over 150 emails of him dancing around my questions when a simple 15 minute phone call could have saved all the hassle.
— He does none of the cosmetic restoration himself. Case restoration and dial restorations are outsourced to nameless craftsmen, «laser man» «Dial man» «jeweler». (He will not provide any subcontractor names)
— He does not seek approval for deviations from what he tells you he will do, he just does things. He did this several times to me, with no apologies.
To summarize, Terry might be good if all you need is a mechanical fix or something along those lines. I could never recommend him for any kind of full cosmetic restoration since I found it impossible to communicate issues clearly with him, and did not find the restoration at all acceptable. Given the problem we had, it was an absolute burden to even attempt to work it out with him over email, and when I returned it to him (at my cost) he kept my watch for five months before returning it with the issues unresolved.

My grandpa gifted me his father’s 1912 Illinois pocket watch, and I decided to get it running again (according to my grandpa, it hadn’t run in 60 years!)
I found Terry’s website and started up a conversation about the watch. He took on the project… fully cleaned, overhauled, disassembled, reassembled, and brought it back to life!
It’s a joy to hear it ticking away, and to see it keeping good time. Terry is one of those rare craftsman who truly cares about the work he does, and treats the project like it’s just as special to him as it is to you.
If you have any mechanical wristwatch or pocketwatch that needs work or any kind of servicing, I can wholeheartedly recommend Mr. Nelson.
Great work!