Career
Watch and clock repairers
Repair watches and clocks.
$67,230
Median pay
-0.3%
Job growth, 2025–35
100
Openings a year
High school diploma or equivalent
Typical education
None required
Typical time after high school
Here's what you actually need to know.
The work
What people in this job do
- Clean, rinse, and dry timepiece parts, using solutions and ultrasonic or mechanical watch-cleaning machines.
- Adjust timing regulators, using truing calipers, watch-rate recorders, and tweezers.
- Reassemble timepieces, replacing glass faces and batteries, before returning them to customers.
- Disassemble timepieces and inspect them for defective, worn, misaligned, or rusty parts, using loupes.
- Oil moving parts of timepieces.
The outlook
How the forecast changed this year
The deeper question
What kind of person does this path ask you to become?
What this work centers on
O*NET interest profile, scored 1–7.
The work
Do you want most of your days spent on objects & tools, then information & systems?
Responsibility
Are you willing to be the one responsible for this?
“Clean, rinse, and dry timepiece parts, using solutions and ultrasonic or mechanical watch-cleaning machines.”
Development
What would you need to build over the next 5–10 years?
Repairing, Critical Thinking, Operations Monitoring, Troubleshooting.
Trade-offs
What does it ask of you in exchange?
No degree beyond high school, though long-term on-the-job training is typical, for a median of $67,230 a year and 100 openings nationally each year.
Paths in
Degrees that lead here
- Watchmaking and JewelrymakingCIP 47.0408
Paths across
Careers that use similar skills
- Timing Device Assemblers and Adjusters$62,620 · -6.1%
- Electric Motor, Power Tool, and Related Repairers$56,210 · +4.4%
- Grinding, Lapping, Polishing, and Buffing Machine Tool Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic$46,550 · -10.8%
- Grinding and Polishing Workers, Hand$42,660 · -19.2%
- Coin, Vending, and Amusement Machine Servicers and Repairers$47,450 · -3.4%
Ask anything about this career.
“Would this make sense if I don't want to sit at a desk all day?” Answers will come from the sources on this page, with citations. Coming soon.
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Sources
- BLS Employment Projections, 2025–35, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Retrieved 2026-10-01.
- BLS Employment Projections, 2024–34 (archived), U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Retrieved 2026-10-01.
- O*NET 31.0 Database (August 2026), National Center for O*NET Development / U.S. Department of Labor. Retrieved 2026-10-01.
- CIP 2020 to SOC 2018 Crosswalk, NCES and BLS. Retrieved 2026-10-01.