Watchmaker

About the Company

Since becoming the world’s first direct-to-consumer luxury watch brand in 2004 – turning the traditional wholesale model on its head by offering unseen value in mechanical watches – Christopher Ward has become synonymous with innovation in an often-conservative sector. Proudly Anglo-Swiss in structure, all Christopher Ward’s watches are designed at its UK base at Maidenhead and engineered and assembled at its atelier in Biel/Bienne, Switzerland. This unique ‘twin-flag’ approach has led to several significant firsts for CW, including the creation of the first commercially viable mechanical watch movement from a British brand in over 50 years. Well respected within the global watch community, Christopher Ward has customers in more than 100 countries and still has the same mission: to put high-quality mechanical watches within reach of everyone. As we grow the business, we look to invest in the right talent to enable us to achieve our goals.

About the Role

Offering the world’s first 5-year movement guarantee on our watches back in 2004, we broke the conventional mould by selling directly to consumers through the internet, promising to ensure optimum performance of our timepieces over a 60 month period and the requirement now, is for an additional watchmaker to join the technical team to repair, service and overhaul, the ever growing volume of Christopher Ward watches out in global watch community, to the highest standards, within specified time-frames. We hope for the candidate to grow and develop their recognised bench skills in a busy workshop, assisting with the development and coaching of apprentice technicians and watchmakers while also taking care to ensure that their own productivity can be consistently representative of best workmanship standards concentrating on the more complicated watch servicing & restoration challenges.

For the more experienced candidate, we will encourage further workshop responsibility, taking in to consideration recommendations on potential opportunities that could heighten customer service satisfaction or that may impact upon department efficiency & best productivity, helping improve our ever growing business. Once settled in, further brand approved training and an accreditation pathway will commence, in order to allow the candidate to pro-actively consolidate and add to their already acquired bench skills.

Responsibilities

• Diagnosing and repairing watches - in line with our brand-specific guidelines.
• Servicing of all brand models including mechanical, quartz, ETA based and Modular Chronograph movements.
• Servicing of modified and inhouse mechanical movements; JJ modules and SH21’s.
• Testing timepieces for accuracy and performance, using specific tools and equipment.
• Visually checking all in-coming components and watches (dials, cases, hands, crystals, movements etc.) for damage, marks and scratches to ensure that they meet the agreed specification and report any quality issues.
• Troubleshooting mechanical problems
• Performing of a rigorous quality control for all repairs and services

Qualifications

• Experience in watchmaking
• Good level of spoken English.
• GCSE (or equivalent) qualifications.
• A graduate of a watchmaker programme with either BHI, WOSTEP, BCU or comparable qualification (optional).

Required Skills

• The ability to work confidently, cleanly and accurately with the following ETA/Sellita calibres: 2824, 2836, 2893, 7750, SW200, SW210, SW330, SW220, SW510.
• Have experience working on proprietary movement.
• Highly organised and capable of managing your own workload.
• Have the ability to work collaboratively in a team to coach and develop each other.
• Ability to work & prioritise tasks, achieving an elevated level of accuracy.
• Strong communication skills.
• Self-motivated with a positive can-do attitude.
• Possess a passion and appreciation for horology.
• A meticulous attention to detail and ability to interpret mechanical demands in a practical way.
• Keen to adhere to best practice service standards.