Who is The WATCH Lab ?

The WATCH Lab is a family owned and run business. The Partners are Jonathan Barker, his wife Zoe and brother Jeremy Barker. The company was started by Jonathan in October 2000. Having spent many years covering the UK and Channel Islands in the jewellery trade selling brands like ellesse, adidas, Cyma and FILA, Jonathan got to know the watch business very well. He saw how the watch business grew and changed.

History of The WATCH Lab and the UK’s repair marketplace

“Not many years ago,” says Jonathan, “there were just traditional watch brands and most people owned just one watch and a ‘watch was for life’. The Swiss brands such as Rolex, Omega, and Longines were all strong at the top end of the marketplace. The everyday priced watches which most people bought were dominated by the traditional watch brands such as Rotary, Seiko, Avia, and Pulsar. Then in the early 90’s came the watches revolution! The fashion brands moved into their marketplace. Started in the main by Gucci, the public began to understand that not just the heritage watch houses could produce beautiful and aspirational timepieces. Fila was the next non-watch brand to follow then ellesse and the rest I guess is history”.
Jonathan continues, “Whilst dealing with all of the multiple jewellery high street chains and the independent / private jewellery sector, it became glaringly apparent that for more and more watches being sold, the support and repair sector was just not there. Years ago, jewellers used to have watchmakers on their premises but no longer. They were retiring and not being replaced simply because the watchmaking schools were closing down too. In addition to this, there is virtually no watch repair training being carried out in-house by the multiples such as Ernest Jones, H Samuel, Beaverbrooks or indeed the private jewellers.

So, watch ownership had gone though the roof, every fashion brand in the world began producing timepieces (& changing their ranges twice a year) and the Swiss Houses got stronger and stronger. The problem with all this growth in the marketplace is that with the exception of the manufacturers themselves (who are usually slow and expensive), there are very few places to get a decent quality watch repair.”

Birth of The WATCH Lab

Opening its first branch in Liverpool October 2000, the company from day1 employed a Rolex Accredited Watchmaker to set the standards for all the watch repairs. The company had instant success by tapping into a marketplace that was wide open for someone at last to ‘do-the-job-properly’. Within 12 months the company had opened further branches in Leeds and Preston. Jonathan’s wife Zoe and brother Jeremy joined the company shortly after and The WATCH Lab became a Partnership. Click here to here BBC Radio interviews with some of The WATCH Lab’s team

Currently operating from 7 shopping centre prime postions, The WATCH Lab’s Head Office is in Preston Lancashire. Here is the administration centre, HQ for Impressive Time and the bespoke repair Workshop. Postal repairs are also managed from this location.