Welcome to “How I Became,” the Lifehacker series where I ask real people about how they really got their jobs. This week I had the pleasure of chatting with Matt Chapman, a modern watchmaker. The official term is “horologist:” someone who studies the art of designing and making watches and clocks.
After years of staring at a screen all day for big advertising companies, Chapman finally made the leap from desk job to workshop. Now, he spends his days following his passion: bringing watches to life. Here’s how this former creative director came to be a watchmaker, and how you might be able to follow his footsteps.
Turning a passion into a career
Chapman had tinkered with watches for years, but like many who found themselves with more time on their hands during the pandemic, COVID-19 was a major catalyst in actually pivoting careers. After realizing he was spending more time fiddling with watches than he was on his official day job as an art director, he thought, “Well, maybe I should make watches my career.”
His first dive into watch repair was a mix of necessity (“I need this watch fixed”) and courage (“Maybe I can fix it myself?”). Although he’s received no formal training, Chapman has been able to make a career as self-taught watchmaker. His expertise is mostly from YouTube videos, scouring internet forums, and lots and lots of tinkering. He’s particularly fascinated by chronographs, a specific type of watch that is used as a stopwatch combined with a display watch, with new movements that are “incredibly complicated” compared to your basic watch.
Chapman says the first time he took a watch apart was terrifying—“like a bungee jump.” But as he found success in making watch after watch tick, he gained confidence. “The only way to do anything is to do it properly,” Chapman says. When you service a watch, that means you completely dissemble the entire thing, clean every single part, and put it all back together again.
For aspiring horologists looking to take a more traditional approach to the craft, there are apprenticeships and formal watchmaking schools. To land an apprenticeship, you need to be willing to do your own research and put yourself out there. Because many independent watchmakers don’t work within a company, you may need to have a flexible schedule, leaving time to work with your watchmaker’s schedule as they become available between projects.
Making money in watchmaking
According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, watchmakers make an average of $45,290 per year. Chapman provides a little more insight than that, explaining how the money side of things varies from watch to watch.
For example, Chapman says he might buy a broken watch for $1,000, plus spend a few hundred dollars on parts. Once the restoration is complete, the watch is usually worth around $2,500. Chapman prefers to stick to that $2,000-$3,000 price range, calling it the “sweet spot” to keep his repair business viable.
Of course, the luxury experts can bring in the big bucks. Chapman points out that he’s seen broken Rolexes that are still worth well over $10,000. And once they’re restored, you’re looking at $50,000-plus watches.
Being your own boss
The beauty of being self-employed is deciding what your workday looks like. For Chapman, he tends to get tunnel vision; it’s not unusual for him to keep working late into the night. But other watchmakers might maintain standard 9-to-5 workday.
Chapman shares that when a lot of watchmakers first get started, you spend more time on your hands and knees than you do at your desk. That is to say, a lot of the work involves searching for the tiniest of springs and screws that “fly out of your hand if you even look at them the wrong way.” Whether or not he finds that microscopic spring is “all part of the madness and fascination” that makes Chapman love what he does. Watchmaking is painstakingly “thorough and proper and meticulous...that’s why the moment a watch comes to life in your hands, there’s nothing else quite like it.”
How to plan your big escape
When Chapman first started out in advertising, the job was all about “coming up with ideas.” It was a job you could see and touch and feel. His office had a pad of paper, a marker, a telephone—and no computer. In the decades since he began his career, digital took over.
A big part of leaving his advertising job for watch repair was about “escaping the screen.” That’s the first part of the double-meaning behind the name of Chapman’s vintage watch restorations, The Great Escapement. The second meaning is that the “escapement” in a watch is the part that makes it tick. Escaping one world to follow the thing that makes you tick...well, it’s safe to say the name of Chapman’s shop is doing a lot of work in the metaphor department.
Chapman says the key to making this kind of career leap is not to base your decision on money. Obviously, you need to keep a roof over your head—but if you’re really passionate about something, there’s a way to make it work.
Chapman admits it was a scary leap at first. One money move he made at the start was to liquidate his own watch collection. This step gave him the income to invest in more broken watches, thus kicking off a flow of inventory. Luck plays a huge part in following any passion, but that doesn’t mean you should ignore the important of doing serious serious research and making educated decisions.
Chapman says people ask him all the time, “How do you remember where all the parts go?” And his reply is always the same: “I don’t have to remember where the parts go. If you know what the part does, there is only one place it can go!” And if you know what you’re really supposed to do, there’s only one place for you to go, too.