Young Watchmakers in Connecticut: Brad & Jack

big daddy · 2014-09-16T13:24:08Z

Meet Brad Gehan and Jack Dorety, young watchmakers from Lititz Technicum opening an atelier in Connecticut. Discover their journey and impact on watch service.

While taking my daughter and grandchildren back home to Connecticut from a summer in South Carolina, I stopped in to see two young watchmakers who opened their atelier not 30 minutes drive away.

When I arrived unannounced these two young men, Brad Gehan and Jack Dorety, were hard at work at their workbenches.

Brad and Jack, both 24, are 2012 graduates of the Lititz Watch Technicum in Lititz, Pennslyvania. This watchmaking school is underwritten and supervised by Rolex. We often think of recent watch school graduates as working in repair facilities or within the confines of a major manufacture. These former roommates who met each other while at school, have joined together to form their own watch facility in the bucolic village of Oakdale in rural Connecticut. Jack is originally from Philadelphia and Brad from Oakdale. Brad's grandfather was a watchmaker trained at the Waltham Horological School in the late 1940's and the workspace they now have remodeled and work in was once his grandfather's.

I found the workshop very clean, neat, and tidy. They both expressed that their work allowed them to work as long as they wish and not be limited to what that accept. Their business today generally comes from jewelry stores, referrals from satisfied customers, and watch retailers. They recently were approved by Audemars Piguet to work for their North American service center in Florida and are doing work for them already. That was earned as a technical director for AP inspected their workshop and tested their abilities at the bench. Of course, being trained in a Rolex underwritten facility they have proven their abilities to service Rolex watches. When asked where do they think their careers will take them the first remark was to continue to build the business. In fact, just the week before I visited they had attended an estate auction of a noted watch collector and purchased a piece of equipment that for the life of me, I cannot remember does what!

That tells me they are reinvesting in their business and really are working to make it grow. They also were very proud of their school watches and while Jack had his at his house and therefore could not show it to me, Brad hurriedly went downstairs and returned to show me his. He was proud and I was suitably impressed! Could we have another AHCI watchmaker or two in the making?

Jack and Brad are very personable young men and I was very impressed with the seriousness they take their occupation. It was surprising to me to look around and see the amount of work they had at this early stage of their careers and the diligence I found when I arrived. Who knows what the future holds for both of them but for know they are happy with the work they have and their customers must be happy.

I think we all have read a number of times about how our watches will be serviced and repaired in the future. That is a worldwide concern. The Lititz Watch Technicum was opened in 2001 by Rolex and now there are two other schools that have been underwritten: one by the Swatch Group in Miami, Florida and one underwritten by Vacheron Constantin/Richemont in Ft. Worth, Texas in the USA.

I think one of the responsibilities we have is to recognize young people who have the inherent mechanical ability and dexterity required for horological repair and service and introduce them to the watchmaking opportunity for the benefit of the industry we all love. If we find young, quality men and women, like Jack and Brad, then the future of the industry will be more secure.

For those that are interested:

Gehan & Dorety Watchmaking

Oakdale, Connecticut

www.gdwatchmaking.com

(860) 848-0508

[Email address suppressed for privacy]

Here are some further photos:

Jack Dorety and Brad Gehan

The Discussion

nilomis

Sep 16, 2014

I admire when young people dedicates to watchmaking. This gives me hope that my grandchildren will have a place to take their watches. Congratulations to the guys. Cheers, Nilo

estevezj777

Sep 16, 2014

Thank you. That was a great write up. It's great to see that young people are interested in the art of watchmaking, gives the rest of us hope in the future! I wish them the best of luck.

Dr No

Sep 17, 2014

. . . made my day, BD. Thanks very, very much for sharing this. Grinning from ear to ear, Art

Tim Jackson

Sep 17, 2014

Agreed it is important to support these independent watchmaker/repair shops, as the big brands create more of a strangle-hold on who and where one can have their precious timepiece looked after, these guys have a tough road ahead getting access to parts. Hopefully the situation will improve and the good quality ones will get accredited by various brands as the brands realise taking 3 months to service a basic watch is just too long...but I digress. Anyway, thanks again for the great post Cheers,

Young Watchmakers in Connecticut: Brad & Jack

Continue the conversation

More from this Forum