Several years back, I had Terry repair my great, great grandfather's pocket watch that I had inherited from my grandfather. My grandfather had searched for decades for someone who would be able to repair it, but due to the age of the piece, he could never find anyone who could. So as you can imagine, I was rather determined to do what my grandpa failed to do. Terry was incredibly professional. He walked me through the steps for the entire process. I send him the pocket watch and he did an amazing job. Not only did he replace the broken parts as per our initial agreement, but he did a full servicing for it, including cleaning, polishing and general maintenance. He even took the time to teach me about the pocket watch as well as the models for that time period, what was the norm and all of that jazz. This pocket watch is happily ticking away as if my ancestor still had it. To this day, I'm still thankful for the great work Terry performed and wholeheartedly believe the pricing was more than reasonable. read more

WAY too expensive for average-at-best performance. Now, my great great 1800s Elgin was missing a crystal, needed a new bezel, and a new seconds hand. I knew the watch was working as I could wind it up, change the time, and it would function properly (more than just ticking, it definitely would keep time). I let terry know all that was wrong with the watch, even sent him a photo of the watch, and he gave me an estimate of $500-850. It seemed a bit high, BUT heirlooms are a dying breed, and he seemed to have lots of elgin work under his belt, so I figured I'd go with it. He'd also assured me he'd let me know progress along each step of the process. Now, again, he is responsive, He let me know when he received the watch. He did say replacing the bezel was going to be more difficult than originally anticipated, but that was all I heard, until I head my watch was done and the total would be $1250! I was a bit shocked to hear the total. He told me he had to replace a gear that had some damage (fair enough), but in his rundown of repair costs, he'd replaced the bow, and both the minute and hour hands. I didn't request any of those services, and yet, he took the liberty to do them, and charge me for it, without running it by me. That's disappointing. Neither of those 3 parts had any true issues, . I didn't even think to hassle with him about it. It's honestly smart money making, do extra so you can charge more, then tell the client about it. It's just kind of dirty, especially when you're now charging $400 more than what you told me TOP DOLLAR would be for the repair. Now, the watch is returned registered mail (which took almost three weeks to get to me). He assured me that MY signature and proof of ID matching the address would need to be present, but much to my surprise, the package was dropped off on my door step without anyone signing for it. Now, that's a USPS issue, not a Terry issue. I finally opened the package. It was packaged quite well, I will give him that. I'm convinced if he'd shipped a raw egg in that packaging it would be received un-cracked! The old removed parts (minus minute and second hands) were included. It looks good. It's working, parts look nice, but honestly, it doesn't look like the casing was cleaned. There's still lots of stains and patina inside and outside of the watch casing. It just shocks me you'd charge such a high price, and not thoroughly clean it. All that to say, he is EXPENSIVE and did an okay job. In hindsight I probably would have gone with someone else. read more

Terry is a master in his craft. In 2020, I decided to have some fancy heirloom pocketwatches cleaned and repaired. One belonged to my great great grandfather (a fairly well-known judge in Kansas) one belonged to my great grandfather and the other my grandfather's brother. Contacting and communicating with Terry was easy via the email address on his website. I provided him with the details of my watches and he soon responded with general cost ranges. I sent each one in separately as the prior was completed. This is not an inexpensive project, but a really fulfilling one if you have something valuable or sentimental! As each was shipped to Terry, following his packaging instructions, he responded after receipt with a detailed repair estimate and timeframe. In each instance, he completed on time and the final costs were well within the estimates. He also provided details of each watch, including the manufacturer, the style, the years during which it was made, serial numbers, how many times it had been marked as previously serviced, etc. The history and details of these watches made them that much more interesting to me. All three of them function perfectly and look great, and I enjoy winding and letting them run on my desk as I work. I highly recommend Terry for your watch servicing needs. read more

Terry Nelson - Watchmaker - Elgin watch from the 1920s, working perfectly. - Watch Repair Near Me

Very professional. Recently restored my 60 year old Longines watch. Always provides detailed cost estimates for his work.

Stay away from this overpriced, industry stain. I was warned against it as not cost-effective, but a non-working, ca. 1909 Hamilton pocket was sent to Nelson, arriving mid-January, 2024. His estimate, tops, prior to arrival, was $750. But when he "itemized" the repair, the cost escalated to $945- this for a dime-a-dozen, $50 dollar watch. I instructed him to return it, admittedly calling him a "charlatan." His price for return was $85- a $50 "bench charge," plus $35 for postage (I paid $5 for "Priority Mail"). Am I to understand that this guy, if he has any repair experience, doesn't know, to a dollar, how much this is going to cost, whether he's laid eyes on the piece, or not? He'll either use it for parts, or fix it and ebay it for, what? $150? And it will go nowhere, with the rest of the countless pieces clogging various sites. read more

I sent in a pocket watch for repair was charged an exorbitant amount of money. Shortly after getting the watch your back I found out that a bezel peace was no longer connected to the watch. When I sent it back, his first question was how did I do that. The blame was on me not on his lack of attention. Sending the watch back to get this repaired, he said that I did a very poor job of packaging the watch which is not true and that he was gonna charge me close to $100 in order to fix the bezel peace which I'm sure he screwed up on in the first Watch fixing event, now he wants more money to fix his work that should've been fixed in the first place. Ollie wants to do is blame me for everything and not take any responsibility for himself, in fact his return emails to me were very offensive and completely untrue, not the work of a professional but the work of an amateur. I would not send another time piece to him if you were the last person on earth to work on time pieces. His attempts to blame me for all of the problems, to criticize me for the way I express myself to him, continue to blame me and to charge me more money because he was not happy with what I had to say are all marks of a complete unprofessional person. I would be very hesitant to send anything to him for repair if I were you. Have I known these things before I never would've sent my pocket watch to him for repair. He is now holding me captive, unless I pay him more money he will dispose of my fucker watch that belong to my grandfather, what kind of man is this? read more

I entrusted a rare 14k vintage Bulova to Terry Nelson. This was a family piece that stopped working some time ago. Most wouldn't touch it. It was a pleasure to work with Terry, a complete professional. The timelines were reasonable, and the invoice was very fair. Terry also educated us about the idiosyncrasies of this particular movement. I will be exploring my vintage collection to see what other favorites I have written off, entrusting them to Terry to bring back to life. read more

Terry Nelson - Watchmaker - Watch Repair Near Me

Mr Nelson restored two vintage timepieces for me in 2012. From the current reviews I think he may have become inflexible. At the time I he job he did was good enough but the communication was uneven. I am currently looking for someone to restore another timepiece. With the current reviews though I'd have to take a pass. read more

I had Terry Nelson service an antique pocket watch and I could not have been happier with the process from start to finish. I feel most people are only motivated to leave reviews when they are not happy, skewing a true look at overall customer satisfaction. Mr. Nelson's communication was very pleasant and informative throughout. My watch came back, clean, polished and still runs flawlessly, keeping amazingly accurate time for an over 100 year old watch. I subsequently sent him an Illinois pocket watch that he was kind enough to tell me would cost more to repair than it would be worth, unless it had sentimental value. He could have just repaired it and hit me with the bill, but he didn't and I appreciated his honesty. I wouldn't hesitate to send another watch to him. read more

I shipped my great grandfather's 1911 elgin pocket watch to Terry for a full refurbish. He did an outstanding job!! Looks like new & keeps spot on time. Thanks Terry for your great craftsmanship & diligent care for this 110 yr old time piece!!! read more

Terry Nelson - Watchmaker - 1911 Elgin pocket watch - Watch Repair Near Me

I turned to the internet to find someone who could do a high quality restoration of an early 50's watch for my dad's 80th birthday and cost was not an issue as the watch has immense sentimental value. I reached out to Mr. Nelson and found a several month wait, but his website looked professional and his before and after photos look very very good so I waited. My turn came and I sent the watch. My directions were to make it look as new as possible. Watch was just returned and face looks almost as bad as when I sent it. The cleaning removed most of the watch logo and some second hands. I was expecting a face restoration as pictured on his website, but the cleaning was all that was provided and no other options offered. I trusted Mr. Nelson's professional judgement as to what was needed to make it look as new as possible, but what he did was remove some dirt and some paint without refreshing it in any way. Now I will pay someone else to do the job correctly. Some gold repairs were performed on the case which are noticeable since the edges are lower and do not blend with the original gold. It looks like the very small amount of gold was added sparingly rather then added in excess and removed to create a seamless finish. I had the crystal replaced and the replacement has defects on the surface that cause distortion when you look through it. Mr. Nelson glued the movement into the back with black glue so now the face has to be removed and the glue addressed to remove the movement from the back. In trying to find someone to correct all of these errors I asked several watch makers if glueing the movement into the back is common practice and all said no and none had heard of the practice. The back now moves within the case so when the watch is moved the back and movement rattle from side to side. The back still has lots of bluish residue on the inside edge so apparently the outer back was polished, but the inside of the back was not cleaned. Bottom line is I would never do this again. I will now pay someone else to do the job that I requested. read more

This guy is a total fraud. I followed his directions and mailed him my watch and upon receiving it he sent me an extremely rude email saying that I didn't follow his directions. I asked what specifically I didn't follow and he never provided any facts. He then told me that I had to pay him $85 to get my watch back. He failed to fix the watch and started a fight over directions that he never provided information on what was done wrong. I was completely shocked at his attitude and unprofessional behavoir. I would stay away from this guy at all costs. read more

Terry does real quality work and is an authority on mechanical timepieces. As a result, he's pretty busy and it took me a couple of months to get the go ahead to send in my 1903 pocket watch owned by my great grandfather. Just got it back today and he did a great job with the restoration and replacement of the worn bow and winding crown with originals for that type of pocket watch. Excellent email communication. I was provided with a lot of detailed information for my time piece and all questions and concerns were quickly addressed. He is pricey but if you have an important family time piece and you're focused on quality he is the man to get it done right. You wouldn't want to risk cheap repairs done at a local watch repair shop. read more

Terry Nelson - Watchmaker - Watch Repair Near Me

First off, how do you rate a company (in particular a vintage mechanical watchmaker), when his work continuously exceeds any expectation? Mr. Terry Nelson certainly is one of the best mechanical watchmakers in the United States, and perhaps beyond. I was so lucky when I came across his website: http://www.watchrepair.cc as I had a Longines mechanical watch from back in 1954 that needed some serious restoration. The watch was given to my father, by his father, when my dad joined the Navy. My dad gave me the same watch when I got my first corporate pilot job in 1982. After many years of use and abuse, I decided to attempt to locate a professional mechanical watchmaker to do the job. Hence my search for such a person led me to Mr Terry Nelson. He is located in Portland Oregon. I could go into all the details of my contact with him, but this review would last forever. Suffice it to say that he is a world class professional, his website holds ALL THE DETAILS of his work, and how to contract him to work on your watch. You, the customer, follow the instructions on the website, he restores your watch, and you end up with a family heirloom that has been restored to the absolute highest and best standard. I had no problem shipping him my watch. Some people are nervous with being ripped off, however you have no worries when shipping to M. Nelson. A man of his word and his craft, and if anyone can bring a mechanical watch "back to new" this guy can. Absolutely superb results with my Longines, well beyond any reasonable expectation. And my watch is over 63 years old ! Highly recommend this gentleman and his business. read more

I had a watch that needed a bit of help. It had been sitting for a very long time and at some point the crystal was lost leaving the dial to become beat up. It wasn't a Rolex, but was still a very cool and well-made old watch, and certainly worth the effort to bring back. I looked into several places that could do the work to restore the watch. Ultimately, I settled on Terry Nelson because the little bit of feedback I found on him was good, his website explained what he was capable of doing, and his responses via email were quick and detailed. After contacting him, we agreed that he would restore the watch dial and case back to factory original condition. I sent him the dial and case and the restoration began. The first notification I received was regarding the completion of the dial. Immediately upon seeing the pictures of the dial, I noticed several red flags. The restored dial differed from what I had sent in several substantial ways. I politely pointed out to Terry the differences, but he stated it was the best I could expect. In response, I reminded him we had agreed that it was supposed to be restored back precisely to factory design and condition. Instead, while it looked like something from that era and was done well, it was essentially a complete redesign. Terry countered that since it was a largely forgotten watch brand that was lost to time, no one could say that the dial design was wrong. I realized that he was right, and while I wasn't happy that these changes weren't communicated beforehand, I begrudgingly accepted the results. When the case was finished, I was sent a low resolution pic and it looked fine. However, when I received the case in the mail, it was immediately clear that it was far from fine. The case was never in very bad shape, but I wanted it redone since I was having the dial redone. What I got back was far worse than what I sent off. It was no longer a polished case, but now had a brushed finish, there were tooling marks all over it, the surfaces were wavy from someone grinding the surface, and the plating didn't adhere in some spots. I immediately contacted Terry, again politely stating my concerns, but he dismissed them saying it was a work of art and I didn't understand the process. After a few emails, he blew me off and stopped responding. By the way, he has no phone probably for this exact reason. I was forced to file a complaint through the Better Business Bureau. In his response, he again said I was being unreasonable, didn't understand what I was talking about, called me names, and said I was a liar. The complaint was closed as being an unsatisfactory resolution. All I can do now is to warn others to avoid his services at all costs. I think I'm a very understanding and reasonable person. All I wanted was what was agreed upon. He charges top dollar for his services, so you would expect to get top notch work, but what he delivers is anything but. Now I'm stuck with an incorrect dial and a watch case that is so bad that the watch is now junk and can really only be used for parts. Its that bad! I encourage you to go elsewhere with your watches. read more