World Watch

In keeping with my old traditions in ushering in the New Year, I started sorting out my watches, taking out those that need cleaning, buffing or repair.

Some people have a passion for cars, others like respected fellow Star columnist, Butch Dalisay, the Penman, like to collect pens. Incidentally, I’ve finally gotten myself a sleek black Pelican fountain pen which I learned from my Tokayo is one of his favorites, and I now sign my checks with a flourish! Anyway, while I can’t claim to collect watches, I do have a penchant for them, so I’m constantly on the lookout for an honest-to-goodness watch repairman who will not charge me an arm and a leg, like most exclusive repair shops do. This is how I met Jimmy Estabillo, owner of World Watch Jewelry & Repair Shop, himself a watch repairman and very proud of his craft.

I initially brought him one watch for repair in his shop right beside Rustan’s Supermarket in ShangriLa EDSA and chatted with the affable Jimmy. Within a few minutes, I thought he would indeed make good copy for Business & Leisure, the TV show, and his interview proved interesting and inspiring.

Jimmy says he discovered his passion for watches when he was only about 9 or 10 years old and he successfully repaired his watch after a repairman repeatedly bungled the job. When he was old enough, he studied the craft for three months in Soler Street, in Manila setting up a tiny, cramped shop in Quiapo. There, he befriended a Japanese client who wanted to be a “suki”, supporting him with bulk service orders until he finally moved to the Life Arcade also in Quiapo, this time with a bigger and more presentable shop. But the Arcade was soon gutted by fire, and Jimmy saw his livelihood and what-ever he had invested literally go up in smoke, leaving him with virtually nothing.

Undeterred, Jimmy went for further schooling at the Eulogio Amang Rodriquez, learning more about his craft. His Japanese friend once again came to his rescue, bringing him to Japan to set up shop there. He stayed for nine months, long enough to save some money, knowing fully well that his heart will always be in the Philippines, where he will repair tens of thousands of watches for satisfied customers. But before he could settle down in Manila, he chalked up more experience in Saudi Arabia, Brunei and Australia.

This was the start of World Watch, a name he picked up from a magazine and which he thought totally embodied his ideals in his profession – to repair and make watches for the world.

Now, Jimmy has about 4 or 5 outlets of World Watch Jewelry & Repair Shop, all in malls. He looks back to his Quiapo stint as his apprentice years where he learned the ropes and boldly took on challenges that he himself thought impossible to hurdle. There was that customer, an Indian national who ordered 5,000 pieces of watches from him and he labored for days and nights alongside his family members to finish the order. He was determined to finish the last piece, just as he was determined not stay in the “bangketas” of Quiapo all his life as a watch repairman. 

From doing only “de-palito” (cheap) watches in the gutters of Soler St., he has graduated to Rolexes, Omegas, Cartiers and Pateks, and has become a connoisseur of sorts. He also makes commemorative watches for institutional clients like PLDT, etc. with orders in the tens of thousands bearing their company logos. Jimmy says he acquired the machinery for this, and he has been serving huge orders routinely.

He even had an order to create a mammoth clock like the one in Luneta, and he had to commission an Iranian to help him serve the order, a first for him. His new Iranian friend was only too happy to teach him how to build a big one, “if he in turn promised to teach him how to build the small ones.”

Nothing’s impossible, says Jimmy, if you’re determined. Clients have brought him vintage watches whose makers no longer have the spare parts on stock. Though Jimmy is in the habit of collecting all spare parts that he can lay his hands on, even scouring old watch repair stores in far-flung provinces, there are watches that simply do not have the much-needed parts. When this is apparent, he simply results to retooling, in his words “tinuturno namin ito.” So, faithful clients continue to bring him their grandfather’s clocks, their antique mantle clocks and antique pocket watches. Keep them coming, folks, Jimmy says, because by hook or whatever, he will have those big clocks tick-tocking their sweet melodious notes even if it takes him years to do it.

World Watch has been around for 21 years, but Jimmy himself has been repairing watches for 37 years now, and he has never surrendered on any single time piece.   Even the so-called disposable watches which cost quite a lot, more as fashion accessories than as time pieces, find a home in his shop when they break down. They are called disposable because they carry no warranties from the makers and when they break down, no repair centers will accept them. But Jimmy does, and he is even willing to give his own warranties!

Admittedly, his shops are small in space, but it is all the space he and his staff really need. In his Shangri-La EDSA shop, the lay-out is tight and efficient, and because the technicians stay put in their designated areas the whole time that they are working, more space would only be superfluous. The three highly skilled techs have their own specialties – one works well with antique pieces, one with the contemporary ones, and one with the routinary jobs.

On one side is a row of machines that keep humming the whole day. One machine turns your watch into a water-proof time piece, and Jimmy says he specifically asked his Japanese friend to procure this for him before he left Japan. Another machine has different multi-colored solutions that clean the watch until it comes out like new, and still another one has different mechanisms that synchronize the time for utmost accuracy. 

Several shelves line a wall, all of them stocked with hundreds of watches, many of them chalking up residence of over ten years in the shop, forgotten or abandoned by their owners. We even espied an old watch with the original red Coca Cola logo on the bezel. The opposite wall boasts of an assortment of time pieces, cuckoo clocks and old big wall clocks, the most prominent of which is an impressive Omega clock gifted to him by a satisfied client.  

He must have seen hundreds of thousands of watches and clocks in his life time, but Jimmy is still relentless. Now, his horizon has expanded to include the overseas market. He recently arrived from Australia where he is keen on putting up a World Watch outlet. Abangan.

Meanwhile, Jimmy Estabillo keeps a watch on the world.

Mabuhay!!! Be proud to be a Filipino.

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