Tools and Talent

A couple of weekends back, I bought a vintage used Citizen watch (シチズン時計株式会社) at an eclectic little shop in Seattle’s International District.

I like the look of the time piece: simple, stainless bezel, case and band, the crystal is in good shape and the price was right…30 bucks. No fool I, my mother worked in a jewelry store for years, my expectations were low. I didn’t expect it to keep accurate time but, if it did, all the better.

It didn’t.

But… I got a guy.

In Chicago I live in the Loop, a block from Jeweler’s Row (Wabash Avenue). All of the Jewelers, and all of the jewels! My born and bred Chicago pals all “gotta a guy” who can do or get anything you can’t do or don’t have. My “watch guy” is Franko. I walked into his shop on the 12th floor of the Heyworth Building. Franko was working on another watch so I waited, expecting to describe the problem —”It doesn’t keep time and, astonishingly, seems to run both fast and slow…” — drop it off and wait for a call. Franko listened to my tale of Tardis-time, took my watch and, like any confident craftsman, pulled it apart. He replaced the battery, someone put in the wrong size and type, cleaned it up and asked me how much I paid for it. When I told him 30 bucks he laughed. I expected I’d been taken but he seemed to think it was a good deal. He charged me 10 bucks so now I have a 40 dollar watch that keeps good time, a little story, a peek inside the Heyworth Building and, most importantly, I got a guy.