I worked at a local-owned jewelry store for years (starting out as on-call computer guy). The kind with an old fashion in-house jeweler who did all repairs him

I worked at a local-owned jewelry store for years (starting out as on-call computer guy). The kind with an old fashion in-house jeweler who did all repairs himself (setting stones, resizing rings, cleanings, etc). We did everything EXCEPT most watch repairs. We changed batteries in the quartz watches, and replaced and repaired bands, and performed some minor repairs of mechanical watches, but we sent out most watch repairs to a watchmaker several cities away. The boss, who was an old jeweler who had started out in the business as a boy in the fifties working under a jeweler and watchmaker, always said that watchmakers are a dying breed, and could pretty much name their price. When I started working and learning the trade we had two watchmakers that we shipped to. Within two years one of those had retired, and we were unable to find a replacement for him. I loved working and repairing jewelry (even more so that my fulltime job in IT for local gov), and wanted to become a watchmaker, but my life took me elsewhere. Now that I am older and in a better place in life I often think of those three years, and have been considering obtaining the tools to start up a hobby in one or the other...or both. Thank you, OP, for an awesome post and link.