New investors in an established Scottish watch service centre aims to bring the business into the 21st Century with a series of innovative features and develop sales of a selection of luxury watch brands.
Jon Vincent Watchmakers was established in Hamilton more than 28 years ago by British Horological Institute fellow Vincent Light and has recently attracted investment from entrepreneur John Kelly and his two sons at a point where Light, who remains a key shareholder and chairman, looks to step back from the business.
The new web presence allows customers to submit their watch to the service centre and receive an estimated repair value as well as free courier collection and return service from anywhere in the UK; a service which the company believes is the first of its kind.
The Kellys have also developed an online retail operation under the Jon Vincent name that currently offers watches from JeanRichard, Valbray and Claude Bernard timepieces, an offering that the business is looking to expand upon next year.
The company will be moving into new headquarters in Hamilton in March next year, a listed building beside Hamilton’s historic Town House is currently being refurbished to include workshop and boutique.
Light trained as an apprentice in Rochdale in the 1950s and was a leading spokesman for watch apprentices to improve the working conditions in the workshops at that time. During his career he worked at Timex and H Samuel.
The team of watchmakers Light assembled at the Jon Vincent service centre have “worked for all of the UK’s leading jewellers, repairing watches from Rotary to Rolex, Citizen to Cartier”. Light himself will be aiming to spend more time on the golf course but is still onhand to serve as ‘coach, mentor and trainer’ as well as work on more complicated watch challenges.
