My Biz: Father and son keep track of time at Hiawatha shop

Ron Bentley's career came about by accident, literally.

In the early 1970s, Bentley was working in a Cedar Rapids plant that manufactured heavy equipment when he was in a serious car accident. When he returned to work, 'they said, 'Because of your injuries, maybe you should pursue a desk job,'' he recalled.

'I didn't know what I was going to do,' said Bentley, 67. 'I was going to be a machinist.'

Through a state retraining program, Bentley discovered watch repair. After training at the Bulova School of Horology in New York City — horology is the study and measurement of time — Bentley became a watchmaker in 1973.

In 1979, Bentley and a partner purchased two local jewelry stores whose owners were retiring. In 1988, he moved on to work for a local jeweler before launching Bentley Watch Repair in 1993. After the 2008 flood, Bentley moved his shop to Hiawatha from its original Second Avenue SW location in Cedar Rapids.

Bentley's customers followed — if they want to keep their watches in good order, they really don't have a choice. Bentley noted Iowa City's last watchmaker retired recently, 'and there isn't one in Waterloo, either.'

These days, Bentley specializes in fixing old pocket watches from customers across the country, while his son Ryan works on the newer wristwatches.

'He takes care of the people who are collecting the new watches,' Bentley said.

That's despite recent trends and dire predictions about the future of the wristwatch itself and the rise of cheap, throwaway watches.

But Bentley admitted that, 'Watchmaking isn't what it used to be. A lot of young people today don't even wear a watch. They use their cellphones.'

Still, within minutes of opening one morning last week, customers were lined up at the shop's service counter. Office Manager Judy Cherveny, the business' other employee, greets them as father and son bend over their work areas, magnifiers and tiny tools close at hand.

'People start coming in, you look at your watch and it's 11 o'clock,' Bentley said. 'You start repairing a watch, and an hour goes by and you don't even know it. You get engrossed in it.'

Two of the day's early customers brought mechanisms from a bank vault's time lock for cleaning and repair. Those devices, larger than a watch but similar in function and design, are what Ryan started on as a teenager. He's since graduated from a Pennsylvania school sponsored by Rolex.

'I started on this and just developed fascination and appreciation for the business,' Ryan said.

'He's going to keep it going when I decide to retire, whenever that might be,' Ron said.

Modern wristwatches should be thoroughly cleaned and inspected every seven to 10 years. Each jewel gets a tiny, nearly invisible dab of lubricant. Ron Bentley said today's synthetic watch oils are a big improvement over earlier products, which were often whale or dolphin oil.

Newer electric watches may bring different designs, but mechanical models are little changed from their predecessors.

'Nothing has ever really caught on,' Ryan said. 'It's tried-and-true technology.'

'It's 150 years old, running the same mechanism,' Ron said of a pocket watch he repaired recently. 'They run as well now as they did when they were new.'

Sometimes it's the customer that needs an adjustment. Ron Bentley said older customers often bring in a self-winding watch they've had for decades.

'They bought this watch when they were young and more active,' he said. 'We have to tell them it runs on motion. How do you tell him he's got to move?'

Still, 'I've had very, very good luck with 99 percent of my customers,' Ron said.

Enjoying the work may have something to do with that.

'They say if you enjoy what you're doing, you never work a day in your life,' said Ron Bentley. 'After 44 years, I guess I've been lucky. I was born to be a watchmaker.'

[naviga:h3 style="padding-left: 60px;"]AT A GLANCE

Owner: Ron Bentley

Business: Bentley Watch Repair

Address: 103 Emmons St., Hiawatha

Phone: (319) 378-9381

Website: http://bentleywatchrepair.com/

Know a business in operation for more than a year that'd make a good 'My Biz' feature? Contact michaelchevy.castranova@thegazette.com