Watch and Clock Repairers

High Risk
Low High

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Occupation snapshot

What does this snowflake show?
The Snowflake is a visual summary of the five badges: Automation Risk (calculated), Risk (polled), Growth, Wages and Volume. It gives you an instant snapshot of an occupations profile. The colour of the Snowflake relates to its size. The better the occupation scores in relation to others, the larger and greener the Snowflake becomes.
JOB SCORE
3.2/10
What's this?
Job Score (higher is better):

We rate jobs using four factors. These are:

- Chance of being automated
- Job growth
- Wages
- Volume of available positions

These are some key things to think about when job hunting.

Risk & user votes

Calculated automation risk

75% (High Risk)

High Risk (61-80%): This occupation shows a significant risk of end-to-end replacement by automation. Many core parts of the role may be structured, repeatable, software-driven, or physically predictable enough for AI, machines, or robotic systems to take over. If you work in this area, it may be worth exploring safer related careers or moving towards more human-centred responsibilities.

More information on what this score is, and how it is calculated is available here.

Human strengths important in this job

These are human abilities and work contexts that are important in this occupation. They may help explain why parts of the role are harder to replace end-to-end, but they are not the only inputs into the automation score.

Working directly with the public

Quite important
Why this matters
The job involves face-to-face interaction with customers, clients, or guests—answering questions, handling requests, and managing service situations in real time. Roles with frequent public interaction are harder to replace end-to-end because they rely on trust, communication, and adapting to unpredictable human needs.
Jobs that also use this strength

Thinking creatively

Quite important
Why this matters
Coming up with original ideas and designs—creating new concepts, products, systems, or artistic work. This kind of open-ended invention and taste-based judgment is harder to automate end-to-end than routine, rule-based tasks.
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Decision-making and problem solving

Quite important
Why this matters
Analyze information, weigh tradeoffs, and choose the best solution—especially when situations are ambiguous, high-stakes, or have real-world consequences.
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What users think

Based on 98 votes

40% chance of full automation within the next two decades

Our visitors have voted there's a low chance this occupation will be automated. However, the automation risk level we have generated suggests a much higher chance of automation: 75% chance of automation.

What do you think the risk of automation is?

What is the likelihood that Watch and Clock Repairers will be replaced by robots or artificial intelligence within the next 20 years?

View sentiment trend

Pay & outlook

Wages

Moderately paid relative to other professions

In 2024, the median annual wage for Watch and Clock Repairers was $60,690 ($29 per hour).

The median annual wage for Watch and Clock Repairers was 22.6% higher than the national median annual wage, which stood at $49,500.

View wage trend

Wages over time

* Data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics

Growth

Slow growth relative to other professions.

The number of 'Watch and Clock Repairers' job openings is expected to decline 1.1% by 2034

View employment trend

Total employment, and estimated job openings

* Data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics for the period between 2023 and 2033
Updated projections are due 09-2025.

Volume

Significantly lower range of job opportunities compared to other professions

As of 2024 there were 1,300 people employed as 'Watch and Clock Repairers' within the United States.

This represents around < 0.001% of the employed workforce across the country

Put another way, around 1 in 118 thousand people are employed as 'Watch and Clock Repairers'.

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What people are saying (15)

Leave a comment
Wooden Car DOC (Low)
29 Jul 2025 17:31
The complexity of adjusting a fine mechanical watch is too intricate for even sophisticated micro robots. Repairing a fine watch requires extraordinary manual skills and knowledge base.
John (Highly likely)
17 May 2024 07:15
A majority of watch repair work can simply not be done by machine
Hans (No chance)
31 Aug 2023 05:13
Watch reparing is not the same as watch making. Repairs need a high level of analytical skills and hand skills to a) figure out what is wrong b) to rectify what is wrong.

Watch making (manufacturing) has largely 2 levels of skills:

1. Artisan - cannot be replaced by AI.
2. General - The Swatch Group already has a 'no-humans-involved' capabilty and builds its bottom line brand 'Swatch' that way.
Rei (Highly likely)
20 Apr 2022 13:32
With how humans work less and less in dexterity-based jobs, you can expect that sometimes, robots will be used for this kind of work. Humans will only be operating the robot and giving commands, still deciding what kind of malfunction to fix, since most analog watches still need some kind of manual work to be done.
Joe (No chance)
26 Mar 2021 16:51
Too much variance for a machine to know what to do on every watch that is presented, at most it would be limited to only one brand but it still could be perfect
Anonymous (Highly likely)
23 Dec 2020 03:03
Simple and repetitive, good candidate for automation
Watch Mechanic
18 Nov 2020 14:51
Lol it's because watches aren't being used anymore due to smartphones
Sir William
04 Jul 2024 16:33
Luxury Watch market sales are continually increasing by 3-5% each year. The only problem is the watch repair industry itself losing watchmakers. Robots could break into the market, but if you have ever seen how complicated a watch movement is this will most likely be a safe job in the future.
Bernard Everstein (No chance)
20 Oct 2020 20:56
Not cost effective to have a robot with enough precision and space efficiency for this job no chance buster
Opinion (Low)
26 Nov 2019 16:35
Seems like a high-variance, low volume job. A bad candidate for automation. Now, the job field will likely shrink, but that's due to people switching to digital/smart watches, a separate issue.
john doe
19 Nov 2019 18:28
"you go man" "They aren't replacing you!"
Watch Man
21 Jun 2019 02:49
I will have you know I graduated top class at the watchmaker instute, and have 3 medals for my excelent craftsmanship which no robot can replicate
reply person1 (Highly likely)
05 Aug 2019 03:39
lol
reply person2
20 Apr 2020 23:08
You reckon lol any robot will do it better eventually, give it a few years
Watch Bot
26 Apr 2020 07:04
Im about to end this man's whole career
Leave a reply about this occupation
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Job description

Repair, clean, and adjust mechanisms of timing instruments, such as watches and clocks. Includes watchmakers, watch technicians, and mechanical timepiece repairers.

O*NET-SOC code: 49-9064.00