1:46 Watch Repair & Designer Collective

(Disclosure)
Owner is a friend
That being said, he did do a great job fixing my watch, and I know for a fact that he genuinely cares about his customers and doing s good job.
I respect that !

Awful — I have never felt inclined to write a review on a business after one experience, but avoid this place. Unprofessional and non responsive. I left my watch on a Sunday to have a routine link repair, they said I should hear back by Tuesday. I called the number listed here on Tuesday to check in — nothing. I called back twice during that day — no response. Same for Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. I called no less than 10 times leaving contact details. After returning to the shop, the woman (who clearly knows nothing about watches) returns mine not repaired and in worse condition. I dont know who possibly is writing positive reviews about this place, avoid at all costs.

If I could give Leo zero stars I would not hesitate. Handed over my grandmother’s vintage watch from the 50s to someone «filling in» at the shop (who even works here??? The same people are never there). Five weeks later, no exaggeration, the watch is still broken and he never replaced the band on it. Charged me $ 100 instead of the $ 150 that he quoted me and I am supposed to be grateful!!! He is a condescending prick who spoke over me at every chance. He likes to bully his customers into believing his bullshit excuses for not doing repairs on time and being unresponsive. Seriously, don’t. go. here.

Ordered in a new watch band for one watch and replaced the batteries and band on another. Was friendly and competent. Did very nice work and bore with me over a very dithery ordering process. One of the watches has a good deal of sentimental value but is not very valuable. I got shit from a different place I had taken it to be repaired over how exacting I was. Nothing like that here. Very patient and understanding.
This would be a 3.5 if that were possible just because the hours are inconvenient, however the customer service is worth it so 4 is still definitely appropriate.

Fixed my watch band in less than 2 minutes!

A bit shocked when he charged me $ 15 for a 30sec. battery replacement. When I got home, opened up the watch and looked at the battery, found the same exact energizer battery online for $ 5, and this was for 5 batteries… $ 1 per battery! never again getting ripped off by this place. And he said it was a special rolex battery that’s why it was so expensive. Lies.

I was in Williamsburg for the day exploring when I walked into this charming house/​shop and found out it was the cutest jewelry shop. It had a bunch of unique pieces from local artists which I thought was pretty cool. I went in for the vintage but ended up buying this really cute zodiac pendant for myself and one for a Christmas present. I’m very picky about my jewelry (I take forever to pick one thing specially when I want the whole store lol) but the lady was very helpful & answered all my questions. Definitely will be back !

I really try to support small businesses. And I’m not one to write reviews, but my experience at 1:46 was an awful waste of time. I arrive 45 minutes after they claim they’ll be open, expecting to quickly pick up two watches I had repaired.
I wait a half an hour and still no one is there even though the lights are on. I called both contact numbers and sent an email with no response. While waiting, 4 or 5 customers, hoping to be serviced, also came by and were surprised that they weren’t open. (One even said that this is the third time this has happened to her and mentioned how difficult it is to find parking in the area).
Finally someone arrived, shallowly apologizing for her lateness. I tell her of my experience and she asks me to pay $ 20 for my repairs. I quickly pay her, retrieve my watches and tell her to anticipate my review via Unilocal.She runs after me in the street after I’ve left and tries to pay me off with a refund. I politely refused.
You’ve earned that $ 20 along with this review.

This place is so charming and so reasonable. More than once they’ve replaced a watch battery for me in less than a minute and then charged $ 10 or less.

Really nice guy– does repairs or battery changes right in front of you.
I go to a jewelry store somewhere and they’ll give me my watch back the next day, charging double. Leo fixed my watch band and it broke again a week later. He fixed it again for free, and on the spot.

I strongly recommend that you call before visiting, that is if you decide to visit. I found this place on the Internet after searching for somewhere relatively close by to have a couple batteries replaced. Went out of my way to come to Williamsburg to support a small business, got here at about 3:15 PM, only to be told «oh I just closed five minutes ago» by some woman sitting out front with a small display table. Puzzled, I said «but your info says you’re open from 12 until five?» «I know but…» Was the response I got. An utter and complete waste of my time.

Came in for a battery repair that Leo completed right as I stood there. Then I mentioned a clasp problem on my Nixon and he came up with a good solution. Awesome. I’m stoked. And just 2 blocks from the studio. :) local and small.

I brought a watch in for him to fix and after a month of him jerking me around (telling me he’d call me back about 6 times and just never called one time, empty promises, FORGOT who i even was, forgot which watch i was talking about) I finally got the watch back, not even fixed, he had put a generic replacement part on and told me he thought it would be fine, when we agreed I wanted a genuine part.
SO I took the watch back, got him to take off the fake cheap generic shit he put on my watch, and ordered the replacement band which had the genuine clasp I wanted, I was going to take it in, then also found out the watch stopped moving, it’s an expensive swiss made piece and needed professional care.
So I took it back to him, he wasn’t there, some girl took the watch and took my number and still haven’t heard from either of them, I called today to ask when it would be ready and she said he wasn’t there and she’s gone tomorrow til Sunday.
Hoping I have a different experience, but it looks like I’m going to get the run-​a-​round again from this guy.
I think this might be a cover business for some sort of illegal activity, since they are never there and don’t communicate with people, never call you back or even act like they care about your business.

This is a complicated review.
I feel terrible giving a small business one star, but my personal experience with Leo was really disappointing and confusing.
I dropped off a vintage Rolex with him at the end of June. He took a look and let me know what he thought would need fixing. (The watch had accidentally been thrown across the room and was not running) He said I could pick it up after the July 4^th holiday. Unfortunately I was out of town and busy for much of July and it just sort of slipped through the cracks.
Let me say at this point I had two voicemails from Leo saying I could come retrieve the watch…
I called him back in late July and said I would be coming to get it and pay for the work ($ 300.00) He basically said «no worries people leave stuff here much longer than this»
Fast forward to me calling again first week of August and saying «I’m coming to get it like now»
«OK come on by»
When I get to the shop, Leo «can’t find» the watch.
He only now tells me he had sent it out to another repair person in lower Manhattan… I had never been told of this. Also, remember I had been told it was ready in July!
He tells me he will get the watch back.
Another week goes by. He doesn’t call me, I have to repeatedly call him to check in.
Still no watch. The guy in lower Manhattan needs more time. Leo explains that all this is due to faulty repair work done previously. This doesn’t make sense to me because the watch worked perfectly for the first year I owned it.
OK, fine.
I wait another week so they can work on it some more. I can’t even deal with these conversations anymore so now my husband takes over calling to check in. I don’t want to yell at this guy over the phone.
The conclusion is that the watch was in his care from end of June til mid September and still doesn’t work. His suggestion is «mail it to Rolex» THE END.
His communication with me was really bad. He was so vague I honestly thought he had lost the watch. By the way, my husband asked «You didn’t lose it did you?» Leo said, «No no and anyway if I did I would just have to pay for it right?»
That to me is a red flag.
So I guess now I have to head over there to get my still broken watch and make the trek to midtown to bring it to Rolex. Probably should have done that in the first place and avoided the aggravation.

I got a watch from my Mom a while back and it stopped running, which left me pretty heartbroken. I went to three different places, and got the battery changed and it still happened, so on my last try to get this thing fixed, I Unilocaled and found this place.
Overall, I am very pleased with the service. The first time I dropped it off, they replaced the battery and told me to come back if (when) it stopped running again. Sure enough, a week later, I had to go back. The whole process took several months because they had to break the crystal to get into the watch and fix it, and then it stopped again, but overall, I really appreciate the efforts Leo went through to fix this watch because it means so much to me. I also appreciated the 6 month warranty that he gave me.
The only thing though is that the hours may not quite so accurate: I went there in the mornings about twice, and waited around for about 15 – 30 min each time. When I brought this up to him, he stated that it was best to come around noon as he was the only person available on those days. I completely understand, but maybe it’s better to make those hours more clear to customers so we don’t come and wait around… that’s the only peeve I have about this place.
But overall, great service, if you have a watch that you just can’t part with and it is giving you problems, take it here. They know what they’re doing.

I popped in to get my watch battery replaced and walked away a few minutes later with a running watch, knowledge about taking care of it, and only down $ 10. It was a very good experience — the owner was pleasant and clearly an expert. He showed me the dirt behind my watch back and told me it would be better for the watch mechanism not to clean it — he obviously could have told me otherwise and charged me for it. Another tidbit: it’s better to leave your watch running than it is to stop it to save the battery; doing so could cause the watch mechanism to stop working even if the battery is still good. I’ll have to tell my mom she’s been wrong all these years!
One recommendation for if you decided to use this shop — in my experience, it’s best not to go close to closing time. I had stopped in a couple times then and found the door locked, though the lights were still on.

I couldn’t be happier with the service at this place.
I brought in two watches to be serviced this past Saturday: one needed to have links removed, the other needed a new battery.
The clerk performed both repairs inside of about ninety seconds. Combined cost for both repairs was $ 20.00, which included the cost of a new battery. This shop also accepted credit and debit cards, which was a really nice touch for a small business.
Location was really convenient also: just off the main drag of Bedford, a block from the L train stop there.

My fiancé and I brought my engagement ring in to be resized. I was nervous about leaving my ring with a stranger, but I felt immediately at ease with Leo, and he ensured that my fiancé and I both examined my ring under the loupe before we left it.
Leo was able to have it returned to me the next day, as promised, and even gave me his personal cell phone number so I could pick up after hours. This is a great little business, and really convenient to have jewelry resized in Brooklyn. All other places I found were in the Diamond District, and it would have been inconvenient to travel there.

I stumbled upon 1:46 as I was walking around Williamsburgh checking out the thrift shops. My friend and I passed this cute little place and I remembered she had a broken watch in her bag lying in wait for a moment such as this. It needed a battery and some discipline. Seriously, this watch wouldn’t shut up! The repair guy changed the battery and examined the watch, and determined that it has a manufacturing defect. It’s a digital watch, and there’s nothing mechanical that he could do to stop the alarm from triggering at unwanted times. Rather than send it to the company for servicing, we decided to simply disable the ringer, which he did, no problem. Perfect. While waiting we chatted with the guys and looked at the jewelry, all interesting and beautiful stuff. Great place.

I walked in with my fathers old Hamilton watch that I wanted a new band for. He took a look, turned around and whipped out about seven or eight bands that I could choose from. I made my selection, he turned back around and then showed me what it would look like with my choice. I thought it looked good. He turned back around one final time, told me he was giving me some new pins and finally after spending less than five minutes in the shop, he had a brand new, brown leather band on my watch. $ 25. I was actually expecting more.
Great little shop. I will go here with ANY watch issues.