LOCAL WATCH REPAIR COMPANY STILL TICKING
Dave Hall
Windsor Star
Aug 19 2008
Canada
A diamond-setter since he started his apprenticeship at the age of
12 in Istanbul, Harry Dokmecian is still working 57 years later in
a small shop on Park Street West.
Owner of Bert Weeks Jewellers, a long-established downtown business
which still bears the late Windsor mayor’s name, Dokmecian can still
be found behind the counter or in his small workshop at the back of
the store six days a week.
"What else would I do? Where else would I go?" said Dokmecian, an
Armenian who left Turkey with his mother and brother in 1955 and moved
to Buenos Aires, Argentina. "This is what I know and I plan to be here
a while yet because my health, knock on wood, is still pretty good."
Dokmecian, whose father died when he was eight, said his family left
Turkey because of longstanding conflicts between Turks and Armenians
and because "it was tough for us to earn a living so we moved to
Argentina."
While learning to speak Spanish, Dokmecian opened his own store in
Buenos Aires and soon added watch-making to his repertoire of skills.
"It was a good living," said Dokmecian.
But after 16 years in Argentina, Dokmecian, his wife Arnalda and
mother decided to move to Canada to be closer to relatives who lived
in Michigan.
"We stayed at the old Norton Palmer for three or four days before
finding a small apartment," said Dokmecian.
It also didn’t take him long to find Weeks Jewellers, which was
then located on Ouellette Avenue, and armed with a Spanish-English
dictionary, he talked himself into an interview.
"I had to keep looking up the different words during the interview
but it worked and I started working for Mr. Weeks in 1971," said
Dokmecian. "I repaired watches of all kinds from new ones to antiques."
After three years, he left Weeks and started working at Meyers
Jewellers in Detroit where he repaired Accutron watches. But when
Weeks retired in 1980, Dokmecian took the opportunity to become his
own boss again and took over the store.
Nine years later, he moved the business around the corner onto Park
Street where it’s been ever since.
Thirty years ago, there were more than a dozen jewellers downtown
but now only a handful remain including Weeks, G&G Jewelery, Ian
Henderson Jeweller and Gemologist and Shanfield-Meyers.
Some have closed while others have relocated elsewhere in the city.
"At times, it’s been difficult but we had a good clientele who kept
coming back and we have a good name," said Dokmecian. "Downtown is
not too good for business right now but I’m still here.
"And I’ve always believed that if you’re not lazy, you’ll always have
bread on your table."
Dokmecian said his only concession to age is that he now uses a
jeweller’s magnifier because his eyesight isn’t what is used to be
after decades of working with intricate designs and small timepieces.
"I love to fix old timepieces. I’ve worked on antique watches and
clocks from the 1800s but it’s getting harder to find parts because
most of the old watchmakers from around here are either retired or
they’ve passed away," said Dokmecian.
His workshop area features a four-tonne safe which cost him $1,100
to move when he switched locations, a gold-rolling machine as well as
gold-plating machines most of which "you can’t find anywhere anymore."