In 1955, Michael Murat was first taught the art of watch repair. He worked for the Kiev watch repair shop in the heart of Kiev, Ukraine, alongside his friend Vitaly Markitan. These lifelong friends would continue to work together through the next 35 years. In 1975, Gary, Michael's son, decided to follow in his foot steps, and began a 2 year training regime under Master Watchmaker Vitaly Markitan. Michael asked Vitaly to train Gary as he felt Vitaly was the better teacher of the two friends. Vitaly was known as the best watchmaker throughout the former Soviet Union and his former students are now watchmakers for some of the finest Swiss watch brands including Audemars Piguet and Patek Philippe. Because of their long friendship, Vitaly took extra time and effort to ensure that Gary would surpass his and his Father's skill set and would go on to become an even greater watchmaker. He taught him techniques and skills that are rarely used in watch making today, such as the art of creating individual watch parts from scratch.
In 1988, with only $500, the Murat family decided to migrate to America to seek a better life. By September of 1991, Michael and Gary had saved up enough to open Precision Watch & Clock Repair, a small watch repair shop located on the corner of Street Rd. and Bustleton Pike.
By the age of 13, Roman, Gary's son, the third generation of the family of watchmakers, began to follow in the family footsteps, helping out at the shop and closely studying his fathers' and grandfathers' work. In 2001, after graduating Council Rock High School, Roman decided to make his grandfather proud and join the family business. He started to expand the business to not only handle watch repair, but to also sell the finest Swiss watch brands.
In January of 2007, Precision Watches relocated to its current location at the Shoppes at the Buck Hotel. Today, we are proud to offer a true family owned service. We continue to do all watch repairs on premises, aside from being an authorized retailer for 10 luxury Swiss watch brands. As the business has grown, our customer service and faithful customer base has only grown with it. We are grateful for every customer that has given us the opportunity to grow and we treat each customer as a member of our family.
To be the best means everything to us, to be recommended as the premier watch repair store in the suburban Philadelphia area means even more. All machinery and tools are the highest-grade in the industry, you have full peace of mind that your watch is being worked on by trained hands and the latest technology, a combination of assets that was unavailable those 50 years ago when we first started servicing watches. Our staff is carefully picked, we want to be certain that the family atmosphere is represented and implemented at all times. Stop by anytime you need a watch fix, or if you are browsing for that next special timepiece, you'll feel right at home.
