About Us

Pilbrow Watchmakers was established in Gisborne in 1947 by P.J. Pilbrow.

I (Ian Pilbrow) started my apprenticeship with my father (P.J. Pilbrow) in 1966 and graduated after a 5 year course. I have been watchmaking both in New Zealand and overseas and for the past 25 years have had our workshop in Taupo, New Zealand.

My son Rowan started his apprenticeship in August 2001 and gained his certificate as a qualified Horologist in May 2006.

In July 2001 we started a specialized repair workshop in a 'glass bowl' in the middle of Suncourt Arcade, Taupo, giving the public the opportunity to watch Horologists in action. This proved to be extremely popular and we quickly ran out of space due to the amount of work being brought in. We moved to another shop (still within Suncourt Arcade) dramatically increasing the shop size, but still allowing the public to watch us working. Due to the ever increasing demand for quality repair work, earlier this year we were forced to open a second workshop, providing quicker turnaround for repairs and to allow us to expand our showroom. This new workshop houses most of our larger and more specialized equipment as well as our huge parts room and is only open to the public by appointment. Work is still carried out in full view of the public in our main shop as well.

Within our large parts room we have a huge assortment of parts for all types of clocks and watches that have been collected over the past sixty to seventy years, many of which are now very hard to get and in some instances unobtainable.

We repair all types of clocks and watches, but specialize in the restoration of antique timepieces. We can repair…

Clocks:

• American, Dutch, English, French, German etc.
• Marble, metal or wooden cased. Time only, striking or chiming.
• Mantle clocks
• Cuckoo clocks
• 400 Day (Anniversary) clocks
• Longcase (Grandfather/Grandmother) clocks
• Wall clocks
• Bracket clocks
• Carriage clocks
• Alarm clocks
• Ships clocks
• Car clocks
• Mystery clocks

Watches:

• American, English, German, Swiss etc.
• Pocket watches
• Fob watches
• Manual wind watches
• Automatic watches
• Chronograph watches
• Divers watches
• Stopwatches
• Quartz watches

We have for sale watches and clocks from yesteryear, from very old Long-case clocks to modern mechanical watches as well as new clocks and watches.

We can also make clocks for buildings and sports-grounds in any size, shape, style and colour that you require.

All our timepieces we offer for sale (excluding new items) have been completely overhauled and serviced, and where applicable, cases refurbished and/or glasses, straps, crowns or any other worn parts replaced. These all come with either a 12 or 24 month guarantee on workmanship depending on the timepieces in question.

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