Ron Bentley and his son Ryan are passionate about watches and watchmaking. Their business, Bentley Watch Repair located in Hiawatha, Iowa deals with all thing watch related. Their business runs like "clock work" with Ron specializing in fixing old pocket watches from customers across the country, while his son Ryan works on the newer wristwatches.
Ron got started in the business as a result of a serious auto accident as a young man. He was sent to Des Moines for rehabilitation as a result of the accident and it was there that he met his counselor who was a watchmaker. Combined with his love for watches, Ron decided to enroll at the Bulova School of Horology in New York City. Ron graduated in January 1973 and worked for several local jewelry stores including a run at his own watchmaking business together with a partner. In 1993 Ron opened Bentley Watch Repair, an independent watchmaking business.
Ryan joined the business in 2008 after graduating from Lititz Watch Technicum in Lititz, PA. Ryan was involved with the business from the age 12. He began working on time locks and later moved on to helping customers, doing minor repair along with crystals and movement replacements. After graduating from Lititz Ryan decided to come back and join the family business.
Ron and Ryan love taking an old family time piece that they never thought would run again and making it work like new. "You have taken a person’s treasured time piece that can often be of great monetary or sentimental value that they have entrusted to you. They don't think it can be repaired and you are able to restore and bring it back to its original glory." Ryan loves hunting the problem down and fixing it. "You may spend hours which in our world feels like minutes. Getting lost in what your doing seems to be very satisfying as well."
Ron and Ryan both got an early start with watches. Ron's father gave him his first watch, a Helbros Invincible that he wore for years. The first watch that Ryan owned was an Armitron with Bugs Bunny dunking a basketball on the dial! His first mechanical manual wind watch was a Caravelle pocket watch that was given to him by his dad. The first watch that Ron repaired was his uncles 23 jewel self-winding Bulova. The first watch that Ryan distinctly remember repairing was a Swiss Army quartz 24-hour watch. This was before he had any classical watchmaker training. "The movement was very different and unavailable to us. So instead of telling them we could not fix it, I took components from this 24-hour quartz watch and stacked them onto a base model of the same movement." And everything worked!
Ron likes working on old rail road pocket watches. "They are so well made and beautifully decorated by damascening the plates in the watch. The solid gold balance screws, wheels and bushings and ruby jewels make them works of art that the general public just does not get to enjoy. Many of the cases are beautifully engraved as well." Ryan really enjoys working on Rolex watches although each watch has its fun aspects of repair. "Rolex is a watch that was designed for the watchmaker in mind with parts that fit perfectly and a minimal amount of different sized screws. These watches can last for years and years if maintained properly."
Ryan summarizes his passion for watchmaking. "As a watchmaker we like to think we can do it all and there is nothing that is too difficult. Just things that are more of a challenge and more time consuming to complete."
