‘Functional art’
Bethel Park man engages in meticulous work of watch repair
A hard-to-miss digital clock ceaselessly ticks down the seconds, minutes and hours in the space where Carl Hauenstein works day after day after day, but sometimes he gets so caught up in his labors he entirely loses track of time.
“Time just stands still,” he said one recent afternoon. “You don’t want to rush.”
Amid the quiet of his Bethel Park home, Hauenstein carefully repairs and restores watches, a practice that would seem to require the manual dexterity and unflappable patience of a bomb defuser. With his primary tools being a loupe that he wears on his head and tweezers he holds in his hands, Hauenstein brings rare and high-end watches back to life for customers in the region and around the world. If the hands on a watch have stopped, Hauenstein can get them moving again.
“You get to see (a watch) come to life,” he explained. “That’s the satisfaction you get when you put that last part in and you see it running.”
The 46-year-old Hauenstein followed a circuitous route to his profession. A graduate of Mt. Lebanon High School, Hauenstein was a semi- professional skateboarder, but injuries put an end to that. After getting a degree in hotel and restaurant management from the Community College of Allegheny County, Hauenstein managed a pizza place in Mt. Lebanon. Once it closed as a result of flooding from the remnants of Hurricane Ivan in September 2004, Hauenstein began working on vending machines that are used in bars and restaurants, like jukeboxes, pinball machines and pool tables.
Once that work dried up because of COVID-19, Hauenstein pondered either becoming a helicopter pilot or jumping into watch repair, “and I chose the safer of the two options.”
He added, “I’ve always been interested in watches. I’ve loved watches my whole life, even when I was little.”
Hauenstein looked at some online videos on watch repair, and then received certification from the American Watchmakers-Clockmakers Institute. Now, after taking a three-mile walk in the morning, Hauenstein settles in to work in a small room at his house and can stay there until the sun goes down.
“My independent job has been working out so well,” Hauenstein said. His business goes by the moniker G.S. Watch Repair and Sales, and “I feel like I’ve accomplished a lot. I have people from all over the country sending me work.”
Hauenstein embarked on watch repair just as the number of people wearing watches has fallen worldwide due to the proliferation of smartphones. After all, who needs a watch when you have a phone, a laptop, a television set and other kinds of gadgets that can tell you the time where you are or anywhere else on the planet. But while the sale of inexpensive, everyday watches has fallen, there remains a devoted cadre of fans of collectible and unique watches.
“People all over the world have watches that I’ve worked on,” Hauenstein said. When it comes to watches, Hauenstein himself is a fan of those created in the 1970s because of their color and design. He also pointed out that one of the hardest parts of his job isn’t the meticulous labor but simply getting parts. The tariffs imposed by President Trump have made it tougher to get parts from Switzerland, Hauenstein said.
“It’s really hurting the industry,” he explained. “I’ll do what I can, but sometimes it comes down to parts availability.”
And Hauenstein maintains that his work repairing and restoring watches is about more than just telling time.
“There’s artistry to it. Why does someone drive an antique car? It’s a reverence for the past,” he said. “You’re wearing a piece of functional art.”