Alsal Strand Watch Repair Shop: Straps Fitted While You Wait

Alsal Watches does its repairs in the shop itself, and it says so plainly: watch batteries are fitted on the premises and nothing is ever sent away. The family jewellers sit at 226 Strand, London WC2R 1BA, across the road from the Royal Courts of Justice, and the counter is open Monday to Friday from 10am to 5pm. Weekends and bank holidays it is shut, so this watch repair shop is a lunch-hour errand for people who work around Temple and Aldwych.

The repairs page lists major service work on quartz, mechanical and automatic watches across many brands, and every job is done by the family rather than a trade workshop out of town. A full service here means the watch is stripped down, the parts go through several cleaning solutions to lift old oil and dust, each component is checked for wear, and the movement is reassembled and lubricated. Quartz watches get a fresh battery as part of that, and mechanical ones have their timing checked.

Each major service carries a 12-month guarantee. Read the small print on the site before you hand over a diver that has been leaking, though: the guarantee does not cover rust or damage, so a watch that arrives with water already inside is a different conversation. For a dead quartz watch that simply stopped, the battery job is the quick one, and because it happens behind the counter you can usually leave with it on your wrist.

Straps are where Alsal earns a detour. The shop holds a large stock in widths from a slim 6mm, the size of an old ladies' cocktail watch, up to a chunky 30mm, in a spread of colours, patterns, materials and thicknesses. The site says a large majority can be fitted while you wait. There is also a run of metal bracelets in stainless steel, two-tone and gold plate, with either clip fastenings or the expanding kind that slides over the hand.

Bring the watch itself rather than a measurement. Lug width is the number that matters, and the person behind the counter can read it in seconds with a gauge, then pull three or four options from the drawer. If you have a vintage piece with odd fixed bars or a 17mm gap, this is a better bet than a department store strap wall, because the stock runs into the narrow and unusual sizes.

Alsal describes itself as a family jeweller that has been established on the Strand for decades. The homepage says over 40 years and the About page says over 30, so the safest reading is that the business has been trading on this stretch since at least the 1990s. Beyond watches, the menu runs to jewellery repairs, bespoke jewellery design, clocks, watch winders and boxes, and giftware, which explains why the window mixes carriage clocks with wristwatches.

The location decides who it suits. If you work in the Inns of Court across the road or at King's College on the Strand campus, it is the nearest bench that will open a case while you stand there. Visitors heading to Somerset House pass the door too. Separate mobile lines for watch work and jewellery work on the contact page suggest the two trades are handled by different people.

Alsal does not publish a price list online. Watch sales and repairs also have their own mobile number on the contact page, which is handy if the landline rings out at lunch. Expect a quote at the counter for anything beyond a battery or a strap.

The trade-off is plain. You get someone who opens the case in front of you and fits a cell without sending the watch to a hub, but you do not get the posted menu that the Hatton Garden workshops put online. If a fixed price matters more than the convenience of the Strand, compare first. If you need the watch working by tomorrow morning, the on-premises promise is worth more than a few pounds.

Aim for a weekday morning soon after the door opens, when there is time for a strap to be fitted before you head off. Lunchtime is when office workers from the surrounding streets are most likely to drop in, and Friday is the last chance before two closed days, so a midweek visit is the calmer bet. A strap job squeezes in late in the day. A mechanical watch that needs diagnosing deserves an earlier arrival.

Skip Alsal for a modern luxury watch still under its maker's warranty. Opening the case outside the brand network can complicate a claim, so send that one back to the boutique. Equally, if your heart is set on a brand-accredited service centre for Omega or TAG Heuer, the Hatton Garden workshops a short bus ride north, such as SwissMade on Kirby Street, hold those accreditations, which Alsal does not claim.

You come out facing the Gothic stone frontage of the Royal Courts of Justice, whose main hall is worth a look on a weekday when the courts sit. Turn east and Twinings has been selling tea on this side of the Strand since 1706. Its narrow shop is a museum of the family business as much as a counter, and a box of loose leaf makes a decent gift for whoever lent you the watch.

West of the shop, St Clement Danes stands on its island in the middle of the road, the central church of the Royal Air Force, with the memorial statues of airmen outside. Keep going and you reach the courtyard of Somerset House and the river terrace behind it, where you can sit with a coffee while a strap is fitted, or wander up Drury Lane into Covent Garden if the job takes longer.

Address: Alsal Watches, 226 Strand, London WC2R 1BA. Hours: Monday to Friday 10am to 5pm, with weekends and bank holidays closed. The shop also shut over Easter this year, from Tuesday 31 March until Monday 13 April. Temple station on the District and Circle lines is the closest Tube, a short walk down towards the Embankment.

There is no appointment system, so walk in with the watch, any old strap you want matched, and the box or papers if you plan to sell. Batteries and straps are the jobs most likely to be done on the spot. Services take longer and come back with the 12-month guarantee, excluding rust and damage. Ask the Karpo APP to line up a Strand coffee stop while you wait.