Chuan Watch Repair Shop in Bugis: Batteries in 15 Minutes

Henry Lim spent more than fifteen years as a technician at Rolex, including training in Switzerland, before he opened his own watch business in 1995. Three decades on, Chuan Watch is still a family shop on the ground floor of Golden Landmark Shopping Complex on Victoria Street, and his son Shaun now works at the bench with a WOSTEP certificate. The counter will change a quartz battery while you wait, in about fifteen minutes, from S$35. Just remember that the shutters stay down every Saturday and Sunday.

Chuan Watch keeps office hours: Monday to Friday, 11am to 6pm, closed on Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays. Both its sales site and its service site publish the same times. That rules out the classic weekend errand, so the best window is a weekday lunch break or a late afternoon before five, which leaves room for a battery job to finish before closing. WhatsApp is the channel the service site pushes for first enquiries.

Arriving at 11am on a Monday is the safest bet if your watch has stopped over the weekend, because the queue from Saturday and Sunday has nowhere else to go. If you want a full overhaul quote, bring the watch with its strap or bracelet attached. Bring any old service papers too. The watchmakers will open the case and examine the movement before giving a detailed quotation, and no work starts until you approve it.

Chuan Watch, at 390 Victoria Street #01-51/52, Golden Landmark Shopping Complex, Singapore 188061, sits on level one of an older mixed-use block between Bugis and Kampong Glam. Bugis MRT, served by the East-West and Downtown lines, is the closest station, roughly a seven-minute walk north-east along Victoria Street. Coming from Kampong Glam, the walk from the Arab Street end takes even less. Look for the glass cabinets of pre-owned Rolex and Patek Philippe watches, because the shop sells watches as well as fixing them.

That dual role explains the layout. The front of the shop works as a pre-owned dealer, licensed as a second-hand goods dealer in Singapore, while the service side, which the family now brands as Chuan Watch Horology, calls its back room the atelier and service centre. You hand repairs over at the same counter where collectors are trying on watches. Do not be put off if a sale is in progress. Wait a minute and someone from the family will take your watch.

The service site lists starting prices for every job. A battery replacement starts at S$35 and uses Swiss cells, done on the spot in roughly fifteen minutes. New straps and bracelet fitting start at S$50. A verbal authentication assessment, useful before buying a pre-owned piece elsewhere, starts at S$120. Professional polishing starts at S$180, and the family stresses that it does not over-polish and uses laser welding to rebuild worn edges rather than grinding them away.

For mechanical watches, a routine maintenance service starts at S$680 and a complete overhaul at S$800. Both take 14 to 21 working days and carry a one-year warranty. Circuit replacement for a quartz watch starts at S$400. Movement repair and full restoration, including dial reconditioning and hand reluming, are priced only after assessment. The site advises a service every three to five years for mechanical watches and every two to three years for quartz.

The complete overhaul follows a ten-step sequence that the shop publishes in full. It begins with diagnostics of case and movement and moves on to full disassembly and ultrasonic cleaning. Next come genuine parts where needed, reassembly with fresh lubricants and timing adjustment. The case and bracelet are refinished, the watch is resealed with new gaskets and pressure- and condensation-tested, and a final check covers accuracy and power reserve. Brands on the service list include Audemars Piguet, Rolex, Omega, Panerai, Hublot, Patek Philippe, Cartier, Franck Muller, IWC, Richard Mille and Jaeger-LeCoultre.

One customer review on the site describes a 21-year-old IWC Mark XV that was losing time and came back from a full service and polish looking new. That is the sweet spot for this shop: a well-made automatic from the 1990s or 2000s whose owner wants it serviced by a family with brand training, at independent prices. The weekday-only hours are the trade-off, so drop it off on a Monday or Tuesday.

The About page tells the family story plainly. Henry Lim founded the business in 1995 after his Rolex years. His three sons, Nick, Shaun and Wayne, joined later and modernised the business, and the service site also introduces Shaun's wife, Sherleen, as part of the team. Each son lists his own mobile number on the service site, which says a lot about how personal the shop still is. The company quotes more than forty years of combined watchmaking experience across the team.

Golden Landmark sits on the edge of Kampong Glam, so a repair visit pairs naturally with a walk through the old Malay-Arab quarter. Cross Victoria Street and head down Arab Street toward the golden dome of Sultan Mosque, which welcomes visitors outside prayer times if they dress modestly. The parallel lanes hold textile shops, perfume sellers and the narrow, mural-lined Haji Lane, which fills with independent boutiques and cafés by mid-afternoon.

If you would rather eat, Kampong Glam's lanes are lined with Malay, Turkish and Middle Eastern restaurants, and the Bugis Street market near the MRT station is the place for cheap souvenirs. A battery job takes about as long as a coffee, so you can drop the watch, walk to the mosque and back, and collect it before the 6pm close. Just make sure your visit falls on a weekday.

Address: 390 Victoria Street #01-51/52, Golden Landmark Shopping Complex, Singapore 188061, near Bugis MRT. Hours: Monday to Friday 11am to 6pm, closed Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays. Prices: battery from S$35 (about 15 minutes), straps from S$50, authentication from S$120, polishing from S$180, routine service from S$680, complete overhaul from S$800, quartz circuit from S$400. Overhauls take 14 to 21 working days with a one-year warranty.