Trust The Repairmen

For the things in life that are not so easily replaced, be it your vintage camera or custom-fit fridge, these Messrs Fix-it provide reliable repair services with a personal touch.

Mr Willie Quek uses a watchmaker eye loupe (pictured above his right eye) to magnify the tiny gears of a mechanical watch.

For mechanical watches:

Time for precise repair here

Looking for someone to repair your mechanical watch? Make sure the person is well qualified, warns Mr Willie Quek, who owns The Watch Specialist’s Clinic. “You wouldn’t want to be paying money to damage your watch,” he adds. After all, a mechanical watch is made of many tiny gears and cogs, which makes it easy for repairs to go wrong. But you can trust Mr Quek, a veteran watchmaker who spent his childhood years in his father’s watch shop and has been tinkering with watches for 38 years.

He takes and sends them pictures of their watches in various stages of repair or maintenance.

Mr Quek, who trained at the internationally recognised Watchmakers of Switzerland Training and Educational Program, holds himself to the world-class Swiss standards of watchmaking. After a visit to his “clinic”, customers only need to go to him again every five years (even the finest Swiss watches should have an overhaul every five years, he says). Mr Quek also takes pains to be transparent with his customers. To show them how he handles their watches and give peace of mind, he takes and sends them pictures of their watches in various stages of repair or maintenance. Explaining his love for timepieces, he says: “The beauty of [such] watches is that they are not programmed by electronics. It’s all in the mechanism.”

	The Watch Specialist’s Clinic 3 Maju Avenue, Singapore 556681		Service: Watch repair, specialising in Swiss watches
	Opening hours: Mon, Wed, Fri: by appointment only Tues, Thurs, Sat: 10.30am to 8pm Sun: 1pm to 7pm		Charges: Depends on the complexity of the watch; for example, complete cleaning and maintenance costs $350 to $1,000
	Contact: 9238 0054

Mr B. Thiru’s workspace is a simple desk filled with drawers of tools and electronic schematics in his living room.

For household appliances:

This Home-Based Handyman Can

When Mr B. Thiru’s fridge broke down a few years ago, the servicemen told him it couldn’t be fixed and promptly charged $30 just for that diagnosis. Undaunted, Mr Thiru decided to repair the fridge himself. Working with a friend, he managed to bring it back to life. If you get caught in the same frustrating situation of having to pay for unhelpful service, give Mr Thiru a ring. The retired public officer repairs electrical appliances and computers from his home in Little India – a hobby he now enjoys full-time. When he was younger, Mr Thiru studied radio and TV electronics at a vocational institute. Now, the Internet is his classroom. To hone his skills and keep up with the latest appliances from his customers, he goes online to look up circuit diagrams.

He also searches the Web for places that sell the parts he needs. “I went all the way to Tampines to buy a part once,” says Mr Thiru, who used to find parts easily at Sim Lim Square near his home. Whether it is a faulty oven, kettle or even a power amp, he will find a way to fix it. His wife, Ms Sarojah Kuppaiyandi, a registry officer with the Singapore Police Force who posted about her husband’s hobby on Cube, says: “Repair work is something that he’s passionate about. I really appreciate what he does because he repairs everything in the house.”

	Mr B. Thiru’s home		Service: Electrical appliance repair
	Opening hours: Mon to Fri: 10am to 4pm		Charges: Depends on the availability of parts; for example, repairing an oven costs $30 if the parts are easily found
	Contact: 9108 4137

Mr Kenneth Du says his parents, despite being in their 70s, are too used to working to stop now.

For wood furniture:

Traditional carpentry is in

If you own antique wood furniture, you might worry that there are fewer and fewer carpenters in Singapore who can restore such antiques. Aware of this shortage, family business Wah King Furniture Making has no intention to stop providing their furniture restoration services.

Together, they use traditional carpentry methods that have been passed down the Du family for three generations.

Above right: His father cuts blocks of wood. Bottom right: His mother varnishes furniture.

Mr Kenneth Du handles the sales and delivery while his father, who started the business in Hong Kong in the ’50s before relocating to Singapore in the ’60s, continues to do the carpentry with help from hired workers. Mr Du’s mother puts on the final touches like varnish and paint. Together, they use traditional carpentry methods that have been passed down the Du family for three generations, ensuring that furniture repairs are more durable. For example, furniture joints are built to be strong enough to require only basic nails and glue, instead of screws. The family not only renews furniture made of common wood such as teak and pine, but also has the skills to restore antiques crafted from rarer types of wood, like rosewood and blackwood, with their time-tested methods.

	Wah King Furniture Making Blk 32, Defu Lane 10 #01-04, Singapore 539213		Website: bit.ly/wah_king
	Opening hours: Mon to Sun: 9am to 6pm		Service: Restoring and customising furniture
	Contact: 9367 0517		Charges: Depends on the piece; for example, a full restoration of a six-seater dining table costs $350 to $380

For vintage cameras:

The doctor is in

In this digital era, it’s increasingly difficult to find people who can repair your old film camera. But at Camera Hospital, owner Steven Lee has been fixing film cameras for the past 35 years. In fact, he discovered his knack for it after successfully resuscitating his own. An avid collector of cameras too, Mr Lee has amassed thousands of them, so you can expect your broken camera to be handled with expert care by a fellow camera-lover.

If he thinks the repair “cannot last” (meaning your camera will suffer the same problem again), he will not hesitate to tell you so.

Left: Similar tools can be used to repair both film and digital cameras. Right: A display of Mr Steven Lee’s collection of old cameras outside the shop.

But while Mr Lee is able to repair most cameras, he is frank about the extent of his capabilities. If he thinks the repair “cannot last” (meaning your camera will suffer the same problem again), he will not hesitate to tell you so and help you save some money. Still, if you insist, Mr Lee will give it a fix. He understands why customers would want to keep a camera even though it needs constant repair: “There’s the sentimental value… to them, it’s something special.”

	Camera Hospital 91 Bencoolen Street #01-67, Sunshine Plaza, Singapore 189652		Website: camerahospital.com
	Opening hours: Mon to Fri: 1pm to 7pm Sat & Sun: 1pm to 6pm		Service: Digital and film camera repair
	Contact: 9237 3212		Charges: Depends on the type of repair; for example, general cleaning of the amera of the camera costs $120 to $150