The Detroit Watch Guy — John Shiha on Rolex, Watchmaking & Building a Career at Lucido Fine Jewelry
Dealer Out of Office
The Detroit Watch Guy — John Shiha on Rolex, Watchmaking & Building a Career at Lucido Fine Jewelry
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59:42
Brand
fossil
Fossil is a consumer watch brand that’s generally positioned as more affordable and fashion-oriented compared with luxury brands. Here it’s mentioned as the kind of watch the guest was wearing at the time, before getting into watch repair training.
Topic
watch repair program
They’re talking about a school program where students learned how to repair watches. The guest explains it was structured like a class with strict attendance rules so you could earn credit.
Place
15 mile and Bandai
That’s a street-intersection location the guest uses to describe where the watch-repair program was. It’s basically how you’d find the place on a map.
Place
Stirling Heights High School
This is the high school the guest mentions as a reference point. They’re saying the watch-repair program was right across the street from it.
Brand
Rolex
Rolex is a famous luxury watch brand. The guest is saying their watch-repair training connected them to the kind of education Rolex offers.
Car
Lincoln Nautilus
The Lincoln Nautilus is a luxury SUV, which means it’s a bigger family vehicle designed to feel comfortable. It’s made by Lincoln and is meant for everyday driving with extra comfort and features. The name “Nautilus” can also be used in other contexts, which is why it might be mentioned alongside other “Nautilus” references.
LIVE
Imagine taking your car to the Mercedes dealership and then they send it down the road to the Jiffy loop and charge you double
You're just being a premium to make sure that the watch you're buying is not stolen. It's not fake. I walk into the store
There's this guy sitting behind the counter in a chair. He's rocking back and forth. He's smoking a cigarette
You're not allowed to smoke inside at this point. He's just smoking a cigarette. Can I help you? I said, yeah
You know I would like to apply for a job and he starts screaming for his life in the back room
He's like Rhonda Rhonda come out here. Come on in. She runs out. She's like, what's wrong? He's like, what's your name?
I'm like, John. He's like meet our new employee John and that's
That was it. Welcome to dealer out of office. We're your hosts. I'm Frank Zambo. I'm Jake Burkle
And we are here to talk to you about dealers interests outside of the office now watch this drive
What is up everybody welcome back to another edition of dealer out of office as always I'm your host Jake Burkle alongside my good buddy Frank
Zombo and we are talking about something today that a lot of you dealers a lot of the people that we've met in this industry are
Kind of passionate about and and Frank I got to say like I'm mad at you
But I I love you for getting me into this because you were kind of the first one that brought me into the world of watches
And it's taken a little bit of a hit on my bank account, but it's something that
That we're gonna get into in terms of like appreciation and collecting and everything like that
but a guy on that we have as a guest today John Sheeha is
Is probably the dude when it comes to watches correct John is the dude when it comes to watches
luxury items and not that John's
Cocky by any means he's like one of the most humble dudes in the world
But just has a knack for the finer things in life in a way and and he's
One of the general managers of the seno five jewelry and he brings a and we'll talk more about it
but the the sense of watchmaking and the appreciation for the
the the machinery and the
Artistry artistry of watchmaking is what John really
To the table here. Love that so John welcome to dealer out of office my friend. Happy to have you. I
Appreciate the introduction
Thank you Frank for that
Very nice of you to say
But yeah, I definitely am passionate about watches. I'm very fortunate that I
Was able to make a life long career, you know since I was in my
Stars 14
I've been in this industry and I've been able to make this like
Mike my job, right? So
So let's start with that, right? Like we always want to kind of start from the beginning like all right
You're 14 years old
How do you get into this? What started your what piqued your interest and kind of take us through those first couple years?
And and then to where you are now and I'm gonna say we're so sorry for that the CEDO fine jewelry is so we're all in
Southeast Detroit and
That's like the jewelry brand
Detroit suburbs right and
So John growing up in this area just to give you some context of John and like how we're all came to this point right here is
Yeah
But John yeah, how did you get?
Into watchmaking tell us your journey and then how you got into the CEDO fine jewelry as well
Okay, so I'll give you the
The kind of the long version
You know my uncle my dad's twin brother had a jewelry store in Windsor, Canada
and
When he was when I was younger
He would come over with like a boulevard on or an acutron on and I'd say oh my god
That watch is so sweet and he'd let me try it on and then usually for
Christmas or my birthday he would buy me, you know one of the watches that I said oh my god
That was that was so sweet. So he you know, that's what you do for your favorite nephew, obviously
And so he was super generous and always would you know get me watches and it was really the sweetest guy and
I'll never forget we were having a Sunday dinner at my grandmother's house
And he had just started carrying the line right lane in his store in Canada
And I'm like wow that watch is so sweet. Let me try it on. He's like you can try it on
But you're probably not getting one of these, you know
Because he would he would usually buy me whatever, you know, $200 boulevard. Yeah at the time, right?
So I he was like, yeah, this is and he said a number like eight or $9,000 and this is you know
2002 and so I'm like blown away and I went home and I plugged my computer in
To the phone line and put in a free version of Netscape that I found in a pile of mail
And basically it basically just went I just went nuts. It was that night
I was up to like
Two o'clock in the morning and I'm sure my parents were like, I wonder what he's doing on the internet
But I was I was reading about watches and I was on the text website and Rolex's website
and in Breitling's website and just kind of
Figuring out a lay of the land and I think at that day was when I became a
Namor with watches, so I
Was probably about 12 and my grandfather who who started a landscaping company
Just so my brother and I had no lives outside of school or church
He he's retired and started a landscaping company and I remember sitting in the work truck with him
And I was about like 14 and I told him I was like I think I want to work at a jewelry store this summer
And he was that we were at a red light and he looked at me turn his head. He was
Are you crazy?
You're making like a hundred and forty bucks a week cash like you're living the life
This is the best possible thing you could be doing right now. You're not going to work at a jewelry store. That's not a thing
So I go back to my grandparents house and my grandmother
She's like, you know my Lebanese grandmother. I call her sit-do and she's like Habibi. What's wrong?
Something's bothering you and I'm like no nothing. She's like no, what's wrong something bother you?
I'm like, well, I want to work at a jewelry store this summer
So the next morning I wake up at their house. I go outside my grandfather's having coffee and he looks at me
He's like really?
You told sit-do and I'm like no she asked and he's like fine. Here's what's gonna happen
We're gonna start an hour earlier. You're gonna cut grass till the afternoon
Will be done by three you can shower change and you can go find a job at the mall from 4 to 9 o'clock when they close
I'm like great and I was so happy
I felt like somebody did me the biggest favor in the world that I was able to work 13 hours a day, right?
So so I the closest mall was a mall called Eastland Mall, which was no longer there
I'm sure a lot of people in the on this probably no Eastland
So I walked around every single jewelry store in there
And it was so funny because I the mall was like a loop and I started at one store and went around the loop
And it was the very last store. I worked in after everybody told me
It was the last store that I walked in rather
After everybody told me no, we're not hiring. No, you're too young. No, no experience. I walk into the store
There's this guy sitting behind the counter in a chair. He's rocking back and forth. He's smoking a cigarette
Right and you know a lot of smoke inside at this point and he's just smoking a cigarette
He's can I help you and I said, yeah, you know like to apply for a job and you start screaming for his wife in the back room
He's like Rhonda Rhonda come out here. Come on and she runs out. She's like, what's wrong? He's like, what's your name?
I'm like John. He's like meet our new employee John
And that was that was it and I was like, I was like great
And I was like, when should I start? He's like right now grab that Windex and that paper towel
I'm so serious. He used to put a cigarette stout on
On the countertop like on the for Micah showcases and it would leave like brown marks on it
and he was like every time he's like go around the whole store and clean off every single cigarette mark and
That was my first day in the jewelry industry and my first jewelry store job
Super sweet people treated me like a son
That store was called Mike's jewelry in any slam all and it was wildly different than what we do now at Lucido friends jewelry
But it's where I started. So that was that was how I got interested and got into this into this career
I love that. So I
Guess my initial question of that is like
You're there, you know, how do you move up the ranks? So like
Personally my experiences with what Lucido have been nothing but phenomenal
But the intricacies of it all and learning that so I mean is this just trial by fire?
Is this guy teaching you are you doing the the learning on your own time because I mean
The intricacies of these watches and diamonds and everything like that is far beyond my nap knowledge. So
Were you picking all this up while you're cleaning cigarette marks?
Yeah, absolutely. I mean so that that started when I was 14 and
You know, I was doing batteries
straps
Repairs on watches. They had a jeweler in house. So I wasn't really messing with jewelry
but they knew I was interested in watches and I
Was kind of learning, you know trial by fire
I broke a few things for sure at that time and had some things that I couldn't do or didn't know how to do
But I learned basically practicing on people's people's watches as they came in and then I
Got very fortunate actually and I definitely think this was
You know, not necessarily a coincidence, but I wasn't really
the best student in high school
outside of you know showing up for football practice or you know
Showing up first for something other than classes or tests or work
You know, I didn't have the greatest attendance and so one of our counselors came up to me and he was like, hey
Aren't aren't you like always wearing a fancy watch and at the time, you know
It was like a fossil or something and and I was like, yeah, obviously like yeah
Yeah, yeah, you're looking for the right guy you found it and so we
He's like, well, there's a there's a watch repair program that you can go to
at what was called the career prep center at 15 mile and Bandai
so right across from Stirling Heights High School and
You could you go there half of your day basically and you get credit and they're like one of the programs
They have is watch repair and I'm like, well, I meant sign me up
He's like, well, hold on you have to show up every day because if you miss like four days
You don't get credit and it's half of your credits for your junior and senior year
You're not gonna graduate. So I'm like, sign me up. I'll show up every day. I'll do it
So which was which was really crazy to know that this was the last
High school level watch repair program in North America at the time
Which is which is crazy like between Canada you asked no one had a high school level watch repair program and the instructor
At that program a gentleman named Arnie Van team
Rochester Hills native you'll see him around Tom. Just an just an absolute stud
He he was super impactful
In my career and in my training. So I would go there half of my day my junior and senior senior year showed up every single day
I was I think I was the top student in the class at the time and he's like Rolex has a school in
Pennsylvania, I think you should apply to it and
After my you know halfway through my senior year, I applied and started that process and I was really applying
As a formality because they really didn't want young people right out of high school
Because the thought process was maybe you don't really know that you want to do this as a career
And so I applied and my parents drove me down for an interview to Littitz, Pennsylvania
And I got accepted and because I'm because I'm a September baby
I think I was one of the youngest people to be accepted if not the youngest person ever to be accepted to that program and it's it's not like
It's not like college, right? I've gone to college and got a finance degree. It's it's way more intense. You're there for eight hours a day
It's it's make or break. It's it's a different. It's a different level of stress
Right and you're in the middle of this Rolex service center in your you're going to school with Rolex executives
working upstairs and
It was just it was really really intense. So that's kind of how I made my way into the formal watch repair world and watch
Making world was going through that program
So from there as I love this part of John's story, I didn't even I don't know if you even my
78 years of knowing John you've gone into that detail of the level of his knowledge of watchmaking, but I love the next part of his journey is
Meeting Vince Lucido and then wanting to get into there and like it kind of reminds me of almost your well
The way you're kind of walking like looking for the next job, right?
And kind of talk about your your journey with Vince a little bit to get into Lucido find jewelry
Yeah, absolutely. I mean I I've been working
So I finished watchmaking school in 2010
And I'd been working in the industry for a while and I wanted to I realized there was a huge opportunity
For watch repair in Michigan, there was nobody
Fixing watches to the quality or the standard that really the end consumer deserves, right? It's like
imagine taking your car to
The Mercedes dealership and then they send it down the road to the Jiffy loop and charge you double
And you're like, what's what's going on?
Right, so it was almost like I almost was like from an ethical level
I was like this is not what what the consumer deserves in Michigan in Michigan has a very very strong
Collector and watch market. It's stronger than people even realize
and I
Went to my
Previous employer who I basically went to him and said listen
I'm leaving for a year because I got to finish my degree
I went back to school to get a finance degree and I was like, I got too many credits to take
I'm just gonna take a year off. Let's talk about the future in a year
So I go back to this employer at the time and I said, hey, let's start a service center together. Let's start the biggest watch repair
service center
ever in Michigan for sure at least maybe not the cut if not the country and
said, yeah, you know, I like that idea and we went to lunch and we went to dinner and there was a business plan and
Kind of in the last hour of this person was like, hey, I
Don't I'm not gonna have a business partner. I'll give you a salary. You can do this
and I was like, hey, no hard feelings all good and
and we just kind of walked away from from that scenario and
I was really bummed out because we were coming to the end and
It looked like we were going to make a deal and really in the in the final hour
You know, this other guy was like no no partner. No equity and I knew I wanted equity
I knew I wanted to be you know, have all of you a business owner and
Of course, I'm back at my grandmother's house for a Sunday dinner and
We had Sunday dinner the next morning Monday, I had an office where I just hustled watches
Flipped watches sold engagements to buddies just did whatever I could to pay my bills at the time and
My dad took the day off work and my uncle took the day off work and they show up to my office unannounced on a Monday
And I'm okay guys like what's going on? What a surprise and they're like sit down and I'm like
What's going like I'm so confused and they're like, listen, you weren't yourself yesterday you hardly talked and
You didn't make us laugh once
Something's wrong. What's going on? They thought like I was terminally sick or something because I wasn't funny and
So and so we go we sit down like listen, I wanted to surprise you guys I was working on this this deal and
I had everything set up and
this, you know
They don't want me to have equity. They don't want me to be a business partner and I'm not doing that and my uncle the one in the jewelry
Industries looks at me. He's like
What do you need them for?
So I need a Rolex dealer, right Rolex is not gonna give parts to to me to fix
you know fix watches out of this 600 square foot office and
He's like, well, just find another Rolex dealer
And I'm like, well, what do you mean? He's like call another Rolex dealer if you need a Rolex dealer
He's like I met Vincent Joe Lucido at a show one time and they seem like nice guys. Why don't you call them?
I'm like, okay, I will and he's like call them now
And I'm like, okay, so I go on Google. I
Get the Sterling Heights phone number. I call up here and I don't know how but by the grace of God
I get Vince Lucido on the phone and I said, hey, Mr. Lucido, my name is John Sheeha
I want to I'd like to talk to you about watch repair and
You know, maybe maybe helping you guys with your watch repair and he said yep sounds like a great opportunity
I'm gonna be traveling for the next couple weeks. I'll give you a call when I get back really appreciate you calling
That went well, great. So I'm gonna sit tight for a couple weeks
well
in the intro
The guy that I split the 600 square foot office with was one of my best friends and he had a travel agency and his name
Is Charlie O'Neill shout out to High Definition travel
And that next travel or whatever whatever business he's just merged with whatever name
Whatever name he's operating under the guy's bought like 20 businesses since then
Just just an absolute beast in the travel game
But couple days later Charlie walks into my office and he says hey, aren't you trying to get a hold of these Lucido people?
I said, yeah, and I said they're gonna call me back in like 12 business days and he goes
He goes why just booked a trip a senior trip for a girl and her mom's contact in it on it is Fran Lucido
And her email is Fran at Lucido jewelry. You want me to put you in touch?
I'll make sure what can I hurt so Fran Vince's sister who's in the Birmingham store
He sends an email and within 10 minutes
I get a phone call and she's just full of excitement and we want to meet you and we want to talk to you
And we want it, you know, but why don't you come in and talk with my nephew Joey?
So Joey and I meet Vince's son who's also in Birmingham close friend of Frank's and mine and so we
We sit down and Joey calls his dad and I find this out after the fact Joey calls his dad
He's like hey dad. I just met this guy. We have to hire him. He's great
We just need to you know
He wants to talk to you about some watch repair or whatever, but we can use them in the organization
This is like I'm already talking to that guy. That's my guy. I found him
I'm gonna meet with them so it kind of became like a little competition of like who was gonna meet with me next and
so I ended up meeting with Vincent Joe that the founders of the company and
We met quite a bit we went we dated for I think it was like six months of interviews
And I told him I said I want to be a partner and in a watch repair business
And then I want to open it with you as a Rolex dealer
Enhance your business and they saw the value in it and Vince told me goes listen
You seem like a really nice guy. We don't know you at all
So if you want you can help us run our store here
Run our store for a couple years and in two years if we like what we see then we'll do your watch repair there
and at that point I said, you know what I don't really have anything to lose and it was a good brand and
Almost to the day
Vince called me into his office and
He told me he goes
And actually it's funny when he told me he's like we'll do your thing in two years just come work with us
It's a great like
You know, where do I sign? Where's my contract it Vince stood up at his desk and put one of his
You know put his knuckles down on one side to support himself and lean over yours
This is my contract and puts his hand out and I don't know why I had so much confidence in that handshake
And it was the best deal I've ever made in my life
But but after you know two years to almost the day he came is that you've been doing a great job
Hit the ground running with your watch repair and green green light. We figured out everything and
Incorporated a company and that's been been going strong. That was
Almost four years ago now
That's incredible and you got to think about the timing of where
Watches are I got into the watch game. I remember my first watch was like
2012 I bought a
1969 Omega Speedmaster
It was a guard. I'm done buying watches. I got a watch I'm done and watches they say are like tattoos, right?
Like they just get more and addicting and as soon as you buy when you're looking at what do you want next and for every
Different situation you could have a new watch. No, no, then I got a bright lane
Navitimer and then in 2014. I remember my first Rolex. It was a Submariner
And thinking myself like this is this just has a different feel to it. It's just
Nothing better, but moving forward obviously then around. I remember you could walk into a
Rolex dealer or a jewelry store and you could buy almost any watch you wanted well then 2019 comes around
2020 ish post-covid and now you can't get watches and and they open up a watch repair center at probably at the peak of
You know, obviously watches, especially your nice watches aren't battery-powered. They're
You know, it's a it's a machine inside of it, right and that needs to be
Oiled and maintained and you feel like the you know, everyone now has you know
Hopefully tries to get a nice piece and that needs to be maintained, you know, every eight to ten years and they've opened up
You know now John. She has this idea for watch repair at that almost the perfect time in the industry
So I have a question John in terms of so like shout out Matt when I shout out Louisa at Rochester, Lucido who have taken care of me
First watch I I got was my father's date just that he bought on my birthday back in 1994
I don't think it's ever been serviced and that thing still runs and you know
We had an issue with the class when I went in there and you know, they took care of me
I'm like, hey, I don't know if this has ever been serviced. I don't know
But I want this to be you know a longevity play because it's gonna go to my son's, you know the watch I'm wearing now
I was gonna go to my other son and you know, I do have some others that I'm very much interested in
What does it look like from a full service on a Rolex or something like that?
Like what, you know, Louisa tried to explain it to me
I didn't fully understand everything that they're gonna go through but I am curious of what that process looks like
You know from from soup to nuts, you know, what what a service on a watch is
Yeah, I mean
to kind of draw the parallel to the auto industry think about
Taking the engine out of the car completely disassembling
Yeah, you're we're taking the movement out of the watch we're disassembling every component
And we're inspecting them for wear
Right, we try to do that before we send them through a multi-step cleaning process because
You can kind of sometimes see where in lubricant you can see metal particles in lubricant. So we're inspecting every single component
Then our you know our watchmaker all of our certified watchmakers our watch workers are all certified
They're gonna put it through a cleaning process and they're gonna reassemble your watch replacing the parts that are worn
Right and the majority of movement parts that we replace in during your service a lot of people don't know this
They're included in the price of your service
Right. So if you have a worn wheel or a worn gear or a cracked jewel
You know, those are components that we're gonna replace and that's just included in the overall price
There are some things that are not included
but
When we're repairing your watch, we're not looking to do it for
You know as cheap as possible
We have our price set for that reason our pricing structure follows Rolex is almost to the letter
And what we do is is we have this set pricing so that we can replace
Every single component that's worn, right? So it's not gonna impact your it's not gonna impact your value
It's not gonna
It's not gonna impact it. We're talking about strictly the movement at this point, right?
dial hands things like that
You replace those watches uncertain use replace those parts on certain watches
It can potentially impact your value. Yeah, we disassemble everything. We reassemble it. We lubricate it and
Then we put it on timing machines
calibration machines
These machines have microphones that are picking up the locking and unlocking of the escapement
Which happens 28,000 times per hour
Over 28,000 times per hour. So if you think about that it's
We then calibrate them to that they get the the case is being polished as well
If you opt for that some people want it polished and some people don't want it polished
and
If the watch is gonna be polished and then the watchmaker puts the dial on hands back on then they're married back together
They go inside of a pressure testing machine, which there's different different ways we can pressure test
Which super, you know, it's pretty cool to understand how that works
Without getting super nerdy, but there's different ways to pressure test the case to make sure that it's water resistant to
However, you know, however deep the watch is because it's a mariner might be different than a C master
Datejust, right?
Yeah
0 feet
Way deeper
Frank's cool is only 500 meters deep. So
You know, I've had Frank on my boat several times and never once been to his pool
But you know, we're not gonna bring that up right now your family. I've seen your family
We got a pond out back. It suits you a little better. You know, no
It's funny our next podcast will be from the yacht
My wife I
got her a datejust back in the day and
After a couple kids and her wearing it as a daily like never left it
It was a stainless steel piece, but it looked and it was supposed, you know, the inner links were polished
Stainless steel at one point
Which quickly looked brushed because it was just so scratched so beat up
Baby puke in it. It was disgusting. Well, finally, I think she dropped it and the movement was off now
There's a little shaking noise in it took it to the C. Doe. This was probably
Actually prior right before you guys even had the watch facility, but I'll never forget when it came back
Because you know, Mark, you know, and I couldn't botch this up and correct me if I'm wrong
No 904 L stainless steel is the greatest stainless steel on a Rolex, which is two companies in the whole world
Use that greatest stainless steel NASA and Rolex and the way that they were able to reshape or you know
Finish this watch back and put it back together. It was like it was fresh out the box again
You know, and it was that time I think it was around a thousand dollars or whatever it was
But I remember that watch coming back and she was like, I don't know if I can wear it anymore. It's so pretty
It's so perfect, but it's amazing what can get done by just, you know
refurbishing your watch or bringing it in to just get maintained and I was really happy that we did that
Go ahead, Joe. Well, I was just saying I think that's the beauty to Rolex, right?
I've said this before and I stand by this Rolex is the best serially produced machine in the world
Period. There's no better car. No better gun. No better anything that's serially produced. There's no better machine. That's made
Outside of Rolex in my opinion. I've yet to find a brand
Um
But with the detail quality precision all those types of things
Yeah, and even more so which is so important
Rolex designs their watches to be serviced
They're manufacturing a watch
Understanding that in 10 years from now
Somebody's going to be in there servicing it polishing it and going to be in working on the watch
Think about how many products that we interact with on a daily basis
That are not designed for service. They're meant to fail
Yeah, they're meant to fail and then even the things that should be serviced
Let's talk with somebody the other day and they're like, yeah, I need to replace my headlight
But I got to take off like my front bumper in like 17 other things
I'm like, huh
That's interesting very efficient. No, right exactly
So so I really think that is the real value
And then of course if something can be serviced well in like you said Frankie could come back after 10 years looking brand new
That just adds to the long-term value
And that's why you know people say well as Rolex a good investment
Yeah, it is comparatively to anything else because what can you use and enjoy for years and it's still going to have
Value right still gonna be worth something and not just money-wise, but what it's worth because even like Jake and his father
Um, I have watches that I plan on passing on to my sons
My dad has one that's going to pass it on to me
It's something that stays in the family and it not just appreciates
monetarily, but it appreciates with the sake of
You know family and history and memories and I could think about there was one watch that I bought it was on
I got very the dealer called me on the third born my third born child. So I bought myself almost like a push president
My wife or whatever, you know
um
But I'll never forget that watch and like where I was when I bought it or you kind of remember every
Call you get for something like that to your point like so this it all started from you know
My dad when I was born he you know, he got this and you know, it's funny when we're going through the you know
Hey, what do you want done? There's there's a ding, you know
There's a big gouge in the crown like you want us to replace as like no
Yeah, no, and I love how lucidos like they're they're well enjoyed
Right and you think about it like you have memories of things like you have memories of like the car that your dad took to practice
And that car's gone right you have memories of of you know a boat you grew up on with your grandfather that thing's gone
These things are meant to last, you know time time and
Each one of my boys is gonna get one and you know if they ever get rid of you know
They call my my my father's eyes, but they never get rid of his eyes as watch. I'm gonna haunt them till you know
The rest of their days, but that's that's the value that I don't think you can put a price on which I think is why
This is uh drawn me to it, right? That's the big the big thing for me when it comes to watch is like
Regardless of the price regardless of what is going to happen, you know 10 years 15 20 years down the line. It's a tangible
Piece of of your family history
Yeah, I mean
Patek Philippe is
Has came up and for a long time they've been using one of the best pieces of marketing we've ever seen
That you don't actually own a patek Philippe
You merely are taking care of it for the next generation
and
that is it's
It resonates with their brand, but it really is applicable to
any quality timepiece
It at all, you know, and the thing too is like you don't have to spend 10 15 20 000 to get a quality watch
right there's
There's say goes from the 70s
That are highly collectible and one of the coolest watch stories in the industry as far as i'm concerned
is
A seiko chronograph that's highly sought after and collected from the late 60s early 70s
And imagine if you bought one of those for 50 bucks back then and you left it to your kit, right?
So it doesn't have to be
You know a 20 000 watch for it to be like oh, I'm gonna leave this to my kids
Any price point? I mean you could come into the seado find jewelry and you can find an
incredible quality watch
for $500
That will last you 50 years
So it'll last you 100 years
Speaking of other watches and you guys service, you know the brands that you have but you service and just for everyone out there
You service everything
And and what is the quality, you know is the standards set forth?
Of course, you guys have hey, this is our standard
Is there anything that you have to follow for for other brands and stuff like that that?
You know, what does that look like for for lucido again?
lws this thing but like you didn't you have to you had to recruit watchmakers
From all over the country to come to troi michigan is where you guys built this out, correct?
Yeah, I mean that that was a challenge for sure. I think our biggest challenge in our industry is finding people
um, just because it's such a niche
Industry right a lot of people young people don't know
that
We'll hire them we'll sponsor them to go to school
and
They can come back and make you know
80 90 a 100000 dollars
No problem fixing watches. I mean it's
It's really incredible and it's something that you can you can do so to answer your initial question
We are authorized to service
Uh right now. I believe
About 35 brands
We're we're a national service center for gerald charles, which is a hot up-and-coming brand
And if you if you're a real watch nerd, you know who gerald jenta is
and gerald jenta
Had his own brand called gerald gerald charles that was resurrected
and
He designed the aquanaut nautilus or the nautism the royal oak, correct?
He I mean those are just two of so many. He was probably the most influential
Designer in the watch industry ever. I mean ball gree octo fedecemo cardier posha
Audemars royal oak
patek nautilus
And there's probably iwc engineers his so I mean there's all these models that are still in production to this day
and think about it
Royal oak and nautilus are two of the most sought after watches in the industry right now
Specific models that he designed so
He has his own brand. We're one of 65 or six
I believe don't quote me on that retailers in the country that have gerald charles
And we and the owners of the company are just super nice guys and they said hey
Will you be our national service center? So we're we're the national service center for them and then we're all also authorized to fix
33 or 34 other brands so
When you think about that process
Everything has to be in alignment with that brand standard. So it's not just Rolex, but pick any brand right?
Could be pan rye
They're gonna they're gonna make sure your people are trained that means i'm sending somebody down to
Pan rye for four or five days. They're going through a training process
They're becoming certified to work on that set of product inside of pan rye
They're also going to look at my workshop in my in our facility. What tools do you have?
What's your cleanliness?
You know, how are you keeping rooms separated? How are you? You know, I mean, they're looking at things even like airflow
Like I have two rooms that have negative airflow because we're pulling air out of them
And then we have positive airflow in the clean rooms that we're pushing air into so things like that. They're looking at to say, okay, your facility
Is is there
So they're looking at the the watchmaker themselves the facility making sure that the watchmaker is trained
Then making sure you have specific tools to work on their watch
You know, this one movement might need a specific tool to support this post while you take off this plate
Otherwise, the whole thing will fall apart on you and it's understanding those those
Kind of those really specific items on specific movements and then a brand will say, okay, you've gone through all of this
You can fix our product in your authorized. So we've done that with over over 30 brand of 35 brands
And do does each
I mean, I don't know how many texts you guys have but are they versed in every single watch or the hey this guy's siloed for these
Five or these guys, you know, how does that operate for you?
I mean, that's that's an excellent question. So we have we have two terms because we're set up more in a production environment, right?
We have a pretty big staff
In our facility and we have which we have the best staff in our facility
We really do have a special group of people. So shout out to each and every one of them. They really really our team right now is
Just really special
Um, but we have what we call technicians and those are people that are
Disassembling watches prepping watches getting the movements out of the cases so that they can go to what we call a watchmaker
In the term watchmaker is a little bit misleading because we're not making watches
We're repairing them, but that's the that's been the industry term for a long time
So we have technicians and we have watchmakers. So the technician will disassemble the case
And the movement will go to a watchmaker and then the case embrace that will go off to our polishing department where we have
We have trained polishers. So those brands we were just talking about
Training people we've sent polishers for training at brands to understand exactly how to polish their watches
um
But yeah to answer the question
There are certain watchmakers on our team that are authorized and trained on say Breitling
But they might not be trained on iwc, but our goal is to always get everybody trained
Um on everything it's just timing and and if you can get them out to the trainings for the brands
But there are some people that have certain brand trainings that other don't
And how often do you need to be recertified per is it?
dependent on brand or do you guys have your own set standards?
Yes, it's dependent on brand and really the the quality of work speaks for itself
Being being a watchmaker is not something that you can fake
You cannot because you have the proof is in the pudding
We're actually we're taking the movement that you just serviced and we're putting it through
In a crazy amount of quality control five days of quality control
After you've tested it and said that it's in specifications for timing
So if if every single watch you're doing is is coming back
Something needs to be looked at right?
but then we have some people that are
That are doing a lot of watches and doing volume and it's some of the cleanest work you've seen in the industry
Right, so one of the things i'm very proud of is we're known for across the country for our quality
because you know rolex has done
Uh a program i'm sure you've heard of it's called rolex certified pre-owned
so what happens is
You have to service that watch
And you have to send it into rolex to be certified
So the quality control that we're doing in-house that we do on every single watch right frank brings his watch in gives it to matt
Matt gets it to us be fixed the watch it goes to quality control it goes back to frank no problem
Uh rolex certified pre-owned watch
We serve we service it it goes back to rolex we ship it to rolex and they're looking at the work we're doing
And you're saying switzerland
Like uh that it happens it happens domestically. Oh, okay. Yeah, so so we uh
So we send it to them here. They have they look at every watch
They make sure that the dial and hands and bezel are intended for that watch
And that's why rolex certified pre-owned makes so much sense, right?
You'll hear some of these gray market guys on social media saying hey, you know, don't go pay 3000 dollars more for a
Submariner because it's rolex certified pre-owned
Why wouldn't you do that? It's the absolute insurance policy
You're buying yourself a 3000 dollar. You're spending a premium to make sure that the watch you're buying
Is not stolen. It's not fake
Is it is authentic?
and so
Yeah, so I mean that's like
That's where you to answer the question in its entirety. You can't you you don't really need to be recertified because if you get rusty
It's gonna come out. It's yeah, it's gonna well. It's gonna come out pretty quickly and we're gonna try to rectify whatever the issue is sure
That so you brought up something that that is always interesting to me
Is like obviously in the car business that we're in it's like fraud is is huge, right?
You know, that's a big thing that we're dealing with on a daily basis and I see it sometimes in Rolex is like, you know
Everyone's trying to have like a knockoff or you know this that and the other so
Um, how much of that are you guys seeing like does it actually flow through your store?
Like someone trying to be like, hey, is this real? I'm trying to do a deal with this guy
And you know our fakes kind of getting like kind of look good
So two great points one we have people all the time that are like, hey, I'm buying this watch off my body
I'm buying this watch off of facebook marketplace. I'm gonna bring it into you guys for an authentication
Unless you have trained watchmakers
That work on movements every single day open the watch and look at the movement and look at it thoroughly
It is very easy to assume a watch is real
Oh my gosh
So like from movement like so unless you actually get in open the hood
And get into the components you really so the guys you see on on instagram or tiktok or whatever and they're like
They pick it up. They feel it. They do like like, oh, yeah, I think it's real like they're full of shit. It could
Some of those guys are really well versed right and they've been doing that for a long time
Right, so I'm not going to try to discredit them, but it's very hard for me and even myself
Even our head technical director who frank knows, you know, brian
You know our head estimator
Carson between the three of us there's not a lot of things we have not seen right
So there's been times where the three of us have sat down and we're kind of scratching our heads
We're like what what are we missing because this doesn't look right, but it doesn't look wrong
And we have to do a deep dive
Yeah, I feel like the gold pieces because obviously gold pieces weigh a little bit more
Can you be able to tell by just like the weight a little bit or do you
Do the gold pieces have so much realism to them that they actually weigh a little bit more than like a stainless piece
With the the there's there's there's fakes and there's really good fakes
Gotcha
Right like i'll never i'll never forget
I was uh, I was in watchmaking school and I was working after school at a jewelry store called brent miller jeweler's in
pennsylvania lancaster pennsylvania
And this guy brings in this white gold day date
And i'm like this is this is so sweet. It's a white gold day. It's beautiful
And he's like yeah, I got in a bar fight and I busted up the bracelet
I'm like, okay
I could probably order you some links or find you some links and
and try to repair the bracelet or whatever and then
I got a link and I went to put the link and I and if I if I recall it didn't fit properly
It just didn't line up properly
And then I called I called the customer. I'm like, hey, this is not fitting. I'm not sure what's going on
I I'm gonna have to send it in the Rolex
He's like, no, you can't send in a Rolex. It's fake. It's a knockoff
And the watch was solid 18 karat gold
It was it must have been I don't know at the time 8 000 dollars worth of gold
Yeah
And it was a super fake
And the guy knew that it was okay with it. Yeah, so they'll use real gold and fakes. I guess right
Yeah, so instead of instead of
Instead of spending 30 grand on it back then
He spent 10 grand
And to him he's wearing off. He's one of the people that are wearing watches for the wrong reason
Right, right. If you're if you're willing to buy a fake if you're wearing a fake, you're a fake
like
That's that's
I just can't hang out with people that wear fake anything
All right, like I respects go buy go buy Kate's paid purse
Instead of a fake Louis Vuitton
Nobody cares that it says Louis Vuitton you wear that for you if it brings you enjoyment it makes you happy wear it
The fake one does not bring you enjoy it. You're tricking yourself if you think that's cool
But same thing same thing in the watch industry
Yeah, like there's some people like well, no, I bought a fake watch for vacation. I'm like
You bought a fake submarine for 300 dollars from china town for vacation go buy a seiko
Go buy a seiko 5
For 300 dollars and it's going to be way cooler and a way way better watch
So but yeah, there's a lot a lot of fakes out there
We see it all the time and Rolex has invested a ton
I mean again the reason why they're they're one of the best businesses in the world
They have invested so much in the backside that the consumer doesn't see to prevent all this, right?
So there's a huge there's a global software
Uh program that only certain dealers in the country have access to
But if a watch comes into us, we can put a serial number in this in this software
And we can we can kind of see the history and if it's flagged
And it's reported stolen where something doesn't look right. They're going to request that we send it back to them so they can investigate
Yeah, because that was I mean they're you're just
You know hurting their product, right? So they have to do something to
rectify that
You're talking about johnson, maybe some new brands that you know, everyone kind of knows the paddocks the the ap's the the Rolex
Um, you brought up draw charles. I know the chute original is one of the newer brands
Would you say those are some of the more?
Talk about those kind of brands the ones that are kind of coming up through the ranks and uh that you really like in things like that
Yeah, I mean, I think you you nailed it like gloss shoot. Um
What an insane value, right? You're getting a really really well made watch really well finished
And you're getting some complications, right? So when I say the term complication
That's anything in addition to the timekeeping on a watch
So for example, uh
You have your submarine around right now
If you look down at it has the date
That's the date that's the date complication
So anything anything that the that the watch can do in addition to timekeeping is called a complication
So when we look at a brand like gloss shoot
They're doing things like moon phase and power reserves and the finishing that are you know, they're doing a big date complication
Where it's displayed in two windows
kind of you know, kind of two
two discs that are inside of one window
And when you look at those things at the price point, it's really hard to beat. I'm a huge value guy
Right. So when I buy a watch, I'm usually buying it because I see a ton of value in it
I have I have secos that are 500 bucks. I don't like this is a sick value at $500
You know, I'm wearing today. I'm wearing a skydweller
Which is an annual calendar, which is probably one of the best values in the world. You're getting an annual calendar
with a gmt
It's a Rolex in-house movement that they fully manufacture
And it's 15 16 thousand dollars now, right? So
It's just a great value to that point you talk about values
If someone's trying to get into the watch game and they're like, hey, I don't want to you know
I don't have a relationship, you know to spend
You know 30 grand. I don't have the money spent 30 grand on a Rolex or something nice. What?
What's kind of your like, hey, this is what I would start my
my addiction with and talk about gaining that trying to
Build the relationship with somebody. Maybe you want to get into the you know, would like to get a
Rolex at some point or you know why that's important
Yeah, talk about that relationship and building that type of trust with a with a certified ad
well
I mean buying from an authorized dealer brings a ton of value. You know what you're getting you're paying retail for the product
There's no question marks. Again, it's an insurance policy
The only thing you have to do when you're buying from an authorized dealer is be patient, right?
I love when people are like, hey, go in the safe and grab me a white Daytona
I'm like, yeah, because we're not in the business of selling watches
We just let them collect dust in the back so we can't sell them to you
All right, like we have to keep the lights on here like any other business, right? So I always think that's funny
I always tell people just be patient and and really the the relationship is easy Frank, you know
You're you're a perfect example. You're a loyal committed customer
I mean, obviously you're our friend first and foremost, but you know everything you do is through the CETO fine jewelry
and
You know, we don't want to just help you get a Daytona. You know, we want to help you buy
Take care of everything. We want to be your go-to for for whatever. So when you talk about starting a collection and starting a relationship
it has to make sense for
For you for the consumer and that's something that we understand really well
If somebody's coming in
And they're saying hey, I have a thousand dollar price point and I'm looking for a father's day gift
It doesn't make any sense showing them a 7000 dollar watch
Right. Let's let's let's help the customer
find
What they want and then the price point a lot and we have a ton ton of great options, right?
and
You know as far as starting our relationship we talk about people coming in and the customers that are coming in
I I right now in my career get a ton of
enjoyment
like helping
The kid who's buying his first to sell prx and he comes in he's like, yeah, this is my first nice watch
I've spent an hour with a young man who was buying a to sell prx like I don't know a month ago
I was with him for like an hour on the floor
Talking to him and I kind of came walk back into my office and somebody on our team was like
What did that guy buy like thinking I was going to say like a $60,000 or something or other?
I was like a prx
I'm like, you were with him for an hour and I'm like, yeah, but that's that's where the fun is for me
Right because I'm a watch guy through and through like I'm a nerd, right? I'm a watcher
So for me like I'm gonna hang out with that kid who's buying his first seiko his first to sell
You know, maybe even a tutor and you know, he's read about it for hours on the internet before he came in
I'm gonna give that I'm gonna take more enjoyment out of that
interaction
As opposed to the guy who's like, well, I have a blue sub and I have a black sub and now I really need a green sub
Okay, we feel so bad for you. We're you know, you know, let's let's get you your 19th Rolex
Which is great and I respect it and I understand that collection and that collector I do
And and but I really think there's something cool about helping, you know, young people
Or or anybody I mean, I had a guy who came in here who's retired and he got into watch collecting
And he just grew he just loved the brand seiko
And he wanted to buy
Every single thing they made they wanted to buy their $5,000 product or $6,000 product or $200 product. So
You know, as far as starting the relationship, I think people see the pseudo fine jewelry
in making assumption that
You know, we make these huge amounts of money on everything that we do and our margins are huge and
You know, if you're going to that store, you know, it might be expensive. I don't know why that's sometimes frank. You can
Maybe speak to this. I don't know if people maybe have that thought about an authorized dealer in general or seeing the Rolex crown on our doors
but
We have we have something for everybody
Thousand percent even my dad the first time when I was like, you know, let's go over to go see matt and you know
John joy in them. He's like, oh, I don't want to spend that much money
You know, like something for my mom from mother's day. I was like dad
They have everything or like it's not like you're gonna have to walk out of there for thousands of dollars every time they got
You you hit it on the head too and you know, john, it's the top it's like the top down, right?
So to your point frankly
You introduced me to matt
And matt's taken care of me ever since and and I love the guy and it shows in his, you know
Everyone else is on the floor. Like there was a piece. I wanted for my wife. I wanted, you know, they didn't have it
But you know, louisa over in the rochester store. She's been in contact with me darn near every day
But hey, this is what we're doing. This is what we think is going to happen
Like giving me renderings, you know, showing pictures of it. Like it's been an incredible experience and it's not, you know
It's nothing it's nothing crazy, but something that my wife wanted. So
You know, the way that you guys take care of people
Um is is truly truly impressive. So you guys are doing
I've never and again, you think this is a good dealer too. Is it everyone in this business?
It's all about like refer referrals in a way. I've never once that's why I'll continue to send people to see the fun jewelry
Or I'll send it to terry at suburban fortefundale
Because number one, they're my friends, but number two every time somebody leaves they come back and I'm like
What an experience that was you know exactly like
And that's what's cool about building up a cool network like what we have here in southeast fishing
I always laugh because I know I know for a fact and matt's brought this up a few times when I went to pick this up
He was like mad
It didn't do like the full the full monty because I think we're kind of in a rush and you know
He wanted to do the full full experience of my
Exactly my full rolex. I mean like we're like we gotta go. We gotta you know, I got stuff to do and
But just the the pride that all of you guys take in the work is is truly exceptional. So
Um, you know, I'm gonna plug it again. I'll plug it
For the rest of my days that let's you to find jewelry is is the only place that I know
I gotta auto hauler will go to one last thing I want to bring up too is you know
Obviously everyone is hyped about the rolexes and then last month there was the new releases
And then you were down and one before that too is one thing I want to bring awareness to is just like the car brands, right? Like
Porsche's made here ferrari is here. You know ford is here
Watch brands have the same thing. So say go. John's brought up a couple times. That's Japanese made craftsmanship, correct, John?
You got glaschute is german made
Rolex is swiss made like every different
Some brands are all based in different, you know
It started in switzerland. Most of your stuff is swiss made
But every country's kind of taken certain prides in the certain brands, which I always think is pretty cool as well
Um, but then john just went to
Watches and wonders out in europe
Um and came back. So what john what did what was kind of the hype out there?
What were some of the maybe new releases that you kind of liked or
Uh, what do you think's going to be the one that's hard to get this that kind of thing?
in your take
From that. Yeah, I mean in the rolex worlds, um, you know the entire collector
community is waiting in early april
Uh for these watches to drop and for the rolex website to be updated so they can see what what's new for the year
And rolex was celebrating their 100 year 100 year anniversary
And
They did a jubilee dial, right? So anytime you hear the term jubilee
Obviously rolex makes a jubilee bracelet, but when you hear jubilee in terms of a dial
It's kind of where it has the print rolex
and it reads
Both side to side and up and down
Um and that watch is very colorful and it's a very artistic dial
Not really traditional rolex in my opinion
But there's something about that watch that is it's just absolutely stunning, right?
It's very very attractive looking watch and I don't know why because it's not something I traditionally would like myself to be honest
I mean frank you you and I talk watches all the time
um
In my you know, I pretty I kind of have a traditional take on on watches
So that one was definitely a shocker for me because I put it on my wrist. I said, oh my god
I think I'm gonna buy this multicolored dial from my from my collection that has pink and yellow and green on it
So it's a really really cool piece from them
um
You know, I think additionally to see some of the things that uh, you know, gerald charles is doing
We talk about perpetual calendars, right? So I was talking about my skydweller earlier. That's an annual calendar
And an annual calendar means that the watch needs to be set once a year the last day in february
Otherwise, it knows 30 31 days in which month it is
Which is insane, right? It's a mechanical object. That's driven by a spring that knows 30 versus 31 days
It's an annual calendar a perpetual calendar
Same concept mechanical movement driven by a spring
And it only needs to be set every four years in the leap year
otherwise, it knows
It knows the the days of the month, which is pretty insane
So gerald charles
did a perpetual calendar
And if you know anything about gerald charles their case shape is very unique
Gerald jenta the designer we're talking about earlier did a very unique case shape for this brand and for this watch
and
The movement is not a round movement
shoved inside of this uniquely shaped case
The movement was manufactured to be the exact shape of the case
Which from a watchmaking perspective and and from a from a difficulty perspective
Very hard to do
So to me as a watchmaker when i'm looking at that in their manufacturing the perpetual calendar inside of this uniquely shaped case
That's not round or square
And if you haven't seen it look it up gerald charles
It is really really cool to see a perpetual calendar movement in that
So those are some of the things that I took away from watches and wonders
That I that I thought was really impressive and of course, you know, we had the opportunity to sit down with brand seco
And I mean talk about value the stuff they're doing in the 76000 dollar price point
It's it's really really well made product really beautiful product
You
Well, john, um, we're coming up on time here. We want to be respectful of that
But any other last closing remarks or anything that people want to be on the lookout for anything else you want to mention before we
Before we sign off here
No, I appreciate you guys having me. This was fun. Um, I think we should talk about watches once a week like this
So we say that about find out our most of our podcasts like this, you know, we obviously bring out, you know
Things topics we're we're passionate about and we like
This is another one I could go for another, you know, two plus hours
So maybe we'll have to do something sidebar one of these days and have a conversation but
Dude, you're a wealth of knowledge. You're a great dude. We appreciate you coming on and um, yeah, just very very thankful for that. Thank you
Thanks so much guys. I appreciate it. Thank you frankie
Thanks, johnny. See you buddy. We'll see you guys
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About this episode
John Shiha traces his path from childhood watch fascination—sparked by family jewelry-store visits and online research—to a high-stakes watch repair education that connected him to Rolex service culture. He then explains how Lucido Fine Jewelry built a workshop and national service capabilities, including technician/watchmaker separation, multi-day quality control, and brand-standard training. The conversation also covers Rolex-certified pre-owned verification, anti-counterfeit safeguards, and why well-serviced watches can become long-term heirlooms.
Original notes
John Shiha didn't grow up planning to become one of Michigan's most respected watchmakers. He started at 14 — cleaning cigarette burns off the showcases of a mall jewelry store after his grandfather made him work 13-hour days just to take the job. From there, it was the last high school watch repair program in North America, one of the youngest acceptances ever to the Rolex watchmaking school in Lititz, Pennsylvania, and a cold call to Vince Lucido that turned into a handshake deal and a career.
In this episode, Jake Berkal and Frank Zombo sit down with John, now General Manager at Lucido Fine Jewelry, for a wide-ranging conversation on the craft, the business, and the culture of luxury watches. We cover what actually happens during a full Rolex service, why Rolex is designed to be worked on a decade later, the philosophy that you don't own a Patek Philippe — you take care of it for the next generation, why fakes are a hard pass, and how to start a meaningful collection at any price point. Plus John's takeaways from Watches & Wonders: the Rolex 100-year Jubilee dial, Gerald Charles' perpetual calendar, and the value play happening at Grand Seiko.
If you've ever wondered what makes a $500 Seiko worth keeping for 50 years, why 904L stainless steel matters, or how an authorized dealer relationship actually works — this one's for you.
Big thanks to John for coming on. Visit the team at Lucido Fine Jewelry — Sterling Heights, Rochester, Birmingham, and beyond. www.lucidojewelry.com
Follow Dealer Out of Office for new conversations with the people, brands, and craftsmen behind the automotive and luxury worlds.
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