[ 2010-1-11 10:06:00 | watches1013 ] 

           BY CYNDI KIGHT                                                   CORRESPONDENT                           PRINCESS ANNE - In Gilbert Calle's workshop, dust is an enemy.                           On the spotless counter top, the pile of tiny screws, gaskets and gears from a gutted Rolex watch take cover under the clear glass of an overturned coffee cup.                           Settling particles of dirt can adversely affect such miniature mechanisms, and, after decades of experience in the watch business , Calle is a careful man.                           The Kings Grant resident is also an admitted workaholic.                           At the beginning of June, a month before his 60th birthday, Calle started a new phase of his career at Nathan's Lynnhaven Pawn Shop.                           "Retirement is not my goal in life," he said.                                         Calle, working in a side room of his friend's store at Lynnhaven Parkway and Holland Road, is not far from where he started Gilbert's Jewelry and Watch Repair in 1983.               custom Wood Bangle             "The original shop was in Holland Plaza," Calle said. "I opened on April Fool's Day in 1983, and, that same month, I met Nathan."                           Calle and his wife, Margarita, later moved their business to Collins Square Shopping Center, where they operated until 1996.                           Nathan Segal said he was running a cousin's pawn shop in Norfolk and looking for someone who would do reliable watch repairs when he first met Calle.                           "People kept saying he was the only one in town," Segal said.                           Even now, Segal said, customers who have moved out of the area still mail their watches and jewelry to Calle for repair and service.                            According to Calle, watch-repair and jewelry making are companion professions.                           "I was 9 when I was first introduced to the business," he said.                                              Calle was one of the youngest of 10 children in the small South American town of Andes in Colombia, and it was necessary for him to help supplement his family's income.                           In addition to the 10 pesos a month he earned as an altar boy, Calle also delivered food to the craftsmen of a jewelry trade shop.                           "At the age of 12, they asked me if I wanted to learn the business," Calle said, adding that his mother died that same year.                           He was a polishing machine apprentice for three years, then an assistant for another three.                           At 18, he served two years of mandatory service in the Colombian army, and then returned to work at a jewelry shop.                            When he was 22, he obtained a U.S. visa and came to New York City. He landed at JFK on a Sunday in January 1970 in the midst of a snowstorm.    Replica Bedat & CO                        "By Tuesday, I had a job," he said.                           After working for three different watch companies, Calle began his own business in 1975.                           A visit to Hampton Roads in 1979 convinced him the area was where he wanted to live, and he moved here that same year.                            Soft-spoken, yet gregarious, Calle said meeting people has always been the best part of his job.                            A father of two grown children, he also likes to hone his social skills on the golf course.                            Though he is available at Nathan's Mondays through Fridays, the Heron Ridge Golf Club member does leave before noon on Tuesdays and Thursdays to practice his game.                        
Other articles:
http://www.csdtd.com/Blog/View/?568
http://shenyong.skpay.net/Blog/View/?335

浏览(271) | 回复(0)

● 上一篇日志： Masked robbers grab pounds 400k jewellery
● 下一篇日志： Matt in photos plea