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KEVIN GUTTING

Al Desorcy, shown here with the balance and hair spring of a pocket watch, has handed over his business, Al’s Clock and Watch Repair, to one of his daughters, Theresa Leveille.

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KEVIN GUTTING

Al Desorcy taught himself to fix timepieces decades ago, and about nine years ago his daughter Theresa took up the trade as well.

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KEVIN GUTTING

Theresa Leveille repairs clocks in the basement of Al’s Clock and Watch Repair, which she took over from her father this month.

EASTHAMPTON - After filling a void as the area's only timepiece repair business for more than 30 years, Al's Clock and Watch Repair has seen some changes in the new year.

"It was time," said Alfred Desorcy, 64, of his choice to hand the shop over to his daughter, Theresa Leveille, who has managed the shop for years. "I'm so happy it's staying in the family."

Leveille took over on Jan. 1, just as the business completed its move to the new location at 64 Cottage St. Father and daughter both agreed that Cottage Street is the perfect spot for their unique business.

"I love it here, it's like a mini-Northampton on this side of town," said Leveille, 45. "It's busier, there are more people looking in the window. It's amazing how many people are coming in now who say they live here and just didn't notice us on Main Street."

Desorcy's name will still be on the shop's sign, and he said he will still be "puttering around" the shop doing what he loves - fixing timepieces - as long as his bad back allows.

Desorcy taught himself how to fix timepieces decades ago, and opened Al's Clock and Watch Repair in Southampton in 2000. He moved the business to Main Street in Easthampton in 2002, but when rent at the 60 Main St. location went up, he and Leveille decided to move to Cottage Street.

Leveille, who started apprenticing with her father nine years ago, said she loves to go to work at the shop every day because of the customers. "We love to hear peoples' stories for the watches they bring in, like where they got them or how they were handed down through the family," she said.

She said that while a lot of their business is repeat customers who have a few different keepsake clocks to repair, they also see a lot of first-time customers and even some collectors. "They come from all over; Connecticut, Vermont, we get stuff in the mail from California," Leveille said

Desorcy said that although a lot of young people have digital watches or cell phones to tell the time now, he still sees a "good mix" of ages coming to the shop. "They may have a cell phone, but they also have a parent's graduation watch that needs fixing, after it ran perfectly for 50 years," he said.

Antique and unique clocks fill the window in the front of the store, including one that resembles a ship's wheel and another that features an elephant. Behind the counter of the shop are a few work stations and hundreds of drawers holding the clock and watch parts for repairs.

Desorcy said he's spent years building up the collection of more than 5,000 parts by purchasing pieces on eBay or buying out closing clock shops, because it is getting more and more difficult to find replacement parts for the older watches. If he can't find a part, he makes it.

"In the 1950s, every jewelry store had a watchmaker," he said. Now, most other timepiece repair shops have closed, but that has only increased business at Al's, he said.

"There's competition in Boston and a shop in Pittsfield, but nothing here," Desorcy said. "Recession or no recession, business has always been good."

Currently, the shop's five part-time employees are working on fixing over 100 pieces, Leveille said. In the basement of the shop, three men with white hair are tinkering with watches at cluttered work stations, wearing magnifying glasses to see the tiny parts.

Desorcy said it takes a year to properly train someone to do the work, and it is not for everyone. "People think you just have to be good with your hands, but it's more about your brain than your hands," he said. "You have to be patient and go slow so you don't break or scratch something. It's the only job where your boss tells you to slow down."

They also repair old toys, lamps and other things that run on gears. "We fix anything that ticks or tocks," he said.

Joni Kolakowski, 50, of South Hadley, stopped by the shop to have a watch repaired last week. She found Al's seven years ago by doing an Internet search for repair shops when a cuckoo clock she got as a wedding present stopped working.

"I was anxious about it, but they fixed it beautifully and I've been coming here ever since," she said, adding that her husband and son have also had watches fixed there. "They know the clocks inside and out, they're honest and I'm thrilled they're here."

At 11 a.m., a clock on the wall chimes to announce the time, and then settles into the regular ticking that echoes around the quiet shop. Desorcy said he and his daughter are never happier than when they are at the shop, and they hope their customers love the old-timey feel of the place.

"When people walk in, I want them to go back 150 years and feel like they are in an old clock repair shop," Desorcy said, looking around at the clocks. "We can't go back in time, but I think we got pretty close."

Rebecca Everett can be reached at reverett@gazettenet.com.