A workshop that respects
what a watch carries with it.
Quartzen was built on the idea that a mechanical watch deserves to be understood before it is opened. That principle has shaped every intake, every bench decision and every report that leaves with the work.
Back to HomeHow Quartzen came to be
Quartzen opened in Ipoh in 2009 after its founder, Lim Chee Wai, spent a decade working under a senior watchmaker in Kuala Lumpur. Chee Wai had grown up watching his grandfather wind the same steel-cased automatic every morning — a habit that made timing feel less like a chore and more like a small act of care. When that watch stopped keeping time in 2006, no local workshop in Perak could tell him why clearly or quote a reliable turnaround. That gap became the brief.
The early workshop occupied one back room on Persiaran Greenhill with a single timing machine and a secondhand cleaning unit. The first year was mostly watch batteries and strap changes, honest bread-and-butter work that built the habit of talking to customers before touching their pieces.
Over time, the scope grew: full calibre rebuilds, gasket renewals, case hand-refinishing for pieces whose owners asked for it, and eventually archive commissions for watches with family histories that needed to be read as carefully as a repair manual. The Persiaran Greenhill address is still the same.
Quartzen's name draws on two things: the quartz oscillator, which set the standard for accuracy that mechanical movements have been chasing ever since, and the cartographic tradition of mapping — the idea that a dial is a plane with named regions, each one telling you something about the movement below.
The workshop's mission has not changed since 2009. Each watch that arrives is assessed on its own terms: its age, its condition, its owner's intent for it. The work that follows is scoped in writing, carried out at the bench, and documented so the owner leaves with more information than they arrived with.
Quartzen does not compete on volume. The workshop takes a number of pieces it can handle carefully, turns them around in the time it quotes, and stands behind what it does. That is the whole of it.
The people at the bench
Lim Chee Wai
Founder & Head WatchmakerTrained under a KL-based master watchmaker for ten years before founding Quartzen in 2009. Specialises in vintage calibres and six-position regulation work. Handles all Archive Restoration Commissions personally.
Siti Rahimah
Workshop TechnicianJoined the workshop in 2016 after completing a horological programme in Penang. Carries out cleaning passes, gasket renewals and case preparation. Handles intake documentation and timing machine records.
Ahmad Kamal
Client Liaison & Parts SourcingManages customer communication, written scope documents and the workshop's relationship with parts suppliers across Malaysia and Singapore. Ensures turnaround estimates are based on actual parts availability, not optimism.
Workshop standards
Four-Bath Cleaning Protocol
Full bench services use a four-stage chemical and rinse process. Each bath is maintained and changed on a fixed schedule. No single-bath shortcuts, regardless of movement size.
Timing Machine Regulation
All services that include regulation are measured on a calibrated timing machine. Amplitude, beat error and daily rate are recorded before and after. The printout leaves with every watch.
Magnification Inspection
Every movement is examined under stereo magnification at intake and again before reassembly. Hairline cracks, worn surfaces and pivot condition are checked and noted, not estimated.
Manufacturer Lubrication Charts
Calibre-specific lubrication charts are used where available. Where a chart is absent, industry-standard viscosities are applied by location and function. Lubricant grades are logged in the service record.
Case Resistance Testing
Where a case carries a published resistance rating, it is tested after gasket renewal before the watch is returned. The result is noted on the service record alongside the gasket specification used.
Written Scope and Parts Record
Every job includes a written record of what was done, what parts were renewed and what parts were reused. The record stays with the watch's history, useful at any future point of service.
Mechanical watchmaking in Perak
Perak's watch ownership culture leans toward pieces that have been handed down rather than bought new. Ipoh households frequently hold watches from the 1960s through the 1980s — Swiss, Japanese and locally-traded calibres that ran well for decades and now need attention. Quartzen was positioned from the start to serve that specific group: people who have inherited or collected mechanical pieces and want them assessed and worked on by someone who understands what they are.
The workshop does not attempt to compete with retail chains or battery-and-strap kiosks. The services are priced to reflect the time a bench job actually takes — typically measured in weeks, not hours — and the calibre of parts used. Mainsprings are sourced from established suppliers in Malaysia and Singapore. Gaskets are matched to the original specification where a parts reference exists. Fabricated parts for archive commissions are machined or hand-fitted to fit without altering the original dimensions of the case or movement.
Clients tend to come to Quartzen because they want to know what is being done to a watch they care about. The workshop's approach — written scope, photographic records, timing printouts — is designed for exactly that kind of ownership. The information is there when the owner wants it, without the workshop needing to explain itself at collection time.
Bring your watch in for a survey.
No commitment needed at that stage — the survey is the first step in understanding what the piece requires and whether the scope makes sense for you.
Contact the Workshop