What Is WatchCheck and How It Emerged to Reinvent Watch Servicing

For decades, mechanical watch owners have faced a familiar dilemma: once a treasured timepiece needs servicing, the journey from doorstep to workshop and back can be fraught with uncertainty. Where do you send a rare vintage watch? How much will it cost? Will it return with the original patina intact or polished away?

In late 2024, two entrepreneurs set out to answer these questions by founding WatchCheck, an online, white-glove platform designed to make watch maintenance transparent, convenient, and reliable. This article delves into the origins of WatchCheck, profiles its founders, and explains how their vision addresses longstanding challenges in the horology world.

The Founders’ Journey

Linden Lazarus’s fascination with watches began early. As a teenager, he started trading vintage timepieces out of his college dorm room, recognizing that the pre-owned market was riddled with inconsistent pricing and opaque authenticity checks. By his mid-20s, he launched Oliver & Clarke, a boutique dedicated to curating and selling vintage watches with full transparency on condition and provenance. Through hundreds of client conversations, Lazarus identified a recurring theme: collectors loved their watches but dreaded the servicing experience. Clients described drop-offs at local shops as “sending my investment into a black hole,” with little communication and unpredictable timelines.

Will Haering entered the picture as a seasoned technology entrepreneur. With a background in crafting consumer-facing platforms and scalable logistics systems, Haering had spent years optimizing user journeys for businesses ranging from e-commerce to subscription services. He saw parallels between the frustrations of online shoppers and watch owners who found themselves offline when it came to maintenance. Haering believed that a well-designed digital interface could bridge this gap, giving users end-to-end visibility over a traditionally analog process.

A chance meeting at a watch collectors’ event in early 2024 brought Lazarus and Haering together. Over coffee, they traded stories: Lazarus recounting clients’ shipping mishaps and Haering outlining how real-time tracking could eliminate guesswork. They quickly realized that combining deep horological expertise with modern digital infrastructure could solve the very pain points both had seen in their respective fields. By mid-2024, they had sketched a blueprint for WatchCheck: a fully online service that would handle everything from secure packaging and insured shipping to professional repair and milestone updates.

Building WatchCheck

Before going live, the founders conducted extensive interviews with collectors, independent watchmakers, and auction-house specialists. They mapped out every step, quote generation, logistics, workshop processing, quality assurance, and return delivery, documenting common failure points. In Autumn 2024, WatchCheck launched a closed beta with a select group of enthusiasts. Early testers praised the convenience of at-home shipping kits and real-time status alerts, while offering feedback on user-interface improvements and service-level definitions.

A core decision was to partner with Stoll & Company, one of the United States’ largest independent service centers, renowned for Swiss-trained watchmakers and strict adherence to factory specifications. This alliance ensured that WatchCheck’s digital promise was backed by genuine craftsmanship. Stoll’s facility in Dayton, Ohio, provided the capacity and expertise needed to handle high volumes without compromising quality or turnaround times.

In November 2024, WatchCheck publicly launched its platform. Within weeks, it had served dozens of collectors, many of whom shared testimonials about the simplicity of packing their watch into a supplied kit, scheduling a pickup, and then clicking through an online portal to watch their watch’s “hospital visit” unfold. By early 2025, WatchCheck had processed hundreds of jobs, ranging from straightforward timing adjustments to full overhauls of heritage timepieces. In April 2025, the platform garnered wider attention when Sotheby’s became its first auction-house partner, offering post-sale servicing to clients via WatchCheck.

What WatchCheck Does

1. Model Identification and Up-Front Pricing
    Collectors select their watch make and model from a database of over 38,000 references spanning more than 200 brands. Fixed, transparent fees for each service tier prevent surprise charges.
   

2. White-Glove Logistics
    A pre-assembled shipping kit, complete with a padded inner case, discreet outer box, shipping labels, tape, and insurance paperwork, arrives at the owner’s door. After packing, the client schedules a carrier pickup, and WatchCheck handles insured transport up to high values.
   

3. Professional Servicing
    All work takes place at Stoll & Company’s workshop, where Swiss-trained watchmakers perform inspections, repairs, movement overhauls, case refinishing, and precision regulation. Clients can include special instructions, such as “preserve original patina” or “no polishing.”
   

4. Transparent Tracking and Communication
    At each milestone, receipt, inspection completion, active repair, and shipment back, clients receive timestamped notifications via email or the online dashboard. If inspectors discover additional issues, they submit cost estimates for client approval before proceeding.
   

5. Warranty and Quality Assurance
   Every service comes with a two-year mechanical warranty. Upon return, clients receive a detailed service report, timing test results, and maintenance recommendations.
   
   

Addressing Industry Challenges

• Trust and Expertise: By vetting its partner service center, WatchCheck assures collectors that their watches are handled by qualified professionals.
  

• Transparency: Fixed pricing and milestone updates eliminate the “black-box” experience and prevent unexpected bills.
  

• Convenience: Door-to-door logistics remove the burden of sourcing materials and arranging shipping, making maintenance accessible even in areas without high-end watchmakers.
  

• Customization: Collector preferences for preservation or restoration are honored through a simple instruction system, catering to both sentimental and aesthetic values.
  
  

From a dorm-room trading venture to a cutting-edge digital service, Linden Lazarus and Will Haering channeled their respective passions into WatchCheck. By combining deep industry insight with modern technology, they created a platform that directly tackles the pain points of mechanical watch servicing. As the watch community embraces greater transparency and convenience, WatchCheck stands out as a prime example of how honoring tradition and innovation can coexist, delivering peace of mind to collectors and keeping treasured timepieces ticking smoothly.