Meet the Man Behind the Bench: Paul Bogard, Head Watchmaker at TNS Diamonds

Most watch shops will hand your Rolex or Omega to whoever’s available. At TNS Diamonds, there’s one person it goes to — Paul Bogard.

Paul is the head watchmaker at TNS, and his background isn’t your typical “learned on the job” story. He spent a decade training in the Swiss watchmaking tradition across London and France, the same cities and ateliers where the craft has been passed down for generations. That kind of training isn’t available at a weekend course. It’s the sort of thing manufacturers guard carefully, and it’s why Paul’s hands work at a level you rarely find outside of brand-owned service centers.

A customer who came into the shop put it well: “Classy emporium — polite and very agreeable staff, including Frenchman Paul from Champagne.” That detail matters. Paul isn’t just technically trained in Swiss watchmaking — he’s from that world, fluent in French and Spanish, and has lived inside the culture that produced the watches he now services. When he opens a caseback, he knows exactly what he’s looking at.

What Paul Actually Does

Every watch that comes through TNS goes across Paul’s bench. That covers a wide range of work — and the scope matters, because not every watchmaker can handle all of it.

TNS handles everything from battery replacements and band adjustments to full movement overhauls, ultrasonic cleaning, case polishing, and water resistance testing. For the more involved jobs, Paul is performing what’s known as a full service: disassembling the movement completely, inspecting every component under magnification, cleaning each part, replacing worn elements, re-lubricating to factory specifications, and reassembling before testing for accuracy and water resistance.

This is the work that separates a watch that runs from a watch that runs correctly. Timing a watch to pass a quick test is easy. Doing the full job — cleaning out years of degraded lubricant, replacing the mainspring, checking the escapement, verifying the power reserve — takes real knowledge and patience. That’s what Paul does, on every piece that warrants it, whether it’s a Rolex Submariner or a vintage dress watch that hasn’t been touched in 20 years.

He also handles restorations. Antique and vintage pieces require a different set of skills entirely. Parts may no longer be manufactured. Movement architecture varies by era, by maker, by caliber. Getting an older watch running again without damaging original components — or compromising its collector value — demands the kind of horological knowledge that only comes from years of dedicated study and hands-on work in serious environments. Paul has both.

The Quality You Can Expect

The difference between a qualified watchmaker and an average repair shop is almost invisible from the outside — until it isn’t. A watch can leave a careless bench looking fine and performing adequately for a few months before problems surface. Degraded lubricants left behind, worn parts not replaced, gaskets re-used instead of swapped — none of it shows in the short term. It shows later, in accuracy loss, in a movement that starts wearing faster than it should, or in a service interval that arrives years too soon.

Paul’s training means he doesn’t take shortcuts. When he services a movement, it comes out clean, properly lubricated, and reassembled to the tolerances the manufacturer intended. When he restores a vintage piece, he protects the original components that give it value — the dial, the hands, the period-correct parts that collectors care about. Nothing gets swapped unnecessarily. Nothing gets polished away.

For anyone who owns a watch as both a daily piece and a long-term investment, that matters. Unnecessary part swaps and over-polishing are two of the most common ways a watch loses collector value at the bench. Paul knows what to touch and, just as importantly, what to leave alone.

In-House Means Something Here

A lot of dealers send repairs out. TNS doesn’t. Paul is on-site on Jewelers’ Row, which means faster turnaround and direct accountability. If you want to know exactly what was done to your watch and why, you can ask the person who did it. There’s no third party, no shipping your watch off to an unknown bench somewhere, no guessing.

TNS has built its name on trust and transparency — it’s why customers from across the country choose to buy and service watches with a Philadelphia shop rather than someone local. Having a watchmaker of Paul’s caliber in-house is a significant part of what gives that reputation its foundation.

Whether you’re bringing in a daily wearer that’s running a few seconds off, a luxury piece due for its scheduled service, or a family heirloom that needs careful restoration, it goes to the same bench — and gets the same level of attention. That’s not marketing. That’s just how Paul works.