For maybe 3 months now, I’ve been going to work with my battery-dead watches. I thought to myself that I’d find a watchmaker in District 1 near work. I wasn’t too worried coz I still have watches that I can use until one — the clasp broke and the second one, well the battery died too. I was left with one.

Yesterday, as I was walking to my bus stop, I noticed this watch store Quoc Huong at the corner. I’ve seen it lots of times of course but it never occurred to me to ask if they repair watches. HELLO? And of course, they do! *slaps forehead*

The knick knacks this shop sells threw me off that’s why I never thought of checking if they change batteries.

The owner, Tuan, sat me down as he pried open my watches. Tuan has had the shop with his brother for some 12 years. For the past 6 years, the fascade of that street corner of Mac Thi Buoi and Dong Khoi has changed quite a bit, except for Quoc Huong.

He warned me that I only should come back to him if I need to have the batteries changed. He said that selling of low quality batteries is rampant in Vietnam. I actually believed him because I remembered I just had the batteries changed on two of my watches — maybe less than a year.

Batteries do not come cheap. I had to step out of Tuan’s shop for a bit to withdraw some money. But as always, I asked for a discount. 😛 Still wasn’t cheap though!

Quoc Huong
91 Dong Khoi St. District 1
(Closed since December 2015)