The Workshop
Behind the Work
Escapement Lab is a watch repair and servicing workshop on Lebuh Pantai in George Town. Each piece is attended to individually, without a production queue.
Back to HomeA Workshop Built Around Single Pieces
Escapement Lab opened on Lebuh Pantai with a straightforward purpose: to give watch owners in Penang somewhere to bring pieces that matter without having them disappear into a multi-week postal queue or a service centre handling hundreds of units a month.
The name refers to the escapement — the part of a mechanical movement that controls the release of energy and keeps the rate. It is the component that most clearly rewards careful work and suffers most visibly from careless handling. It seemed an honest name for what we set out to do.
The location on Lebuh Pantai was chosen deliberately. George Town's humid coastal climate is hard on crown seals and gaskets, and the owners who walk in are often dealing with pieces that have spent years near the water. The 48-hour post-seal pressure test came out of that reality rather than from a service manual.
We work on quartz movements, case and bracelet surfaces, and complicated mechanical movements. Each programme has a fixed scope, a stated timeline, and a written record of what was found and what was done. Owners are not asked to take our word for the condition — they see the photographs or read the note.
To handle each watch as if it is the only job on the bench that week — because it often is. Work that is documented, scoped in advance, and explained at collection.
- Transparency first. Scope, cost, and timeline are confirmed before any work begins.
- Documentation. Every job leaves with a written record or photographs. No verbal summaries.
- Parts integrity. Replacement components sourced from the same channels used by authorised repairers.
- No additions without agreement. Unexpected findings are reported before the job continues.
14A Lebuh Pantai, 10300 George Town, Penang. The workshop is at street level. Parking is available on Lebuh Pantai and along nearby Weld Quay. Open Tuesday to Saturday; closed Sunday and Monday.
Who Handles Your Watch
Radzuan Azmi
Handles movement-level work on quartz and mechanical pieces. Trained through the trade and carries the bench practices that came with it.
Siti Widad
Responsible for all case, bracelet, and crystal work. Manages the sample panel process and coordinates bracelet sizing at handover.
Lim Kok Wei
Manages parts sourcing, intake documentation, and owner communication at each stage of the complication restoration programme.
How Each Job Is Governed
Written Intake Record
Every piece is logged at intake with a description of its visible condition. This forms the starting record against which the final condition note is measured.
Pressure Testing Protocol
All seal work is tested under pressure and then monitored on a timing machine for 48 hours. A piece is not returned until both the seal and the rate have been confirmed satisfactory.
Approved Parts Sourcing
Gaskets, crystals, springs, and levers are sourced from supply channels used within the trade — not from unverified generic suppliers. Origins are noted in the job record.
Photographic Stage Records
Chronograph and complication work is photographed at disassembly, reassembly, and final test. These images are shared with the owner at each stage, not held back.
Scope Agreement Before Work
For case refinishing, a sample panel is shown before any material is removed. For all services, price and scope are agreed before work starts. Nothing is added unilaterally.
Owner Data Handling
Contact details and service records are held for warranty and follow-up purposes only. They are not shared or used for unrelated communications. See our Privacy Policy for the full approach.
Watch Repair in George Town, Penang
George Town's position on the Strait of Malacca means high humidity through much of the year. Crown seals, caseback gaskets, and pushers on daily-wear pieces — particularly sport and dive styles — degrade faster here than in drier climates. A seal job that might run two years in a lower-humidity environment may need attention within twelve to eighteen months. That pace of wear is what shaped the pressure-test requirement that Escapement Lab builds into every quartz overhaul.
The Lebuh Pantai workshop handles three distinct programmes. The quartz overhaul covers the electrical and sealing side of a movement: battery, circuit, coil, and all case gaskets, confirmed with a pressure test and timing run. The refinishing programme attends to the surfaces — case flanks, bracelet links, crystal — and returns the piece to the finish contrast the maker originally intended. The complication restoration programme is the most extended, covering column-wheel and cam-lever chronograph movements, calendar modules, and moon-phase discs, with component-level disassembly and function testing at every corrector position.
Owners who bring pieces to the workshop receive a consistent kind of handling regardless of which programme applies: a clear scope before work begins, no additions without a call, and a written or photographic record at collection. The intention is that the piece leaves better understood than when it arrived — by the owner as much as by the workshop.
Bring Your Piece to Lebuh Pantai
Walk-ins are welcome during workshop hours. Send an enquiry first if you'd like us to note the piece in advance.
Request a Quote