Service That’s Always on Time

For over 30 years, Wolff Kubly Ace Hardware has kept area residents on time with its watch and clock service center. The Wolff Kubly Time Center, located in Middleton, Wisconsin, repairs watches and clocks, and customers can also purchase watches, clocks, pocket watches and watch bands. 

The Time Center evolved over the years from a completely separate business to an important part of the hardware store. Wolff Kubly Ace used to be located inside a mall and had extra space in the store that it rented to a watch and clock company, says Scott Getz, general manager of Wolff Kubly Ace Hardware. When the owner of that clock and watch company retired and sold the business, the new owner moved the business outside of Wolff Kubly, but the manager wanted to stay.

“We jumped on that opportunity and hired the manager to open our own watch and clock business and continue offering that service to customers,” Getz says. “The Time Center was born from there. Now, all those employees are Wolff Kubly employees, we hire and train them specifically to work in the Time Center.”

Wolff Kubly Ace has since moved to a new location and the Time Center has its own footprint in the store’s retail space. There, customers can shop a large selection of timepiece brands and styles in a variety of price points. Along with traditional wall, mantle and desk clocks, the store sells alarm and travel clocks and cuckoo and anniversary clocks for special occasions. 

The Time Center’s biggest draw is changing watch batteries, says Getz. Last year, the Time Center changed over 7,500 watch batteries. The employees at the Time Center also resize watch bands and can special order watch bands from nearly every brand if a particular brand or style isn’t in stock. 

“Many people don’t know where to get a watch battery and appreciate that we offer that service,” says Getz. “We get a lot of word-of-mouth advertising from customers who share about our watch battery and watch band services.”