Terms and conditions for a jewellery repair and watch repair business

A repair business takes possession of things it did not make, often cannot replace and rarely can value: an inherited ring, a vintage chronograph, a watch the customer swears was keeping perfect time before you touched it. Your terms have to deal with intake, estimates, risk, guarantees and the items nobody comes back for. I draft them for a fixed fee of £995, delivered in five working days.

Who this is for

Jewellers, watchmakers, goldsmiths and independent repair workshops in England and Wales, trading as a sole trader or a limited company. Most of your work is for consumers, who have rights you cannot draft away, and some of it is trade work for other jewellers, pawnbrokers, auction houses and insurers, where the terms can be firmer. One set of terms should cover both.

What matters in repair terms for jewellers and watchmakers

Taking the item in

Almost every dispute starts with what was on the bench when it arrived. The terms should require a written description at intake: metal, stones, existing wear, missing parts, whether the watch was running, and any value the customer declares. They should also say who you will release the item to and what identification you ask for. A customer who returns weeks later remembering a larger diamond, or a chipped stone that was already chipped, is answered by the record rather than by argument. I will explain how to make the terms part of the contract on the ticket you hand over.

Estimates that change once the case is open

You cannot price a service you have not seen inside. The terms should make clear that a counter estimate is exactly that, that dismantling may reveal corrosion, earlier poor repairs or parts no longer made, and that a revised price must be approved before the work continues. They should also deal with the awkward case where the customer declines the revised price and the item cannot honestly be put back to the state it arrived in. Where you advertise prices to consumers, the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024 means the headline figure must include charges the customer has to pay, postage included.

The risks that are built into the work

Ultrasonic cleaning can loosen a setting. Heat can alter treated or fracture-filled stones. Polishing a vintage case removes metal and can reduce what a collector will pay. Resizing a shank can distort an engraving. Under the Consumer Rights Act 2015 you must perform the service with reasonable care and skill, you cannot exclude that duty, and you cannot limit liability for the service to less than the price. What the terms can properly do is require you to explain the known risk before starting and record the customer's instruction to proceed, so the later question is the standard of your work, not what the customer was told.

Parts, guarantees and water resistance

Parts you supply are goods. For consumers the Consumer Rights Act 2015 requires them to be of satisfactory quality and as described, with a short-term right to reject within 30 days; for trade customers the Sale of Goods Act 1979 does similar work. Say whether a part is manufacturer or aftermarket, because a customer who finds out afterwards treats it as misdescription. Any guarantee on the repair should be defined: what it covers, what it excludes, and that it does not underwrite the rest of an old movement. Information a consumer relies on is binding, so qualify claims about water resistance by what a pressure test actually shows.

Postal repairs and online bookings

If a customer books by phone, email or your website and posts the item in, that is a distance contract under the Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013 and they have fourteen days to cancel. You may start work inside that period only at their express request, and a customer who then cancels pays a proportionate amount. An urgent repair they asked for falls outside the cancellation right, but only that work, and personalised work such as engraving is treated differently again. Say before they commit who pays return postage: goods are at your risk until the customer has them.

Uncollected items, storage and trade work

Every workshop has a drawer of items nobody collected. The terms should set out how long you hold a finished repair, how you will chase the customer and any storage charge, which for consumers must stay proportionate, because the Consumer Rights Act 2015 treats disproportionate default charges as unfair. Disposing of property that belongs to someone else carries real legal limits, so the clause should be drafted with those in mind rather than claiming a free hand. On trade work, the Late Payment of Commercial Debts (Interest) Act 1998 gives you interest and fixed compensation, and a liability cap against a business customer is judged by the reasonableness test in the Unfair Contract Terms Act 1977.

What it costs

Customer or supplier terms and conditions, £995. One set of terms, customer-facing or supplier-facing, drafted around your business. Five working days.

Review of your existing terms, £495. You already have terms and want to know how much of a problem they are. Returned marked up with my amendments and an explanation of the changes. Three working days.

Buying online forms the engagement on payment. The scope is what the terms and conditions drafting page describes, you accept the Terms of Service at checkout, and I email you within four working hours to get started. If you would rather ask something first, email me.

What you get

• A full set of terms drafted around your business, not a template with your name inserted
• A covering note in plain English explaining every commercial choice I made and why, so you can defend the terms in a negotiation without ringing me
• Liability, payment, termination and IP provisions set at a level that will survive a procurement review
• Consumer-facing wording drafted to be enforceable where you sell to consumers
• Guidance on how to incorporate the terms properly, which is where most businesses actually fail
• One round of amendments after you have read them

What is not included

• Negotiating your terms with individual customers
• Sector-specific regulatory compliance beyond the contract terms themselves
• Website privacy notice and cookie compliance, which I quote separately
• Terms governed by the law of another country

Questions I am often asked

The customer insists the stone was a diamond and it was not. Where do I stand?

That argument is won or lost on what was written down when the item came in. Terms that require the stones to be described at intake, and that make clear you do not certify or value stones unless you are separately instructed to test them, give you both a record and a limit. Without either, it is memory against memory.

Can I cap what I pay if an item is lost or damaged in the workshop?

Against a business customer a cap can work if it is reasonable, which usually means it sits sensibly beside your insurance cover. Against a consumer you cannot cut liability for the service below the price charged, and you cannot exclude the duty to work with reasonable care and skill. Asking customers to declare a value at intake, and confirming your insurers accept it, does more than a cap.

I send case refinishing and dial restoration out to specialists. Does that change my terms?

Your terms should permit you to use specialist subcontractors, because most workshops do, and should be clear that you remain the customer's contracting party throughout. The customer contracted with you, not with the dial restorer. A customer who discovers the work went elsewhere without being told tends to complain about that first and the workmanship second.

Related guidance and services

• Terms and conditions drafting, £995, the service this page describes
• Contract review, £495
• Ask Caesar, £495 a month
• Terms and conditions for a dog groomer
• Terms and conditions for a hairdressing salon

This page is general guidance for businesses in England and Wales, not advice on your own circumstances. Last reviewed: September 2026. Email geoffrey@caesar.co.uk.