Watchmaker John Sweeting at his work desk. 88681 Picture: JOE MASTROIANNI
By XAVIER SMERDON
THE drawer of John Sweeting’s work desk has been whittled away after 54 years of constant filing and grinding.
The watchmaker and jeweller has run his Watton St shop for longer than other current store owner.
Mr Sweeting opened his shop in 1958 when he was just 24 years-old after already making a name for himself as the local handyman.
“I lived in Gibbons St and I virtually had people dropping watches in to my house for me to fix, so I thought I might as well open my own shop,” Mr Sweeting said.
He can still recall the location and name of every business that has come and gone on the street he has occupied a spot on for almost 60 years.
“It was all different back then,” he said.
“There were lots of vacant blocks. The person who owned the shop behind me used to have a cow in the back yard.”
Mr Sweeting was born in Werribee less than a kilometre away from where he now fixes watches and jewellery every day and his father Harry worked at the Point Cook RAAF base helping to make aeroplanes.
Despite being a master of a dying art, Mr Sweeting said he thought he would continue to run his shop for the rest of his life.
“I look at it as you’ve got to do something in your life so you might as well do something that you like,” he said.
“This is just my life.”
