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By Mike Barnhardt
Enterprise Record

A chainsaw accident led James “Jim” McBride into the watch repair business.
That led him into the jewelry business.
And now, at age 90, you can still find him at his work station at Davie Jewelers on Yadkinville Road in Mocksville, meticulously taking apart watches – replacing needed parts and putting them back together.
Nearby, son Barry has his own work station. And Jim’s daughter-in-law, Barry’s wife Barbara, also works nearby while keeping an eye on the front of the store.
It’s always been a family affair for Jim McBride, who hasn’t been afraid to try new things within his own business.
Watches were popular in the early 1950s, and they regularly needed repairing. Jim was working in a furniture store in Salisbury that had a watch repair shop in the back. He made friends with that watch repairman.
As a teen, he would travel to Mocksville to help J.A. Foster with watch repairs.
But still, he wasn’t sure about his future.
Then there was that accident, when a piece of metal pierced his eye. He was fitted with a false eye, and wondered about his future. Auto mechanics seemed too dangerous, so he cautiously chose to attend watch repair school. He was anxious, but his hesitation calmed when he learned the instructor could only see out of one eye.
He remembers that instructor telling another student: “Jim can see better with that one eye than you can with both of yours.”
It was a busy time. He lived in Bear Poplar (near Cleveland, NC), went to school in Spencer and then traveled to Mocksville to work for Mr. Foster, often arriving back home after midnight; just to start it all over again the next day.
There were a lot of watch repair shops, so when Jim and wife Judith moved to Mocksville, he worked for garment factories. After son Barry was born, he said he tired of living in Mocksville and moved back to Rowan.
That didn’t sit well with Buck and Wylene Keller, who looked him up and asked him to move back. He told them that if his wife got a job at Davie County Hospital and they could find someone to “look after” Barry, they would consider moving back. They did … and they did.
By 1960, he went into business for himself. Davie Jewelers was born. He already knew watch repairs, and learned more every day about the jewelry business. Jim has watched the price of gold go from $35 an ounce to $3,000 per ounce.
In the late 1960s, he went into business with another Davie resident, cutting synthetic diamonds. At one time, they had 20-25 employees working in Downtown Mocksville. It was a lucrative business until foreign competition arrived.
So he began making rings, getting help with the first one from a local dentist.
“We made a lot of rings,” he said. “People still come up and show me a ring that I had made for them.”
He’s always been active in the community, helping to start the chamber of commerce, downtown business association and even encouraged the town to allow alcohol sales, even though he doesn’t drink. There were more places selling liquor in Davie County than in counties that had ABC stores, he said.
And there was the clock on the tower of the courthouse in Downtown Mocksville. It quit working. It was a laughingstock. Jim said he remembers former county commissioner, Bert Bahnson, complaining repeatedly about the clock showing the wrong time, always making fun.
So he decided to fix it. No charge to the county. It was the biggest timepiece he had ever worked on, but it ran like other clocks he had repaired. That job got him featured in an industry magazine.
Davie Jewelers was a mainstay in downtown until 1988, when it moved to the Squire Boone Plaza on Yadkinville Road.
“I like what I’m doing,” Jim said. “They say if you like what you’re doing, you’ll never work a day in your life.”
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Growing up, Barry knew he would likely work in the shop some day. As a child, he had been paid a bit to sweep and do other menial chores. Those chores rose to buffing rings and cleaning clocks. “I was at the store all the time,” Barry said.
“I always knew intuitively that I would be in the jewelry business, but it was never discussed,” he said. “But in my gut, I knew.”
That didn’t stop him from pursuing his passion: painting with an air brush; Barry had already completed dozens of motorcycle gas tanks and helmets, even painting scenes onto vehicles. He looked for the best auto body shop in the area that he could find, grabbed some examples of his work and headed for the Vette Shop in Davidson County. They hired him on the spot.
“My greatest aspiration in life was to be a custom air brush car painter, so I was thrilled,” he said. “I loved every minute of it.”
About this time, his father had partnered to cut emeralds, and the work was more than he could keep up with. So he asked Barry to come and help.
“I said maybe, but I’m not going to wait on customers and I wasn’t going to work on Saturdays.”
The cut a deal: three days painting cars, two days cutting emeralds.
“I did not like cutting stones,” Barry said. “It was too slow going, so I learned jewelry repair.” He learned the work was as rewarding as painting cars, and it wasn’t long before he was full-time alongside his father.
The business expanded into Clemmons in 1985, but the presence there is in limbo as the family deals with health issues.
And for Jim McBride. He’ll be there; waiting on the next old watch or clock to come in needing repairs.