Tri-Cities watchmaker who predicted the Apple Watch 23 years before it debuted has died
Wes Door, the beloved Kennewick watchmaker who plied his trade downtown for decades, has died.
Door was born in his parents’ Kennewick home. And, except for a stint in the Navy and a brief sojourn to Puerto Rico, he spent nearly all of his 99 years in his hometown, running a business, dancing on TV and penning columns about horology, the science to timekeeping.
The native son found his professional calling in 1939 when he was just 13.
He signed on for his first watchmaking and jewelry-making apprenticeship after he wowed Emil Behrman, a downtown Kennewick jeweler, according to Herald archives.
As a junior and high school student, Door was the friend classmates asked to repair busted watches.
He graduated from Kennewick High School in 1943 and enlisted in the Navy in the middle of World War II.
After spending two years in the Pacific Theater, he spent the last year of his tour repairing watches at Port Chicago, Calif., he told the Tri-City Herald for a 1992 profile, written when he was elected president of the American Watchmakers-Clockmakers Institute.
After his discharge in 1946, Door returned both to Kennewick and to Behrman’s shop, where he worked for about a year.
In 1948, he established his own business, Door’s Jewelry, first in Prosser and then on West Kennewick Avenue.
He attracted a loyal following both locally and globally for his knowledge, skill and respect for the pieces that crossed his workbench.
The sentimental value of a watch passed down from one generation to the next can’t be measured in dollars, he once told a Herald interviewer. He described repairing a 1877 watch handed down from grandfather to grandson.
Door was elected a Fellow of the watchmaker institute and was proud of his “certified master watchmaker” designation, according to his son, Jim Door.
The younger Door and his wife, Merrianne, continue the family business by running JD’s Time Center in Kennewick.
West Door and his wife, Betty, closed the Kennewick business after 21 years and lived briefly in Puerto Rico before returning to revive it in Kennewick. Products by Door operated from their basement.
Time keeping trends
He was known for his wide ranging interests and his dedication to staying on top of the many watch trends,
He could repair complex watches with hundreds of parts, battery watches, electronic watches.
He also was an entrepreneur who invented specialized tools for jewelers. He designed his Wes-Gem Gem Set pliers to protect gems from being damaged while they’re being set. Bulova purchased 8,000 copies.
He was an innovator outside of the jewelry and watchmaking world too. When television arrived in the Tri-Cities, he used the new technology to share his love of folk dancing by hosting a program on the area’s first station.
In the 1992 profile, Door anticipated that wristwatch cellular phones would transform timepieces. The Apple Watch was released 23 years later, in 2015.
With stunning prescience, he said watches of the future would monitor heart disease, blood pressure and diabetes. Breathalyzer-enabled watches could help determine when it’s safe to drive and camping watches might be equipped with emergency beacons.
In addition to his wife and son, Door is survived by his son and daughter-in-law, Robert and Kris Door, of North Carolina, his daughter and son-in-law, Debra and Ken Williamson of Kennewick, and his son and daughter-in-law, Richard and Jill Door of Kennewick.
He died Monday, March 24, and Mueller’s Tri-Cities Funeral Home is in charge of arrangements.
This story was originally published March 26, 2025 at 12:11 PM.