Timing Device Assemblers and Adjusters

Timing Device Assemblers and Adjusters (SOC 51-2061) earn a median $62,620 a year ($30.11 an hour) in the United States, with 250 employed as of May 2025; the highest-paying state is Pennsylvania.

What timing device assemblers and adjusters do

Timing device assemblers and adjusters perform fine assembly of clocks and similar timekeeping mechanisms, particularly electronic and digital ones, and they work within very narrow tolerances. In a manufacturing setting, they build movements from small parts, install components, and then observe how the assembly runs to judge whether it keeps accurate time. When a mechanism misbehaves, they take it apart, find the faulty piece, and replace or adjust it. Tools include watchmakers' hand tools, tweezers, loupes for magnification, and electronic testing equipment. Cleaning parts with solvents and applying small amounts of oil are routine steps. Watchmakers who repair individual timepieces for customers belong to the watch and clock repair occupation under installation and repair, not to this production-line assembly category. Small parts, for example hairsprings and pallets, may be bent with tweezers to correct truing or endshake.

Typical entry: According to O*NET, a high school diploma or equivalent is the most common level of education reported by workers in this occupation.

Also called: Adjuster, Assembler, Balance and Hairspring Assembler, Banking Pin Adjuster, Barrel Assembler.

National wage percentiles, May 2025

Timing Device Assemblers and Adjusters: US hourly and annual wage percentiles, mean and employment, May 2025
Area	Basis	Percentile wage					Mean	Employment
Area	Basis	10th	25th	Median	75th	90th	Mean	Employment
United States	Hourly	$13.41	$13.96	$30.11	$34.97	$37.63	$27.27	250
United States	Annual	$27,880	$29,040	$62,620	$72,740	$78,270	$56,720	250

Annual wage at the 10th, 25th, 50th (median), 75th and 90th percentiles. The same numbers are in the table above.

Employment per 1,000 jobs and the location quotient are area measures; they appear in the state and metro tables below. To see what a wage in this range leaves after tax, use FastCalc's take-home pay calculator.

Where timing device assemblers and adjusters earn and work most

Five highest-paying states

Timing Device Assemblers and Adjusters: the five states with the highest median wage, May 2025
Area	Basis	Percentile wage					Mean	Employment	Jobs per 1,000	Location quotient
Area	Basis	10th	25th	Median	75th	90th	Mean	Employment	Jobs per 1,000	Location quotient
Pennsylvania	Hourly	$27.07	$31.15	$34.50	$37.63	$37.63	$33.54	**	**	**
Pennsylvania	Annual	$56,310	$64,790	$71,770	$78,270	$78,280	$69,760	**	**	**

Five states with the most jobs

Timing Device Assemblers and Adjusters: the five states with the highest employment, May 2025
Area	Basis	Percentile wage					Mean	Employment	Jobs per 1,000	Location quotient
Area	Basis	10th	25th	Median	75th	90th	Mean	Employment	Jobs per 1,000	Location quotient

Five highest-paying metropolitan areas

Timing Device Assemblers and Adjusters: the five metropolitan areas with the highest median wage, May 2025
Area	Basis	Percentile wage					Mean	Employment	Jobs per 1,000	Location quotient
Area	Basis	10th	25th	Median	75th	90th	Mean	Employment	Jobs per 1,000	Location quotient

Five metropolitan areas with the most jobs

Timing Device Assemblers and Adjusters: the five metropolitan areas with the highest employment, May 2025
Area	Basis	Percentile wage					Mean	Employment	Jobs per 1,000	Location quotient
Area	Basis	10th	25th	Median	75th	90th	Mean	Employment	Jobs per 1,000	Location quotient

Published medians, May 2021 to May 2025

BLS published a median annual wage of $37,780 for timing device assemblers and adjusters in May 2021 and $62,620 in May 2025, with employment of 560 and 250.

Timing Device Assemblers and Adjusters: median annual wage, median hourly wage and employment in each OEWS May release, United States, as published
Release	Median annual	Median hourly	Employment
May 2021	$37,780	$18.16	560
May 2022	$42,290	$20.33	370
May 2023	$48,840	$23.48	400
May 2024	$40,790	$19.61	230
May 2025	$62,620	$30.11	250

Median annual wage in each release, as published; a release without a published median has no point. The same numbers are in the table above.

BLS does not design OEWS as a time series: each release pools three years of samples, and occupational classifications, area definitions and estimation methods change between releases, so a difference between two releases is not a measure of change over time. The figures are shown as published, side by side, and nothing is computed from them. See how often OEWS is updated.

Every state, by median wage

1 states and DC publish a row for this occupation. A linked state has its own page with the within-state metro table and comparison; the others appear here only.

Rank	State	Median hourly	Median annual	10th pct (annual)	90th pct (annual)	Employment	Jobs per 1,000	Location quotient
1	Pennsylvania profile	$34.50	$71,770	$56,310	$78,280	**	**	**

Part of Production Occupations. Compare any area in the wage explorer.

Source and notes

Data: BLS OEWS May 2025, released 2026-05-15. Cross-industry estimates, all ownerships. BLS page: OEWS 51-2061 Timing Device Assemblers and Adjusters.

**: Employment estimate not available.

Annual wages assume 2,080 hours a year at the hourly rate; occupations BLS publishes on one basis only show an en dash (–) on the other.
Employment is rounded to the nearest 10 by BLS. Where BLS withholds a cell, nothing is estimated in its place.
Published medians: national_M2021_dl.xlsx to national_M2024_dl.xlsx in oesm21nat.zip to oesm24nat.zip (BLS OEWS May 2021 to May 2024, national, cross-industry, all ownerships) and the May 2025 spine. Each release is shown as published; nothing is computed between them.

Sources

BLS Standard Occupational Classification 2018, definition of 51-2061, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (public domain).
O*NET 30.1 Database, 51-2061.00, National Center for O*NET Development, USDOL/ETA (CC BY 4.0).
OEWS May 2021 national estimates (oesm21nat.zip), US Bureau of Labor Statistics (public domain).
OEWS May 2022 national estimates (oesm22nat.zip), US Bureau of Labor Statistics (public domain).
OEWS May 2023 national estimates (oesm23nat.zip), US Bureau of Labor Statistics (public domain).
OEWS May 2024 national estimates (oesm24nat.zip), US Bureau of Labor Statistics (public domain).
OEWS May 2025 national estimates (oesm25nat.zip), the site's data spine, US Bureau of Labor Statistics (public domain).

Includes information from O*NET 30.1 Database by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration, used under the CC BY 4.0 license.

Description written 2026-10-17 in our own words from the sources above.