Proposal · prepared for D.S. MacDonald Watchmaker & Jeweller · 1 June 2026
A few specific fixes for dsmacdonald.co.uk
D.S. MacDonald Watchmaker & Jeweller · Stirling · website rebuild
I rebuild small-business sites in my spare time when I can see they are leaving good work on the table. I spent some time on dsmacdonald.co.uk and three things stood out, mostly around how little of what makes the shop special, the watch-repair bench, the Omega-trained servicing, the 5.0 reviews, actually reaches a first-time visitor on a phone. Three findings below, then a working rebuild you can click through.
Finding 01
The watch-repair bench, the reason people travel in, is one line on a builder template.
What I saw
The site is built page by page on a website builder, a separate /services, /store and /about_us, with very little of the story a forty-four year family watchmaker has to tell. The thing that actually brings people in, the bench work, an Omega serviced after two other jewellers said it could not be done, the watchmaker trained with Omega specialists, gets a single sentence and no photograph. The real shop image is a watchmaker at the bench under a loupe, and it is buried on the about page.
What the rebuild does
The rebuild opens on the bench. A graphite band directly under the hero leads with the watch-repair and servicing craft, the loupe-and-tweezers photo at full size, batteries from six pounds while you wait, and the three to five day turnaround stated plainly. The work that makes the shop unusual becomes the first thing the page is about.
Finding 02
The 5.0 rating and the watch-repair work are invisible to Google and to AI assistants.
What I saw
The page carries a thin JewelryStore tag with the address and hours, but no rating, no list of services and no questions and answers. So the 5.0 score across roughly twenty-nine Google reviews, the watch servicing and battery work, and the Nomination stockist status never reach a Google rich result or an assistant when someone asks for a watch repair in Stirling. The shop is described to search engines as a jewellery shop, with the watchmaking left out entirely.
What the rebuild does
The rebuild ships Jeweler and Store structured data with the Port Street address, the Monday to Saturday hours, the 5.0 aggregate rating, the watch-repair and servicing as named services, and an FAQ block taken from real customer questions. A written share card and a proper meta description go with it. The credentials the shop already has start showing up where people search.
Finding 03
On mobile the homepage takes about seven seconds to show its main image.
What I saw
Run on a phone, the largest part of the homepage finishes loading at around seven seconds, well past the point most people give up, and the builder loads several full-width brand product photos and scripts before anything useful appears. The pictures doing the work are supplier marketing shots of bracelets, not the shop, its window or the bench.
What the rebuild does
The rebuild is a single fast static page with the real shop photos, the Port Street window and the watchmaker at the bench, sized properly and loaded in order. On the same phone test the main image lands in about a second, and the page carries the shop, not a brand catalogue.
What it costs
No retainer. No contract. No in-person visits, fully remote from Switzerland.
- One round of revisions before launch
- DNS cutover handled (you keep the domain in your name)
- 30 days of post-launch tweaks at no extra cost
- Source code handed over on day 60 (you own everything)
A few things worth answering
What happens to the dsmacdonald.co.uk domain and the sales@ email?
The domain stays exactly as it is, in your name. Only the hosting moves, from the current website builder to a fast static build on Vercel. The sales@dsmacdonald.co.uk address keeps working throughout. Nothing about how customers reach you changes, the site that answers them just gets quicker and tells the watch-repair story properly.
We are at the bench all day. How much work is this for us?
Very little. I take the words, photos and details already on the current site, plus anything new you want, and do the build remotely. You review one round of changes before it goes live. The only thing I would ask is a few minutes on a call to confirm the watch-repair and bespoke story is told the way Stuart would tell it at the counter.
Can the brand stock and a few new pieces be added after launch?
Yes. The monthly care option covers small content changes, so when a new Nomination line comes in or the hours change, you send it over and it goes up. No builder editor to wrestle with.
If the proposal lands, reply with two or three 20-minute slots in the next ten days for a video call. I take on three Scottish builds this quarter, and the first confirmed wins the slot. If I do not hear back by 11 June, the proposal site comes down.
See the live rebuild ↗ A working preview you can click through. Opens in this tab.