Sag Harbor’s Watchcase Factory, Captured In Time

Before Cape Advisors renovated the old Bulova watchcase factory into an enclave of condominium exclusivity, the abandoned and forlorn brick buildings were Sag Harbor’s version of a haunted house.

What was the process like, converting a place with so much historical significance to the village into high-end residential apartments while maintaining the feel of antiquity? Photojournalist Michael Heller wanted to find out, and the result is “Watchcase: The Story of a Rebirth,” a book almost as exclusive as its subject matter.

“My goal all along was for the Village of Sag Harbor and the library to get copies of everything I shot,” he said. “It’s extremely important to the village for it to be preserved that way,” Mr. Heller offered over coffee on a gray winter day.

One of the few existing copies of his book was open on the table. Self-published, with 200 pages of glossy photos chronicling the factory-to-condo conversion, the book retails on the site blurb.com for $174.99 (a pdf version is also available for under $10), but selling it isn’t really the point. Mr. Heller has provided hard copies to the Village of Sag Harbor, the John Jermain Library, and David Kronman, the lead developer on the project, who was “thrilled” with the tome.

“I’ve never had a document like this—this is an amazing record to have,” said Arthur Blee, one of the developers, who was involved with the construction project and its design. While such projects are typically documented through photos, Mr. Blee said, “he captures it in a much different way, so graphically—it’s beautiful.”

Mr. Heller, a 28-year veteran firefighter, has also produced three other books, all about fires and firefighting. “The Resplendent Demon” focuses on the fires themselves, while “Chariots of Firefighters,” volumes I and II, captures the history of drill team competitions between volunteer firemen in New York.

The watchcase factory project was born out of a natural curiosity about the place, nurtured by years of walking by the spooky, decrepit site. “What photographer isn’t interested in old buildings and urban decay?” Mr. Heller posited. “I wanted to get inside that old building, to see what it was like. You know there’s cool shots to be found,” he said with a smile. “I mean, kids had crawled into there for years, but I wanted to see it for myself.”

As a staff photographer for The Sag Harbor Express, he was able to contact the point people early on in the planning, and was present on November 8, 2011, as the first workmen began the arduous four-year task of regenerating the lifeless factory into a vibrant community.

When he entered the building, with insurance waiver, a private website for the developers to peruse, and a hard hat, Mr. Heller’s first thought was “Cool!”

Second thought? “I need to take pictures of as many things as possible, knowing that they would never be the same again.”

Some of the old radiators were being removed that first day, but he was able to capture everything with his camera. “What impressed me the most was the brickwork, the wood beams, and the number of windows,” he said. There were 999 windows in the original building, which was contracted in 1881, so the watchmakers could easily see their work in the natural light. When the cracked and antiquated mosaic tiles were being removed from the bathrooms, Mr. Heller “pilfered a piece to give to the John Jermain Library.”

All through the process, Mr. Heller was impressed by the strenuous efforts made by the developers to keep not just the feel of the place, but as much of the original materials as possible. “They brought in an architectural conservationist to match colors of the original brick to modern brick,” he said, along with “the cornices, window frames, grout, and mortar, to what was used in the original building.” Walnut shells were used to blast the walls in order to maintain the original patina.

Parts of the mammoth boiler and pipeworks have been saved and put on display in the new lobby, he said. “They made some of the old beams into benches. And the vault, where they kept all the gold and silver for the watches, has been incorporated into the modern design.” The developers also saved more than 10,000 bricks and repurposed them into the edifice.

The renovations at the watchcase factory did not always go as regularly as, well, clockwork. A partial collapse occurred in 2012 when a floor gave way under a pile of bricks. “Luckily, it happened in the early morning,” Mr. Heller said, “so no one was hurt.”

The collapse and rebracing are chronicled in book, part of the 10,000 frames shot by the photographer during 115 visits to the site.

“Out of those 10,000, I put together maybe 2,000 edited pieces to go over with the developers,” Mr. Heller said. Then he had to narrow those down to about 400 favorite shots. “It was the hardest editing job,” Mr. Heller said, acknowledging help from his old friend Bryan Boyhan, publisher emeritus at the Express.

“I respect his eye,” Mr. Heller said. “He knows my work.”

The book also offers a series of then-and-now photos; an homage to the Dover cult classic “Then and Now New York,” which contrasted early city daguerreotypes and prints of familiar places with photographs taken in the 1970s from the same point of view.

Most importantly, Mr. Heller is grateful he was able to freeze in time the work that went into the renovations, and the treasures that were recovered. “You can lose appreciation for the man hours, for how much work went into a project once it’s completed,” he pointed out.

Mr. Heller has continued his association with the building, shooting its apartments for real estate magazines. “It’s such an interesting sensation,” he said. “I was in that loft when it was bare brick.”

An opening reception will be held at the John Jermain Library in Sag Harbor on Thursday, May 19, at 7 p.m. for an exhibit of Mr. Heller’s photographs of the watchcase factory project.