Although Geoffrey Chaucer may have been correct when he wrote “time waits for no man,” he never met Hollister’s own Renette Torres. Torres, 85, said she feels decades younger then she is and the concept of “time” has played a critical role in Torres’ interesting and productive life.
Torres, who has lived in Hollister for 24 years, has been an entrepreneur, book author and a pioneering woman in male-dominated sales environments. She is a cancer survivor and—after the 2007 death of her husband Danny from heart disease—an advocate for widows struggling with loss.
Torres may be most known for founding a watch company in 1981 called It’s Time, designing and manufacturing hundreds of unique watches and clocks during her career.
The brainstorm for her concept began “as a fluke,” she said, while she worked for a company called Watches West as a sales representative with a territory that included Reno, Nev.
While at a business meeting, she commented off the top of her head about a slot machine clock. No such clock existed.
“I didn’t even know what I had said, there was no slot machine clock,” Torres said. “But since the buyers were interested, I set out to create one.”
She called injection-molding companies until she found one interested in the concept. The owner, who loved playing slots, agreed to produce the plastic clock in the shape of a slot machine.
Torres’s husband Danny, an accountant, became the financial man for her fledgling company. She continued to add designs and by the mid-1980s the company was receiving $100,000 in orders every six weeks from clients including Mervyns and the Hilton Hotel chain. By then, the watches were produced at a factory in Hong Kong.
Torres designed more than 100 different moving face watches. One of her favorites had a San Francisco cable car rotating around the face of the watch. Another design—for an ophthalmologist—had a pair of glasses moving around the dial.
But at the height of her business success, Torres faced a hard battle. In 1986, she was diagnosed with an aggressive form of breast cancer. Although cancer was found in only one breast, she said her doctors urged her to have a double mastectomy.
“I decided to have the double mastectomy for peace of mind,” she said. “I never regretted the decision.”
Torres, who was born and raised in San Francisco, was very close to her father, a prominent criminal defense attorney.
“He wanted me to follow in his footsteps and become a lawyer,” Torres said. “But it seemed too boring for me.”
After high school she attended the California School of Arts and Crafts in Oakland and joined a singles group in the early 1950s called Guys and Gals. It was here that she met her husband, Danny, who was six years her senior and a former World War II U.S. Army Air Corps navigator.
“We didn’t know each other very long before we got married,” Torres said. She and Danny were married just short of 56 years and together had two daughters and one son.
“When I first met him I thought he was so quiet, but he was so good looking,” she said. “I don’t know if he was just shy or serious, and of course I was as goofy then as I am today.”
In 1961, Torres was hired at Besco Jewelers, which was a concession inside Simon’s hardware store in Walnut Creek. The newspaper advertisement for the position listed sign painting as a requirement, and she applied because she had a background in art. Thus began her jewelry and watch retail career.
She moved up to Kay Jewelers in Concord in 1970.
“I was the first women they hired to sell watches and jewelry,” Torres said. “I was a pioneer.”
Torres again broke barriers after she became the first woman working as an outside sales representative for the Sheffield Watch Company in 1975.
When she founded her watch and clock company, It’s Time, in 1981, she handled all aspects of the business for 17 years. Torres said although the company is still alive and well, she is no longer involved much with it.
Her experiences as a watch designer and manufacturer is covered in her book, “Ya Wanna Watch? I’ll Let Ya!”, which she self-published in 2009.
Torres’ latest book is “Widows Peek,” a collection of stories written by 10 local widows and published by Balboa Press. Torres, whose own story is included in the book, was the impetus for the project.
Publishing the collection of stories was her way of dealing with the loss of Danny and celebrating their life together.
“I’ve had such a fabulous life and I wanted to share it,” Torres said.
Fans of her work attended a book signing at BookSmart in Morgan Hill on Sept. 13.
“It’s clear that she is a real down to earth person,” said attendee Daniel Carlile.
“I’m looking forward to reading the book,” Daniel’s wife Gayle added.
Torres is already planning her next book project, a sequel with the working title “Widows Peek Too.” Another idea she shared—”Peep’ole”—will explore Torres’ encounters with notable and famous people including Bill Cosby and Shirley Temple.
“I never stop thinking of new things and projects to do,” she said.
