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Hello Istarr and Welcome Hello and welcome. I’m very new to the hobby of watchmaking and horology. I’m wanting to know what your experiences were when first starting good and bad. As a result of the Covid Lockdown. in November 2021, Aged 73 and bored off my trolley. I had done computer courses, word, excel, databases, photography web design. All good, but sitting at a computer achieves not a lot. I saw a YouTube of someone who had been learning for 2 weeks and had serviced a Sekonda 2428. I can do that. I'll by a tool set, under £10 and away I will go. Did that. Serviced nothing and lost a lot of pieces. Man's a fibber. There are many of them about on Youtube. 2 weeks. Ha! However, I did have some tools and enjoyed the cock up. I bought a book. Being dyslexic meant I did not understand much of what was written. But I did enjoy the YouTube videos. I learn well visually. One of the best that I saw was 'Mike' on 'Myretrowatches' who showed his workings on Seiko watches. That will do for me. I bought a few Seiko movements and began my journey. I also typed the words' Watch forum' and I found this site. Mike and the members here stated that I could do no better than avail myself of the free course by Mark Lovick. I did enrol and then and realised how much I didn't know. Did you go to school for it or just start by diy? I saved for the course, and then Mark had a sale. What can I say. I have now done part 1 and 2 and use part 3 as my information go to. Worth every penny and more. The bad thing I did was to buy movements. Having got them working I have nothing to put them into. . Watches not working means that here is probably a broken part. Parts are more expensive than movements, or you need to buy another movement just for the part. I now purchase whole watches. How long did it take you to acquire enough tools to be able to dismantle and reassemble? “Properly I've still got my original tools. I have added other items and now have a reasonable resource. What to stay away from or what is a tool or gadget I shouldn’t cut corners on? I've collected tools a I have gained experience. Practice, practice, practice is the main way forward. There are some I could not do without, at my level now. However, when I started they would not have helped me in any way. The biggest problem you are going to have is use of tweezers to overcome the 'ping'. Hold an item to tight - ping! it's gone. Even the big magnet may not find it. I've found a spring only last week that I lost 18 month ago. Aaagh! Advice for newcomer. I still feel like a beginner. I ask questions of other members like a beginner even now. They are really good to me. Gentle guidance by them is really good. They put up with a lot from me. Would not be where I am today without them. Where am I? I can service any watch with basic complications. Anything other than time is a complication, day and date displays are complications. Chronograph's? Almost, but not yet. I'll know when. On recent holiday I visited a few watch shops and chatted with the people. 3 offered me employment when they realised I did non-quartz. It's a dying trade Would I do it again. Oh yes! Expensive? Yes and no. I'm still spending, but do keep to my limit. Hope this helps Ross

One can't have enough light, and as you can see, I've plenty A hourly reminder Took me some time to get the ticking sound down; weaker mainspring, adjustment of the Geneva-stop, isolation inside the movement compartment, and especially from the back since the bell-shape outer-ring acts like an amplifier. Currently one can hardly hear it anymore; wife happy It's linoleum with wood print, leftover pieces from our kitchen flooring. Easy to replace once damaged, as I use the table for all sorts of hobby-activities.

After a bit of reaming out, I managed to get the second hand installed.

Seiko Elnix 0702-6010 from August 1973 eBay buy just arrived today. In really fantastic unpolished condition. Looks like it's been in a drawer for 40 years. So pleased with it. The bracelet and case are so sharp. Will be getting a full service soon enough. This watch has an electronic balance and the movement was only produced for 2 years so quite rare. Note it still has a sticker on the clasp in Japanese showing how to adjust the bracelet.

Some watch companies get excited when amplitude goes over 300°. Then size specifications between Your two mainsprings is interesting. Other than a little bit a difference of length the 2918 is actually lighter in strength. You can't visually look at a mainspring and see if it's week. You can look at a mainspring and see if you like the shape of it but? If you take a blued steel spring out of the barrel and it barely opens up that would look bad. Then today unfortunately mainsprings don't always seem to have a nice desirable shape when they come out of the package. So while yours looks a little bit set if it runs the watch for more than 24 hours watch keeps time you're fine. For instance below is a picture of two brand-new mainsprings. I definitely would prefer the top one over the bottom but they're what came out of the package and both of them went into watches as far as I know they worked fine. But generally like to see the upper one little bit of that curve if they do their curvature right the mainspring power supposed to be a little more even.

I have a couple variations for this Clinton watch with a bezel. I am not sure if it is supposed to be a diver or a world timer as it has a bidirectional bezel. Could use a new crystal. This is an FE3612 I beleive. I don't know why they didn't go full stainless case on these. This one has a bit of wear showing brass on just the underside edge by the crown. My other blue dial auto has the original band but is not a comfortable as this nato band. I ordered a black silicon band with red stitching and we will see how that wears later this week I am hoping.

These guys popped up in my FB feed. It appears that they sell Rolex, Omega, and other erstwhile restricted parts to anyone. Maybe I am wrong, or confused. I am sure somebody can shed some light on this for me. Oh, these are generic parts, but somewhere else on the site, it appears that they are manufacturing the part or jobbing it out.

Hi, The watch arrived today and it just has a few tiny scratches on the crystal. In fact the watch is really in mint condition for 50 years old. I will post some pics on n the watch of today thread. Steve.

Thank you for your introduction and welcome to this friendly forum. We all look forward to your contributions and continued involvement. I did a 7 year apprenticeship this was 5 years as an apprentice then 2 years as an improver. I was lucky as the workshop I worked in in was well equipped with not only hand tools but a lathe, cleaning machine, timing machine, to name just a few. Stock consisted of thousands of English £ worth. My master was one of the top watchmakers of the 1970’s. I started to buy my tools after a few months as it was suggested to me that there is nothing better than owning your own tools, so I did. I always recommend to those who are just going to try their hand at watch repairing, to start on Pocket watches (not the Fusee pocket watches they are totally different) A pocket watch is the same as a basic watch only much bigger, you don’t have to get it going, just practise taking it apart and putting it all back, it gives you good practise on how to use you watch makers screwdrivers, tweezers and your eye glass. You might find this helpful 704789946_TZIllustratedGlossary(2).pdf

Always interesting the wording on some of these sites. For instance I found a website from a company in Geneva or so they claimed although when I Google the address that would put them in the middle of the Plaza? Then they were selling Rolex watches that they cloned and their very proud that they look exactly the same as a real Rolex watch. Although this companies a little bit better googling the address Google agrees that there is a watch supply business there that's impressive Basically my interpretation of the wording would be there selling parts that are made for specific watches. They're obviously not selling original parts because they can't get original parts. Then yes the parts probably are made in Switzerland especially now that they have some really nifty CNC machinery for making parts that can be changed the tooling within an hour I can get you a video fear curious

I’ve just taken advantage of Mark’s 30% sale on top of the bundle discount. Mark’s instructional style is very clear. I’ve got Fried’s ‘Bench Practices’ and ‘Watch Repairers Manual’ and De Carle’s ‘Practical Watch Repairing’. Fantastic books. Awaiting delivery of a hard copy version of the Joseph Bulova School of Watchmaking Manual. Took up the hobby a year ago and slowly building skills and acquiring background knowledge. Steadily acquiring a whole lot of tools I never imagined I would want/need as well. A set of 4-5 good quality screwdrivers, and a couple of tweezers - #3 and #5 - best quality you can afford - will get you started. You also need some form of optical aid - you can’t fix what you can’t see and optics - a good loupe or better, are essential.

On the other hand, if you have one or two (or three) lots of identical movements, you have plenty practice material. Ladies watch movements are relatively cheap - not much demand with collectors. The older ones are quite well designed and built. I bought a few dozen Seiko 1104a and 11a movements (about 2 USD for each). Classic mid 20th century design with indirect centre seconds pinion, with spring, dials held in with screws, banking pins for pallet fork etc. They are small - tiny form factor so working on them has built manipulation skill with tweezer/screwdriver. The hairsprings are attached via pins to the stud and the balance staffs are friction fitted. Lots of identical material to practice hairspring manipulation, balance staff refitting, pallet and roller jewel replacement, jewel endshake adjustment, opening and closing barrel arbor holes, winding mainsprings etc.

Hangin' is too good for 'em!!!

OMG And I thought ‘strawberries’ was bad

I acquired this a couple of years ago when I bought a watch bench full of tools. Until very recently, I did not realize how useful it is. It has Dennison on the front and metric on the back. The strength gauge is not super useful unless the spring is broken, because you cannot fit the end into the slot unless it is a "hole" end style.

Just this week I found the jewel I wanted discontinued at Cousins. But I did find it at HS Walsh. They have a good selection. Don't try and find them on their website - it's hopeless, but they have an ebay shop. If you search ebay for "seitz jewel" you will find them.

That would be the joke on the Benny Hill Show. She would have the watches stuffed in her bra. Then after emptying said bra, she would suddenly look like Bob Todd.

The yoyo keyring is essentially how I learned with elastic "string". Moved on to bow mostly out of convenience, set up roll, go. In later life the bow has held.

Looks fantastic and I especially enjoy the wall clock! Warning OT, but I hope I may be excused! Well, I don't have a belt-driven Jacot tool, so for now, I will just have to settle with my extendable Yoyo keyring, but it works well enough for me so I'm certainly not complaining. Had my wife record a Youtube short video while I was working on restoring a centre wheel. I really appreciate the Jacot. Without it, many fine vintage watches would not get a second life.

Laugh? I nearly did.

Indeed. Btw, Esslinger has the Joseph Bulova School of Watchmaking textbook back in stock. I had placed an order many months ago and they back ordered with the publisher and fullfilled my order last week. Great customer service. Have had no issues with Jules Borel and Otto Frei either.

Agree, them or Borel or Ofrei. Want to keep them profitable so that won't go away!

I usually look at Cousins and Esslinger first. I look on ebay for price comparisons and other items, mainly used watches. For no longer made items the sky is the limit depending on quality and demand. I do like giving Esslinger my business for tools. Matt

and eBay refunded the money. OK, now I understand. Could be either. Attempted scam, or ignorance and frustration with the rules. Either way, best to report it in case he tries it again.

ebay dont release the money until after delivery, in fact i think they still hold it for a while after that. Maybe he was under the assumption its paid straight after the sale. Even without getting the payment the seller still has to authorise a refund initially for ebay to return the money, unless it drags on then ebay steps in and takes over. I had a similar situation with a non working watch i received, the seller wouldnt follow the returns proceedure and wouldnt buy a reurns postage from ebay or send his own with tracking. It went on for two weeks then ebay automatically refunded because he wouldnt play ball they also said i could keep the watch.

Jewels are definitely an issue. I recently made some parts for a customer, for which I need almost the same jewel as Murks, 0.22/1.30. I think one of the material houses had it, but I need 30 of them, and at 15 bucks a pop, that comes to 450. I can go to a jewel maker and have 100 made for 550, so that's what we're going to do. And these are much better quality than most Seitz jewels I've seen, especially older ones. Which got me thinking, if someone had some cash to invest, you could replicate about all the Seitz references for around 250,000 bucks, with the exception of pallet jewels (still looking for a maker of those). Actually not that much of an investment in a new business. I mean, a decent 3 axis CNC milling machine is in that ballpark, and you'd have to run it at least 8 hours a day plus all the side costs (10k for a compressor, 20k for software with 5-6k yearly upkeep, tooling, expendables etc.) and of course have the work and the skill and so forth. You could store the whole jewel assortment in a cabinet not bigger than a 3 deck file cabinet, run the business from home, set up a good easy to use site, hit the post office once a day... I bet if you were the source for jewels (and they are very high quality), it would take off. Every watchmaker in the world would be coming to you. If only I had a quarter mil on hand...