Balance wheel restaffing

[HectorLooi]

No comments. Just watch this...

[Knebo]

wow, just wow..

Indeed hard to comment . But I'm incredibly impressed by the skill with such limited tools.  And the speed! Just nuts.

[mbwatch]

1 minute ago, Knebo said:

And the speed! Just nuts

Yep. I have worked on maybe 7 or 8 HMT's and I am always annoyed when each one that comes in is 5-8ms out of beat without a movable stud carrier. But seeing this I'm now pretty impressed.

[Knebo]

just to say, I find it so crazy that the guy is practically working free-hand without movement holder -- just his hand 

BTW; it's whole YT channel with lots of videos. 

Edited February 12 by Knebo

[nevenbekriev]

Well, the guy is a professional. One will do the job even with pocket knife only. Did You notice how he tightened the stud fixing screw?...

[mbwatch]

12 minutes ago, nevenbekriev said:

Did You notice how he tightened the stud fixing screw

And also how he opened up the regulator boot.

[Knebo]

14 minutes ago, nevenbekriev said:

Did You notice how he tightened the stud fixing screw?...

And how he quickly tightened the roller!

[oldhippy]

He needs to have a bloody good wash first before he starts work. Using his tweezers to clean out the staking block hammering a screwdriver. I wonder how many times that video was edited. 

[Kalanag]

Let me bring in an other perspective: Could it be, that this guy has to make a living repairing cheap watches for poor people?

It reminds me of botch jobs we’ve all seen before, many of them done in the 1970s by desperate watchmakers whose customers told them to get the „wortless“ mechanical watch running for just a few bucks. It had to be done quick and dirty.

Edited February 12 by Kalanag

[Knebo]

55 minutes ago, Kalanag said:

Let me bring in an other perspective: Could it be, that this guy has to make a living repairing cheap watches for poor people?

I agree! I'm full of admiration for the guy. 

[RichardHarris123]

I've been thinking about this since it was posted.  Brilliant or a butcher?  Decided, he is brilliant, definitely can't afford all the fancy tools but he breathes new life into a watch. He can't help his circumstances. 

[praezis]

3 hours ago, Kalanag said:

Could it be, that this guy has to make a living repairing cheap watches for poor people?

Of course, how and how fast he solves the problem is great and terrible at the same time .

I saw many of those watchrepairer shops in India on the streets - smaller than a phone booth (a few of us older ones will remember what that is).

Frank

 

[mbwatch]

3 hours ago, Knebo said:

I agree! I'm full of admiration for the guy. 

Me too, legitimately impressed that he manages this with the tools available, and tweezer dexterity to toss and wrench the balance around like this without damage. It's such a different way of looking at the trade.

[nickelsilver]

I see a tremendous amount of skill in a very awful environment.

The camera does cut briefly just before the "final countdown'. But otherwise it's a straight cut. It looks like he's even truing the hairspring outside of the watch  I think he's worked on hundreds of these calibers, if not more. Probably why the random staff he grabs fits(?) the balance, and a few tweezer taps gets the roller table fitting.

Very skilled, uneducated. I've met many watchmakers with 4 years of education under their belt less skilled than this fellow.

[caseback]

Very impressive skill! And I imagine him cranking out balance staffs for these movements out of needle bearing parts on an improvised lathe at a terrific pace as well (sounds familiar? ).

[nevenbekriev]

The truth is yes, I can see myself in the way He does the things and tools He uses. 10 years ago I didn't have staking set. Now I have one, but most people here will laugh at it if they can see it. The difference is I actually can be described rather as wealthy person in the place I live and I don't need to repair watches and even work at all for living. I can now afford all the fancy tools and gadgets without thinking if my budget will allow this. And I don't as am a kind of purist that stays on his previous understandings of the matter from the times when it was not possible here to get this tools and gadgets.

Aside from the hygiene and the fact that He punched out the old staff, everything He did is brilliant. The hygiene is typical for the environment there, and the only way I imagine He could use to remove the broken staff in better way is using bow driven turns. I would present one to Him with big pleasure, bit I am sure He can make one if He wants.

[Knebo]

5 hours ago, nickelsilver said:

Probably why the random staff he grabs fits(?) the balance, 

Yes, that had me puzzled as well. But I think the little box he pulled it out from was probably calibre-specific. 

[Neverenoughwatches]

His hand and finger dexterity is extremely good, I doubt his ability would be quite the same if he wore finger protection, I know mine is not as good wearing cots.  The grip, the tangible side of bare fingers for me makes a difference, I rarely wear gloves during construction, only when there is a high risk of injury.

[mbwatch]

7 hours ago, Knebo said:

probably calibre-specific.

As far as I have seen, all the manual wind HMT watches use the same caliber 0231 derived from Citizen 0201 (plus some with calendar) and all the automatics use the same one whose number I don't remember. I think his tin of random parts was just labeled "HMT" and quite a lot in there would be interchangeable.

[Knebo]

44 minutes ago, mbwatch said:

As far as I have seen, all the manual wind HMT watches use the same caliber 0231 derived from Citizen 0201 (plus some with calendar) and all the automatics use the same one whose number I don't remember. I think his tin of random parts was just labeled "HMT" and quite a lot in there would be interchangeable.

makes sense