Jump to content

Yorkist

yorkist

By yorkist
in Introduce Yourself Here

 Share

Recommended Posts

yorkist New Member

yorkist

Posted
Posted

Hi everybody, I have been browsing this forum for a few months, I suppose just to keep up with the trade, anyway I have found it very interesting I didn't realise there were so many amateurs with such a great span of knowledge.  I left the trade in the 80's when quartz watches were destroying the repair trade, I never considered returning to it as I was settled doing other things, I never lost my love of watches.  I once worked for the firm that imported "Sicura" watches in Clerkenwell as a "Trade" worker repairing guarantee watches at home, this entailed finding out what was wrong and putting it right, it could be a broken balance staff, button and stem or glass anything in fact. I would be given huge parcels of spare parts and told to get on with it.  I used to repair about 200 watches a week for which I received 33p per watch, it was a good living in those days but came to an end during the postal strike in the 70's.  When I stopped trade work I was charging £1.80 for a COH (clean and overhaul) for a normal jewelled lever or pin pallet and £2.50 for an automatic, competition was fierce in those days and you had to keep your prices low.  A few years ago I was offered £25.00 a watch for a COH but it meant setting up a workshop again, so I didn't bother, I even threw away my old cleaning machine when I moved to France (which I regret now).  Now I've bored everyone to death I'll finish and just to say If I can ever help anybody I would only be too pleased.  Thanks to Mark for this site and the brilliant videos which I have enjoyed immensely.

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites
Cad101 Super WRT Addict

Cad101

Posted
Posted

Hello and welcome Yorkist. I'm  sure your expertise will come in very usrful here. Now Yorkist is that because you like Yorkie chocolate bars you come from York your second names York or you play cricket sorry its one of my pet games trying to work out why people call themselves what they do.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites
yorkist New Member

yorkist

Posted
  • Author
Posted

Thanks for the very warm welcome, the 200 watches a week were not cleans they were just to get the watch going sometimes all you had to do was take the back off pick a screw out of the movement where it had got lodged put it back into the right place and that was it finished.  You have to remember that after the watch was sold and something went wrong the customer would have to send the watch back under guarantee and enclose a 10 shilling or 50p admin fee which of course was to pay for the repair and so the customer unwittingly was paying for the repair. 

Sorry to hear about your eyes Old Hippy, so terrible when you have had a career doing such fine work.

Well Cad101 none of your suppositions are correct, I was born in Sheffield (by accident) was brought up in Manchester, got married in London then lived the rest of my life in Northampton. The Yorkist comes from my love of medieval history especially the "Wars of the Roses" and my fascination with Richard iii.  Again I'm in danger of sending readers to sleep, Thanks again,

Eddie

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Vich Distinguished Member

Vich

Posted
Posted

Hello Yorkist and welcome,

I enjoyed reading your intro and especially the charges and workload info. Sicura watches crop up here every now and then. All that experience you have amassed is bound to help someone out on the forum. Looking forward to your postings.

Cheers,

Vic

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Restore formatting

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
 Share
Go to topic listing


  • Recently Browsing

    • No registered users viewing this page.

  • Topics

  • Posts

    • AlanB
      Gilding after silver soldering

      By AlanB · Posted

      When faced with say a pocket watch bridge which is cracked, silver soldering to repair is often the only option (hopefully someone wasn't there before hand with soft solder). I can generally do this succesfully and tidily with a small torch and miniscule pieces of silver solder, but on parts which were mercury amalgam gilded the heat can have have a deleterious effect on the finish.   I keep wondering if there's a good way to refinish these - and despite having the needful items would rather avoid using the mercury process.   In the past for electronic work I've gold plated PCBs but this involved gold potassium cyanide solution, which also doesn't realy belong at home. I've read that there are now safer alternatives but couldn't find more detail (and importantly how similar are the results to amalgam gilding, since I wouldn't want to refinish the whole watch). Pointers would be very welcome (and yes, I know solutions containing gold won't be cheap!) Alan
    • Neverenoughwatches
      Can anyone identify what this is? Part Two

      By Neverenoughwatches · Posted

      The first one is an Unruh max stake for pushing out staffs
    • JonC
      Can anyone identify what this is? Part Two

      By JonC · Posted

      Ok so with the great answers for my previous question may I ask what these two attachments are used for. The one with the red knob is I assume used for hand setting the seconds hand? Jon      
    • Zedster
      Roamer Searock Crystal problem

      By Zedster · Posted

      According to Cousins site I need to look at document G22 as I think I need an ATGB at 304 but I cant find this size in G22 doc. The last thing I want to do is order the wrong one😳  Unless I cant see the wood for the trees 😆 I could be looking at the wrong style, I assume its classed as Round plastic Armed  https://www.cousinsuk.com/product/wide-ring-gold-atgb
    • JonC
      Dial feet removal

      By JonC · Posted

      When building a new Watch I have tended to use a file to remove the remnants of dial feet that are not needed as many dials come with four feet to accomodate different movements, but this can be a bit messy so now I use this with a great deal more precision as you can use an appropriate bit for the job and keep it very localised.      
×
×
  • Create New...