Chat About Watches & The Industry Here
Discuss anything about watches and the watch industry.
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I have bought myself a Hudie watch which was a chinese brand owned by the also now defunct Hongqi watch factory. The watch is about 25 years old. I want to remove the movement so I can polish the case and caseback, as well as regulate the movement because it's running a bit fast. And more than anything I am curious to see which movement resides inside. However there is a problem. The caseback will not budge at all. I put it in my vice and tried to remove it with my bergeon caseback ball and it will not move a millimeter; the ball just gives out and slips after enough force is applied. I tried heating the caseback too to no avail. I had this problem once before and krazy glued a nut to the caseback and removed it that way but I'd prefer not to do that again if anyone knows any other tricks. It's so stuck I thought it might be a snap on caseback but I do not see any opening to slip a tool in and I also believe the majority of these hudie casebacks are screwdown design like the other similar chinese ones. I actually think it might be glued on because I scrapped off something that seemed like epoxy and in that case I have 0 clue if it'd even be possible to open. Thank you. -
By KarlvonKoln · Posted
Ladies and gents, I found the most awesome old gold watch chain! It has spring links! I am always so careful with my antique pocket watches, and still fear to drop them, even while on a chain. I've re-staffed a number of balance wheels that no doubt suffered a similar fate. But this chain has lessened that fear somewhat. So my "watch of today" was my beautiful Elgin 339 clipped to this chain. -
By gbyleveldt · Posted
For me, there’s no binary yes/no answer to this. It really is a matter of feel, experience, inspection under magnification, the age of the movement and what a replacement costs vs invested effort to “revive” it that all play a role determining the answer above. For an Omega 56x series reverser wheel you’ll spend more time trying to revive a reverser (which, by the way is also much more serviceable, but also harder and more expensive to find a replacement for) than you would an a Sellita SW200 where replacements are cheap and easy to find. -
That's what I did after my Pearl machine stopped working. I've run about 5 watches through it so far and get results as expected. One interesting note is that their customer service says the machine comes with a 2 year warranty but that is not indicated on the website and when asked via email they are unable to provide a copy of the warranty, which I believe runs counter to US federal law 🤷♂️ Luckily for me the service center they use for repairs is local to me so if I ever do need to have it serviced I won't have to ship it in its HUGE box. -
By gbyleveldt · Posted
@JohnR725I live in a “3rd world” country (South Africa) and even here you can’t make a middle class living charging $120 to service a watch. I make many times that spending that same amount of time in my day job. But quote the average someone $200 to service their inherited vintage Omega (that stopped working 20 years ago) and you’re told you’re effing mad. This is why watchmaking is dead as a profession in modern times; everyone wants that cool mechanical watch, no one considers what it costs to maintain it. A wrist watch is no longer an essential tool, it’s novelty jewellery. So I do it as a hobby, a make a few videos and I fix broken things. If this hobby can make a little money to at least contribute to its vast expenses then that’s a bonus. I have many other hobbies that are just money pits, so there’s at least that. Speaking of making videos: there’s a lot of criticism being levelled at YouTube watchmakers, either because they don’t show enough detail, or that they talk too much, or that they’re hacks, or whatever other negative thing you can imagine. But these YouTube watchmakers have done more to expose watchmaking to the average Joe than what any of the professional watchmaking institutions have ever done. Professional watchmakers scoff at these “hacks” in their comment sections but fail to see how these YouTubers create interest in the average Joe and turn them into enthusiasts. Anyway, enough rambling from me…
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