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Douglas, To get started you will need a few basic items. These do not need to be ultra high end expensive items and some of this stuff can be purchased from Harbor Freight and Red Rooster UK for not a whole lot of money. 1) You will need something to open the watch. If it is a pry off back you will need a prying knife. If it is a screw off back you will typically need a spanner wrench. These items can be found on Ebay. 2) Once the movement is out you need a movement holder. These can be very inexpensive and can be found on Ebay. 3) You will need a set of watchmaker screwdrivers whose cost can range from inexpensive to very expensive. You can also find these on Ebay. 4) You will need some decent tweezers. Red Rooster UK sells a nice working set called STELLA TWEEZERS for about $30.00. You should also get one pair of Dumont #5 tweezers that will probably cost what you paid for the set of the other sizes. 5) You will need some form of magnification. Bausch & Lomb eye loupes are very good and not horribly expensive. Harbor Freight sells a set for less than $10.00. They are not as nice as the Bausch & Lomb but they do work. 6) You will need a way to remove the hands. The plastic bag/prybar method works well and is an affordable solution. 7) You will need a way to remove the cannon pinion. I use larger tweezers or fine tip needle nose pliers for this and have had mixed results with my cannon pinion remover This is a basic starter set and as your skills improve your can replace and add tools as your budget and interest progresses. Some of the items you posted in your pictures are sold in the Harbor Freight stores at dirt cheap prices. In general watch Mark's repair videos and look at the tools he uses. Most of the work is done with a pair of tweezers, an eye loupe and a couple of watchmaker screwdrivers. david

Hello everyone, my name is Johnnie and I live in Cambridgeshire but I am originally from London. I fell in love with watches at twelve when my grandmother bought me a Nidor Vibraflex!!! Long since lost sadly but will replace it when I find the exact same model. My interest is mainly in mechanical watches but I do have a few quartz watches! and about ten proper watches. I am 63 years young and never intend to grow up. My wife is mystified by my love of watches as I am late for everything! Best regards. Johnnie

When starting out in this there is usually an affordability issue. Most of the people who have been doing this for a long time tend to forget the situation they were in when they started out. Many of the more experienced watch repair people are quick to recommend high end professional grade tools to a beginner. After all, one cannot go wrong telling a person buying their first car to purchase a Rolls Royce. It is certainly a nice comfortable car. I feel that it is best to start with a modest investment, then replace and add as your skill level progresses. Clearly the bargain priced tools are not as nice as the high end stuff but they can get the job done. Until a person gets a feel as to what the tools do, and they themselves develop and understanding of the quality differences, it is best to stay with what they can afford until they learn these differences. There is also the more recent issue of inexpensive tools and expensive tools being made in the same Chinese factories. One tool will be stamped made in China while the other tool will say Bergeon, but in truth, both items are made in the same Chinese factory. Outside of the marketing name they are the same tool. With time and experience a person can learn to spot this as well. david

Hello @mikepilk I understand completely about the frustration with the cost of parts. That's where this site comes in handy...with a world-wide network of hobbyist, there's bound to be someone with some spare parts! I have a plastic date change finger #1562, which if you need can be yours for the cost of shipping. I have quite a few other parts as well. @rogart63 I am sure you'll get that pesky Omega project sorted out...I have my eye out for the spacer ring, but nothing yet. J

looks like a really old obsolete movement, wouldn't be at all surprised if the circuit's simply had its day. Problem I've always thought, these ebay sellers claiming "only needs a new battery" well how do they know? did they try a new battery? and if so why didn't they leave it in there, surely the expense of the battery is worth the easier sale. Would like to help you with finding an alternative but I cant read a caliber number and given that it has some extra function, with the pusher, I'm even less confident that one can be found.

The other day I changed a coolant header tank on a Ford Fiesta, the new one came from Ford with a blanking plug in the filler hole, I was about to throw it away then I thought .....mmm one of my old cameras has a missing lens cap, so I took it home and washed it.. a perfect fit

Thank You for the kind words.

If you're like me you can expect to break a few watches (maybe more than a few!) before you begin to get the confidence and the "feel". So I concur with jdm that you shouldn't start with any piece that you really value. I recommend starting with quartz watches for two reasons. First, analog quartz watches have a gear train and taking them apart and putting them together will give you training manipulating small parts with tweezers as well as the some of the basic wheels found in mechanical watches. Also, you won't have to make sure the watch is in beat because the electrical components take care of that (as opposed to a mechanical escapement). I was getting quartz watches at my local Goodwill store for 50 cents to a dollar a piece. (Some of them had nice Ronda, Hattori, Citizen or ETA movements and among them some had jeweled bushings.) Note: not all quartz movements can be taken apart, some have heat soldered plastic rivets. But many can, in fact, be disassembled, cleaned and reassembled like a mechanical watch. You'll learn how to set the hands, deal with the set mechanism, casing, etc. Plus, with some of your successes, you have some nice pieces to display. You probably won't get much selling them but they'll look nice and give you a sense of accomplishment. I give mine away as gifts to friends and relatives. Finally, I don't recommend another option which may seem reasonable route to practicing working on mechanical watches: starting with old Timex watches and other "dollar watch" pieces, as they can be tricky and may lead to discouragement. I have only recently started to work on Timex mechanicals myself. They're fun, if not very distinguished. They're also fairly robust and will keep reasonable time even after some pretty rough treatment.

These are pretty good Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

The tool set is handy to get started, but speaking from experience when I bought a very similar kit in November on Amazon, those tools are pretty low quality. The screw drivers especially, there are no bearings on the ends which makes them had to function the way they should. The tips are also very soft which resulted in bent/burred tips which was frustrating to say the least. The case knife is also super soft, which I am sure is partially to help protect cases, but the very first case I attempted to open I ended up rolling the edge of the case knife. The case wrench has a ton of play in the screws which makes it difficult to tighten it and keep it in one place so that it doesn't slip out and scratch the case. Those are just a few personal experiences I have had. I am currently in the process of replacing with middle of the road stuff from amazon, as well as looking for certain pieces as "vintage" on the bay.

The crystal is round so easy to obtain, and probably hands also are. But before worrying about that, you need to get yourself some tools, and learn how to use'em. Have a read around, use the search function, watch the videos. That will help you decide if it's something you really want to undertake just to restore one single watch.

Front and back pics please? Note, if this watch has sentimental value to you, being your grandpa's, I really, really recommend you learn on something else.

Hi George two chronos found so far but I doubt they'll be of interest to you. Snaps attached.

Have fixed the keyless work and watch up and running again. It was the small little tab that jumped of. Changed the setting lever spring anyway when i was under there. If i would have known that i could have fixed it without taking the dial of? New gaskets and a new crown along with a new crystal from tiptopcrystals. Got double amount of crystals from them? They are great. The GS crystal was a little thicker then the sternkreuz so fitted much better.

I hav bought a Stowa pocket watch 11 months ago with both balance pivots broken. Now i had repivoted both and of the staff.