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Hello to all of you out there! So, the moderator asked me to do some intros to myself. Here they are. I'm just getting properly into watch repairs and slowly building my kit and various bags of to-be-fixed watches. So far, I'm sticking to quartz watches. Actually I have a few books on repairing mechanical watches, but it is scary stuff! Maybe I just need to explore more. I'm certainly NOT a pro, but a home-repairing amateur. I have fixed quite a few already, but also killed some watches in the process. Hey, that's part of learning - right? So, I guess that's all for now.

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You should always make sure your tools such as screwdrivers and tweezers are in the best of order all the time.

Working with such a tool for the first time, you are going to make mistakes. Just working with a bow is an art in its own right. Knowing where you went wrong and correcting is part of the fun. You will get there in the end so just keep it up.

thw date uses energy from the trainwheels. energy that is usually used to push the balance jewel and increase the amplitude. if you got too much friction in the date mechanism, there is none left for the balance

Cleaning screws and blueing. I cleaned clock screws up using a lathe, but you can also use a screw head polisher. Take the rough edges or burr off by using your needle files or small bench file. Then use various emery sticks finishing with the finest to produce a very fine finish. You then need to burnish the complete screw head. You then need to clean the screws; I used an old watch cleaning machine with old cleaner and rinse. I used to blue the screws using an old copper penny in a hand vice which was over a spirt lamp (you don’t want a long wick) the hand held was then held in a bench vice. The trick is to blue all the screws to the same colour blue. If you fail, then clean the blue off and start again. As soon as the screw has turned to the required blue quench the screw in oil, this makes the screw shine. Clean the screws again in the cleaning machine, dry and cool. If you are successful, all the screws will be an even colour blue. It takes a little practise. There are a few ways of bluing screws. My master taught this way me.

As you are showing different programs I thought I would show a comparison. So I'm using a TimeTrax clip on microphone which is a clock pickup piezo inside. Different preamplifier plugged into a USB sound adapter. Then I'm getting my power for the preamp off the USB 5 V as I really don't like batteries. Then the witschi timing machine is nice photographing the screen is not but you can still read it. As you can see the watch is having issues but that works fine for software comparison. Then tomorrow it goes to work and the run it on machine there.

It is a difficult job but it gets easier the more you work on them. I improved my manipulating by practising on old duff hairsprings & adopting my own methods. For me for getting the spring round I found holding the spring with good quality tweezers & bending the spring with a pin. Also for me getting a spring flat I found putting the spring over an appropriate size hole on a small stake & pushing it towards the hole. But this works for me but I dare say others have their own methods. The bottom line is lots of practice is the only way to improve.