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Well, the day is finally about to arrive (September 16)! After two years of living a split existence between my home on weekends in Berkeley Springs and weekdays in York, Pennsylvania, I'm finally done. I lived in an old rooming house in downtown York (see picture below) and my small school was a few blocks away. Two years is enough time to develop a habit of living and, waking this morning, I still felt like I had to make the 100+ mile drive to York this morning. But I didn't and that's a good and a bad thing. Good because I can now call my home my home again. Bad because a phase of my life has ended, probably for good. I'm sentimental about such things and this latest venture has often brought me nostalgic feelings about starting graduate school at New York University in 1980. That period ended in 1985 when I packed up and went to a post-doctoral fellowship at Northwestern University, both now over 30 years ago. So what can I say about watchmaking school? When I first started I wrote down on this website some of my initial impressions and followed it with an occasional update. For those who have the time and the resources I would say, go for it! It accelerates one's progress because you don't have to re-invent the wheel--something to be avoided unless you have a real affinity for wheels! I don't. For those who, like me were complete newbees, knowing nothing about the watch and clockmaking communities, it will allow you to quickly set up a network of fellow craftsmen. In my case going to York was very much like going to the historical heart of American watchmaking. Relatively speaking, there are a lot of watchmakers in central Pennsylvania; probably because nearby Lancaster was the home of the Hamilton Watch Company. It still is the location of the RGM Watch Company whose watches I greatly admire. Because of school I am now a member of the NAWCC, the Central Pennsylvania Watchmakers & Clockmakers Guild and the Horological Society of New York. Also it provided me with a steep ramp-up on acquiring tools--which our craft employs a greater complement than almost any other. I probably would never have seriously considered obtaining a watchmaker's lather or, if I had, not known how to get one that was both useful and reasonably priced. Sure you can get modern one's but they're pretty expensive and, frankly, appear to lack to quality of the older "vintage" lathes. But you have to be careful as there's a lot of old stuff that's been sorely abused and, unless you have a machinist background and recondition them yourself, not worth purchasing. Also what do you get: 6mm, 8mm, 10mm, or does it matter? (Actually, in America 8mm was the most popular and has the most available accessories.) Another advantage to me was that I was forced to work on pieces. Alone, my lack of self-discipline and my harsh internal critic, operant while working alone, pre-school, made it difficult to accept new challenges and complete work. I won't say I have this completely under wraps but I have now worked on a fairly broad range of pieces and have more confidence now. And it has cured me of one disease that I've heard some watchmakers say they had to be cured of: the feeling that you have to save every watch! Many I let go but am careful to inventory as parts watches. Also my fear of breakage is diminished; partly because I feel more confident that I can recover from a blunder and partly because I see my fellow students blunder and realize screwing up is part of the learn process and continues into common experience even for the experienced. (Which is not to say that I don't continue to work towards lowering my blunder rate!) Many will want to know whether or not I am a real, "stand-up", watchmaker like some members of this website? Probably not, though I can see real progress. It's a cliché that schooling, in any discipline, only takes you so far. The rest depends on time served and degree of dedication. As a former teacher, let us not get too hung up on a word I deliberately omitted, talent! Sure there are individuals who have it but my experience is that the bulk of progress is made by people of ordinary ability applying themselves conscientiously. Getting in there with our screwdrivers and tweezers is where, for the individual, our craft starts to take form. My only regret is that, at 66 years old, I won't have enough time to dedicate, say, 40 years to strive for a truly high level of achievement. This is where youth beats old age. Nothing can be done about it, though, except to provide a cautionary tale to those who are still young. Like most youth's I figured real self-examination, as to who I really was and what I would really like to do, fostered upon me by old dotards who weren't as smart as I was. Youth thinks the world is its oyster. Would that they could know otherwise. Sometimes, infrequently, individual youths do "get it" and listen to their elders. So be it but, whether they heed or not, at least those reading this can't say they never heard it from me. The attached pictures are two view of where I lived in York. The house is a nice example of antebellum architecture and is on the local historical registry. The very top floor was the servant's (some would say slave's) quarters. I had a very nice room with a beautiful black marble fireplace which I show decorated with some silly gewgaws I obtained from a local second-hand store. It's all been packed up and taken home, never to be so arranged again (some might say, amen to that!). I'll miss it and my housemates whom I hope to see from time to time. Finally I have a job interview in Philadelphia's diamond district later this month. In America there are jobs for watchmakers going unfilled. If they make the right offer then maybe my wife and I will, once again, pull up stakes and start a new chapter in our lives, in a totally unforeseen area to live. Who would have guessed Philly after living in NYC, Los Angeles, Chicago, Washington D.C. Life is full so unlikely tributaries. But we'll see.

Sounds good JD! Uncle Larry is great to deal with, and I'm talking from personal experience. :-)

There are a number of second hand tool sellers in USA/Canada (Uncle Larrys Watch Shop, Dashto, Daves Watch Parts, Watch Tools Online) but they mainly have American made tools. If you specifically want Boley you may be better looking on German Ebay, there are often good quality tools listed there. I don't remember seeing anybody listing specific stakes though. I do remember seeing once a chart that compared the different stake numbers across the different manufacturers, but I can't remember where sorry. Stephen

I see my previous suggestion is impossible. if it has no vertical play as it is, as Michael suggests it might, then would it maybe be worth unlidding the barrel, twisting the arbor free of the spring and seeing if the arbor allows itself to be pushed down. Even if it's not the case, it seems looking inside the barrel may yield other clues.

You could try ebay. I have only just found out that Uncle Larry sells second hand watch/clock makers tools. Here is the link. www.execulink.com/~lfoord/tools.html

I AM NOT making a recommendation as I have ruined my fair share of dials ,.....BUT , and that's a big BUT ,.... I have had some luck with Simple Green cleaner and a soft Ladies cosmic brush . I spray the simple green on and quickly give the dial a few swipes with the brush usually from the center out , then quickly rinse the dial with running warm water and also quickly blow dry it with my watchmakers hand blower . Use at your Own Risk ..... Here's the results of my latest game of Russian Roulette with dial cleaning using the method I described . Disclaimer , " I Lucked Out "....

I'd like to share a couple of watches I recently acquired ...... The first is a 1961 Hamilton T-403 Automatic . I had been on the lookout for this one for quite a while as they don't come up for sale very often . This one may be only the 1st or 2nd I've seen offered . It was offered by a professional watchmaker with 25 years at the bench , so the movement has been serviced by him . The case is a Gold filled Asymmetric design and I have seen this model referred to as the Shark owing to the fins of the case design . According to the seller , the watch came to him missing the crown so it has a generic replacement . The hour and minute hands are original . but the second hand was gold and "all - over wrong " in his words , so he replaced it with a second hand as close as possible to the original . The acrylic crystal is new . The movement is the same as used in Hamilton's Thin-O-Matic models , using a micro rotor for reduced Thickness . The dial is a gorgeous original finish with , un-noticeable really , a few tiny dots here and there . The Watch : Next is a beautiful 1965 14K and Stainless Steel Bulova Accutron 214 model watch . As soon as I saw it offered I knew I wanted to claim it , so I upped my Max Bid 3 times . It is a 100% original , fully serviced watch that the seller offered as a Solid Yellow 14K and Stainless 2-tone watch . I asked the seller why he offered it as 14K solid gold . His response was that the gold on the bezel is 14K solid Gold ,....So I dunno ?? Anyway ,....I had to have this beauty , and luckily for me , the bidding was not heavy . So here it is....

Great adventure, and I'm glad you got to do it, even if it came late in life. Sent from my ONEPLUS A3000 using Tapatalk

TheWatches.TV has a video out too

Seeing the watch running would have been enough, a quartz moves every second but a mechanical moves continously. Anyway as mentioned all you have to do is to open a claim with PayPal or the card issuer, if you have paid by other means you can only hope that the seller honest or take him to court.

Back in the 70’s and 80’s where I worked we were a Longines agent. I used to service Longines and no way did Longines have movements like the one you have. Longines produce high-end movements.

To fit the Ronda I would imagine the dial feet would have been ''chopped off''..while these feet do break off and can be repaired you may need to use double sided tape to get the dial to stay on. Having said that, I've seen Longines Admiral movements come up for sale complete with dial so you could get lucky (doesn''t make it original but it would satisfy me!) but most of the ones I've seen don't have the crown portion of the two-piece stem so you'll need to buy some parts anyway. Have you tried to contact the seller? Basically it was misrepesented and you should have the option to return it. (the fact that you had to 'force' the current stem off may cause problems though.) Anil

Yes it would Tracy. Shame that you bought a pretty interesting and expensive watch with a cheap quartz in it... If you got it on ebay you could definitely ask for your money back, paypal and ebay will side with you 100%.