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Watch blogs, books and magazines


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Thought I would share a nice collection of the finest reading about watches and the industry with you guys.

  • A BLOG TO WATCH - since 2007. "The World's Most Popular Source for Watch." News, reviews, buying guides, discussion & admiration.
  • CALIBRE 11 - since 2009. "The Home of TAG Heuer & Vintage Heuer Collectors."
  • Daily Watch - since 2012. Instagram. 2.2m Followers.
  • Escapement - "Time for the finer things in life." Watch blog dedicated to fine watches, luxury watches, watch news and the ultimate expression of horology, haute horlogerie. The watch reviews are typically ‘hands-on’ in style, where the watch has been placed upon the wrist of the author and evaluated over a period of time, sometimes extending to several days or even weeks.
  • FHH MAGAZINE - since 2005. Published by the Fondation de la Haute Horlogerie. News from the world of watchmaking and luxury watches. No watches to sell, but a lot to tell! Get to know everything about Fine Watches. Exhibitions, books, trainings and an online encyclopedia.
  • Fratello Watches - "Voicing opinions about watches and the watch industry since 2004." One of the first blogs about wristwatches, sharing thoughts and news about watches and the watch industry with other watch enthusiasts. Fratellowatches writes opinionated articles, reviews and reports about watches, covering most of the major brands and independent watchmakers.
  • HAUTE TIME - since 2010. "The #1 online resource for luxury watches like Patek Philippe, Richard Mille, Hublot, Breguet & Piaget watches worldwide."
  • HODINKEE - since 2008. "One of the most widely read watch publications in the world." Wristwatch news, reviews & original stories.
  • iW INTERNATIONAL WATCH MAGAZINE - since 1989. "For 25 years, International Watch has been the definitive authority for all watch-related matters, providing in-depth reports on all aspects of horology, from established Swiss watchmaking firms to independent houses of horology, product reviews, technical stories, wrist trends, the unique culture of collectors, and more."
  • Le Guide des Montres - since 2011. "The french Watch Guide web site." Originals editorials, pictures, interviews & videos. Based in Paris.
  • Master Horologer - "Masterhorologer is an online content platform to discover the world of horology, the art of clock and watch making. The readers can discover the stories and technical details of thousands of timepiece models manufactured by genuine watch brands from all over the world. In addition, readers can also find watch reviews, media releases, corporate news, historic details of brands and legendary timepieces, collaborative articles, events, auctions, promotional posts, crowd founding projects and boutiques and flagship stores of luxury watch brands."
  • Mondani Books - since 1979. "The leading publisher in the watch field." The world's most famous and reliable books about Rolex, Patek Philippe, Tudor, Omega, Panerai and more. Buy directly with Mondani.
  • Monochrome - since 2006. "Leading online Watch Magazine entirely dedicated to news, reviews and watch-talk about high-end watches."
  • PLAZA WATCH - since 2006. "Welcome to a real magazine for all watch lovers. We write about the news and trends, but also cover historical achievements, important personalities and unique technical solutions."
  • PROFESSIONAL WATCHES - "Curated coverage of the world's best watches." The Wristwatch Blog. One of the most visited English language watch publications online. It is written for a growing international audience of watch aficionados.
  • QP MAGAZINE - "UK’s leading luxury watch magazine, available in print and through our iPad app. Launched in 2003, it is one of the most widely read watch publications in the world, reflecting the best and most creative in watchmaking."
  • REVOLUTION - since 2007. "Celebrating the Machine with a Heartbeat." The World's Ultimate Watch Lifestyle Magazine. Horological Information, Education and Discussion Forums. Watches E-commerce.
  • STYLECRAVE - "Mens Expensive Luxury Watches Reviews, Interviews & More."
  • The Watch Adviser - "Thewatchadviser.com is an online watch store and publicatiom. Thewatchadviser.com's mission is to cover the latest wristwatch news and events all around the world, live from the top watch shows, boutiques, auctions, and exhibits."
  • The Watch Blog - since 2013. "News & Reviews Of Popular Affordable Watches."
  • THE WATCH QUOTE - "The Luxury Watches Portal." The Watch Quote was created in 2002 by Thierry Castagna to let you keep up with the latest trends in watch making, discover great brands, the latest collections and legendary classics, compare offers and choose the watch of your dreams.
  • The Watches TV - since 2011. "Your luxury watch & watchmaking video channel!" Swiss made films, new timepieces, The WATCHES.tv is an independent audiovisual media dedicated to the world of watches.
  • THE WATCHISMO TIMES - "Vintage & Modern Horology." A reliquary of obscure timepieces from bygone eras as well as cutting-edge watches of today. Purveyors of wrist-borne time machines since 1999, Watchismo is a singular source for unusual modern watches from around the world.
  • Time and Watches - "News and stories for the mechanical watches enthusiasts." Our watch blog is dedicated to the mechanical watch enthusiasts that - just like us - remain often wordless contemplating the perfect balance of art, design and technology that can be admired in many of our favorite timepieces.
  • Time Tide - since 2014. "The Australian Watch Authority." It publishes daily reviews, news and feature stories about watches, wearers and their journeys.
  • TIMEZONE - since 1995. "The world's watch information resource." 20 years and ticking.
  • TRUSTED WATCH - since 1997. "The International Timepiece-Portal." Watch portal & watch magazine. One of the leading media enterprise for the watch and jewellery sector in Europe.
  • WATCH Journal - since 1997. "All That's Good in Time." Watch Journal is a leading luxury watch and lifestyle publication. The magazine provides a refined lens on the watch world. Each issue includes coverage of relevant news and events; the publisher’s recurring column on the business of watches; a behind-the-scenes look at what goes into watch manufacturing; a section of original watch photography; profiles of industry leaders and collector interviews."
  • WATCH TALK FORUMS - "Talking Watches. All The Time". Online watch enthusiasts community. We have discussion forums dedicated to many watch brands such as Rolex, Omega, Breitling, ...
  • Watchlords - since 2009. "The Original and Only Uncensored Watch Forum." All brands are discussed in open without the heavy hand of a moderator censoring you.
  • WATCHNET.com - "Watch Talk." General watch discussion forum.
  • WATCHTIME.COM - since 1999. "America’s No. 1 Watch Magazine." Your resource for the latest news and information about the world's finest luxury watches. Covers all aspects of fine timepieces, fine wristwatches and 'watch culture.'

 

Please feel free to add iy I have left anything out.

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Nice list of web sites.  This is my current "To Buy" book list, plus other resources:

 


Web Sites with fee-based video tutorials:

www.timezonewatchschool.com

    Three levels of video tutorials

learnwatchmaking.com

    Three levels of video tutorials

nobswatchmaker.com

    Comprehensive watchmaking course
    
www.watchrepairlessons.com

    Three levels of video tutorials


DVDs

Simplified Mechanical Watch Repair for Profit (out of production, can be sourced on eBay)
Dan Gendron

A Course in Profits Through Service (out of production, can be sourced on eBay)
Dan Gendron

 

 

BOOKS (listed in the order I intend to buy them)

Chicago School of Watchmaking Course (out of print, 36 PDFs on CD can be sourced on eBay)

TM 9-1575 WAR DEPARTMENT TECHNICAL MANUAL ORDNANCE MAINTENANCE WRIST WATCHES, POCKET WATCHES, STOP WATCHES, AND CLOCKS (out of print, free PDF available on the web)

No BS Watch Tips for Watch Enthusiasts & Salespeople
Anthony L

Beginner Watchmaking: How to Build Your Very First Watch
Tim Swike

The Watch Jobber's Handybook
Paul Hasluck

Watch Repair For Absolute Beginners!
George Piere

Simplified Mechanical Watch Repair for Profit: An Illustrated Guide
Dan Gendron

It's TIME to Make MORE Money with Watch Repairs
by Dan Gendron

Fundamentals of Watchmaking
Mike Barnett

Watch Repair for Beginners: An Illustrated How-To Guide for the Beginner Watch Repairer
Harold C. Kelly

Watch Repairing as a Hobby
D. W. Fletcher

Repairing Quartz Watches 
H.B. Fried

Mechanical and Quartz Watch Repair
Mick Watters

Practical Watch Repairing
Donald De Carle

Practical Watch Adjusting
Donald de Carle

Complicated Watches and Their Repair
Donald de Carle

Learn Watch Repair At Home
Mike Barnett

Watch Repairer's Manual
H.B. Fried

Watchmaking
George Daniels

The Practical Watch Escapement
George Daniels

Amateur Watchmaking
Pers Torphammer

Maintaining and Repairing Mechanical Watches
Mark W. Wiles

A Practical Course in Horology
Harold Caleb Kelly

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    • Have to agree with you. Will not do another. Did not enjoy the time spent. However, it was worth it to know that I understood how to disassemble, look for defects, repair and then assemble. Timegrapher? No facility to alter anything other than the stud. Everything is metal to metal.
    • Couple of things H. There surely seems to be a reoccurring fluctuation pattern  of somewhere around every 5 minutes. More noticable with your crown left trace having a large peak gradually reducing to 2 small peaks and troughs then back up to another large peak. Nev posted a download link to a book by Harold Kelly not so long back that i started to read while i was away. There was a good section on wheel and pinion ratios, rotation periods of wheels of different beat frequencies that's worth a read. Then something that bugs me comparing the amplitude and timing rate changes with your dial up trace which i chose to avoid wheel imbalances . The amplitude fluctuates by an extreme of 30 ° and the rate fluctuates by an extreme of 21 seconds as per your reading. In normal circumstances a movement dropping its power over the course of the mainspring unwinding, a hairspring acting isochronical will maintain its rate almost to the end of the power reserve. Similarly power wound into a movement increasing its amplitude from 265° to 295° a hairspring again acting isochronical will again maintain its rate aside from a brief few moments until it settles into it's rate. From that it seems to me that because the amplitude difference isn't big enough to affect a rate change then the amplitude fluctuation cause is not coming from anywhere but from the balance. So its whatever is causing the rate to change increase and decrease within the balance is also slowing and speeding up the hairspring swings. I'm not quite sure if I've just gone around in circles with that, it made sense to me when i started  😅 We did have a discussion a while back when i asked if rate could come from that point as well as from the regulator pins. This area can be electro stiffened in high grade hs i remember was the answer. I remember that over Ross's issue with balance endshake.
    • somewhere in the universe although as I'm answering this I remembered which discussion group. Somebody had a similar question loss basically expanded it to the watch would totally disintegrate in my think like 30 years. I'd have to go back and find the original discussion if I can the person seem to think that they hairspring would disintegrate like you describe and just metal on metal wearing out the entire watch. Except of course we all work on watches over 30 years and they obviously do not disintegrate. Plus somebody came along and explained why hairsprings do not have the same issues as mainsprings. Although hairsprings do end up with watchmakers insisting on bending and playing with them and torturing them etc. and that obviously is not good for the metal at all. one of the problems that you're having here it is what is the purpose of the test that started this discussion? Let me go and snip out the original image as you can see from images above this watch is horrible. Or is it? What is the purpose of the images up above in other words what exactly would use this test for? The real purpose this test is show the effect of amplitude on timekeeping. Or specifically you're looking for mechanical issues that are causing fluctuations in amplitude which unfortunately shows up  with timekeeping. or basically everything affects timekeeping but amplitude is affected by the mechanical characteristics of the watch from the mainspring to the balance wheel and unfortunately as it's a mechanical watch your always going to have power fluctuations. so how do we rule out unacceptable fluctuations versus the natural characteristic of the watch? Usually if you can find a repeating pattern you can narrow it down to the offending components for instance I'm attaching a PDF. on the second page of the PDF it talks about 21st-century equipment versus paper tape timing machines. Then they give an example of timing problems solely caused by a faulty component. although off you have a user's manual for a paper tape machine it does explain that you can find faulty components by looking at the variations on your paper tape seeing how often they repeat and do the same thing without the fancy software. Even though it was claimed that you couldn't do that in other words you couldn't find a pattern? One of the problems that comes up with modern LCD-based timing machines versus software is limited screen size. In other words it makes it very hard to look for patterns you'll see variations in numbers but it's hard to tell what's going on which is why the display above is really nice to see if there is a problem. for instance here's a paper printout from a witschi timing machine it does look distorted because I changed the speed at which the image would move across the screen. In other words I was trying to figure out a way to extend the screen to being much longer as I was looking for a pattern as you can see there doesn't appear to be a pattern at all so basically we end up with a watch that I cannot time at all they cannot really figure out what the problem is and I actually cannot find a pattern even begin the figure out where the problem might be. Plus I agreed to service this watch for free as I was going to use it for the purposes of a lecture. In other words it's a nice railroad grade pocket watch and I wanted to show before how horrible amplitude is and how wonderful it looks after serviced and after servicing it looked exactly the same still horrible. Then I used software for a clock timing machine and came up with this interesting image one a minor problems we have with time plots and  how they look is that they all do things a little bit differently. So this was occurring approximately every five minutes. Then we need another chart then I replaced something in the watch and we now get this one of the things that I was always bothered with was if I had put the hands on after servicing would the watch have Time? Because the pattern was repeating the watch would average that out may  it would have Time. Oh and what did I change somebody had swapped the mainspring barrel for something different were getting a binding between the mainspring in the center wheel pinion. so the problem you're having is what exactly is the problem? the purpose of the test image is to look for mechanical problems causing amplitude problems. Because it's a mechanical watch your always going to have variations so are the variations in this watch abnormal or normal for this watch? Once we eliminate the mechanical issues beyond it's a mechanical watch then you can work on timing issues. for timing issues I recommend going back to the normal display that were used to and make sure you have your averaging times set correctly. In other words while the graphical display is basically real time years of the numbers are averaged over time. Anywhere from 20 to 40 seconds depending upon whose specs you're looking at. So basically they will average out the problems were seeing on this time plot.   one of my amusements with students that go to the same school is that you have different instructors. So this gives you different experiences like what exactly is tight anyway as I don't remember any thing like this? Then did you know that Rolex at least in Geneva as I visited their service center replace all the screws in the watch every time they service the watch. then why did they do that because they use power screwdrivers and tighten those things down as tight as you can get them which has a problem. How many times can you tighten screw down really tight before the hints break off. So they replace the screws every single time. So personally I don't think they have to be so tight that you're in danger snapping head off that's too tight in my opinion. but the screws definitely shouldn't be falling out either which I've occasionally see and where people just don't tighten their screws tight enough.   Horologica Times -- May 2004 From the Workshop witschi time plot.pdf
    • I guess it is a possibility, but the train wheel bridge was pressed down all the way so I'm not so sure. Then again, the screws weren't tightened at all (imagine being screwed down all the way but using a piece of Rodico instead of a screwdriver). Anyway, the movement is now fully stripped so we'll have to see once I've assembled it again. BTW I found the post where @nickelsilver wrote about tightening screws: As he writes: "In school, if your screws aren't tight, like you think they might snap, you get your movement tossed in the sawdust box!" I'm really curious to know why it is so important to tighten the screws that hard. I usually stop when it feels like there is no chance the screw can start to unscrew itself. Also, screwing down that hard requires perfectly dressed and perfectly sized screwdrivers to avoid slippage and/or damaging the screw slot.
    • This place has them, cheaper than I saw on ebay and they appear to be a legitimate supplier: https://maddisonsofdurham.co.uk/watch-parts/capacitors/seiko-batteries-capacitors/seiko-capacitor-kinetic-30235mz-tc920s-5m42-5m22-5m23-battery-3023-5mz-3023-5my/?gad_source=1&gclid=CjwKCAjw7-SvBhB6EiwAwYdCASmviGb9G2ZGW3CtcUZBkNgglcgfPKoqnpOzrzruiPtm69f6DX7UGhoCKl4QAvD_BwE There is also a note at the bottom of the page about them being a newer type, with a slightly different part number.  
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