3 things I've realized

[phydaux]

So I'm slowly gathering tools & resources as money permits.  But as I read watchmaking books, watch youtube videos, and read this forum, four things have occurred to me:

1) When it comes to mechanical watches, until I get a proper cleaning station and a watch timing machine then I'm really just spinning my wheels.  There's just no point in trying to restore a watch if I haven't cleaned it, and until I get the watch up on the scope and check it for beat & time keeping then I don't really know if I have restored it or not.  

2) The vast majority of watches I'm going to run across, at flea markets and in family member's sock drawers, won't be mechanical.  They will be cheap quartz watches.  

3) The vast majority of watchmaking resources I've identified so far are for mechanical watches, not quarts watches.

So in light of those three things, I'm narrowing my initial focus, at least until I have a proper mechanical watch work bench set up, with a decent cleaning workstation and a timing machine.

 

By way of sharing the wealth, these are the quartz watch resources I've identified so far:

DVDs

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

BOOKS

Repairing Quartz Watches 
H.B. Fried

Mechanical and Quartz Watch Repair
Mick Watters

TOOLS

Quartz Watch Analyzer 

 

Any more would be highly appreciated.  Any if anyone had a recommendation an a watch analyzer, feel free to chime in.

[vinn3]

  if you chose to work on vintage (older) watches,  de Carles book is one of the best.  vin

[clockboy]

Good tools, books and videos are all helpful but hands on practical work is where the learning really happens. Bits fly off into space never to be found again, you will break things, you will assemble in the wrong order, you will make lots of mistakes but with practice the mistakes become less frequent and the speed of dis-assembly and re-assembly quickens. For watches you need a timographer or the equivalent.