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Hi from Cape Town

Geoffrey

By Geoffrey
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Geoffrey Member

Geoffrey

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Posted

Hello everyone

 

This has been the most intriguing rabbit hole that began with my cheapo Casio stopping and has now come as far as this point.

I have found watch repair videos on YouTube to have been an amazing non-waste of hours and hours, and very therapeutic and absorbing.

I am a Marine Engineer with a small business carrying out mandatory inspections and certifications of lifeboats and launching equipment off the coast of West Africa, as well as a radio amateur and diesel mechanic, so the more technical aspects of  watchmaking activities really interest me. It's like what I do all the time, but cleaner and much much smaller.

Machining away a groove worn into a pivot, removing a bush in a bridge or plate and then pressing in a new jewel bearing is perfectly doable and logical to me. I have absolutely zero trepidation around being able to successfully carry out that operation given decent tooling.

I love taking things apart and putting them back together again. I have been doing it all my life, some times more successfully than others. I have destroyed two watches in my lifetime so far by ill-advised tinkering - a cheapo Hong Kong-bought digital that was dropped into the bilge and then almost swapped for an AK47 in Mozambique, and a Longines that had a nasty looking quartz movement which I suspect was a fake...the hands fell off which was why I opened it in the first place.

I killed them both.

So,  HerLoveliness and myself are going on an extended, long-term sailboat cruising trip beginning sometime in 2020, and so I am looking at things I can do to earn revenue from the boat as we cruise.

I am obviously now beginning to think of watchmaking or watch repair as a possibility....it can be done in a relatively small space with relatively light tools and very little power.

Can it make any or enough money?

That's what I need to work out still.

BTW - the Casio is working again (clearly not as water-resistant as it claimed to be but I dried it all out, replaced the battery and it seems to be very happy again!) but I need better magnification for the eyes, and a few tools before I can advance further and tackle something else.

I have a Timex Indiglo Expedition with a broken stem ( the second one to do this in exactly the same place) and my Dad's old GB Timex automatic which is not working well at all.

I have found where I can get a lot of watchmaking tools etc here in Cape Town, and even if I can't make any money out of it, it looks like a very satisfying hobby that doesn't need much space, and the perfect way to pass the time inbetween QSO's on the amateur bands.

So that's me, the new guy, from Cape Town.

Be well.

de ZR6XZ

 

 

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