Hello folks

[m1ks]

Hi all, 

My name is Mike, I have dabbled in 'collecting' wristwatches for several years, (nothing fancy i'll add, just things that caught my interest).
I've had a fascination with mechanical movements since I was a kid and dismantled my wind up alarm clock to see how it worked, (a favourite story of my parents for many years).
I have collected, gifted and sold many watches and only have a handful now and some years back used to buy old pocket watches, (starting on good old workaday Smiths), from car boot sales and stripping cleaning and doing minor repairs then selling them.
The interest was recently rekindled when I found among my Dad's things a lovely old Orient that I bought for him about 20 years ago and it got me searching again and interested in dusting off my tools and adding a few more to service these watches for use and display.
To add to that, an Orient and a roamer (the latter not yet received) from ebay, a really nice Seiko 5 from a flea market in Hamburg on a recent visit, (I like to bring back a little reminder from holidays and a watch seemed perfect, sadly the few old German watches there were asked laughable amounts for.
A very recent discovery is HMT, a brand I knew nothing of whatsoever but have piqued my interest being Indian made (kind of a movement under license from Citizen situation it appears), ideal for me too as they're prevalent and cheap to boot.
To refresh my memory and look up new techniques since my VHS video tape learning course on watch repair, (yes, that long ago, thankfully transferre to DVD or i'd not be able to watch it now), and books are quite old, I turned of course to Youtube and discovered Marks excellent, detailed, clear, well explained and thorough strip, rebuild, repair, questions and answers and servicing videos which, naturally, led me here, (My own youtube channel is SpidiQ8 and any who care to check it out will see I do a bit of a mix of things, most involving tinkering, mechanical tutorials, Coffee and coffee machines, home roasting green beans, (my biggest passion), Model kit making, 3D printing and so on, I hope to add some watch related videos as I acquire a few more tools and some new oils and look to service some of the new and older watches I've gotten).
While it#s evident there are newer and better things regarding techniques and tools, (like timegraphers of an affordable nature, on my list), for example, it's good to see that much remains the same, decent tweezers, screwdrivers, rodico and such.

So hi to all and if anyone has ideas for nice affordable watches worth a look, especially divers which i'm fond of please throw them this way.

 

Mike

I'll add also, while I remember, that in among the rekindling of my passion, my 14 year old son has shown a big fascination in mechanical movements and how a watch works, which is lovely to see in a tech driven age where he's typically all about consoles and the latest game so his birthday got him an inexpensive but truly nice skeleton watch in stainless case and bracelet which he winds lovingly every night and is delighted with, so far it's keeping decent time but as with the cheaper chinese movement watches i'm expecting to have to service it soon but he'll have a selection to choose from to wear while that's happening.

[oldhippy]

Thank you for your introduction and welcome to this friendly forum.

[clockboy]

Welcome Mike, Enjoy the forum.

[m1ks]

Thanks guys, I'm sure i'll be picking brains for things as I get back into it.