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Hey there, watch fans!!


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Hello everyone!

 I’m Holly and I’ve developed a passion for watch repair over the past year. It started with my dad showing me how to easily adjust the strap on my watch instead of paying a fortune at jewelry store. We both had a love of watches, and it’s something that we shared that I will always treasure. He bought me my first set of tools for basic repairs, and taught me how to do quite a bit considering he taught himself! I absorbed everything I learned and started watching tutorial videos and eventually came back and taught my dad a couple things. I’ve since gone way beyond his knowledge and he started giving me his watches to fix. He passed away a few months ago and it’s my goal to eventually fix every watch in the collection he left me. Some are going to be really hard probably but I’m determined. I also have things to fix on my own watches and I can usually manage but I’m happy that I found this group. I don’t know anyone who shares my interest in this and the only other people who can possibly answer my questions will expect to be paid. Ha

I hope that some of you will be able to help me with some of my problems (I already posted a couple questions about my Nixon watches), and I hope I can also be of service to some of you!

Thanks for having me! Take care 

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Hello Holly and welcome to the forum. The best piece of advice I can give you is not to tackle anything your not confident of doing well, when working on those pieces with sentimental value. Practice on something worthless first.

There's plenty of advice on here about getting started and how to progress, right up to the advanced stuff that even good watchmakers find challenging. For new problems, there are some real experts around, who are incredibly generous with their time. Mark Lovick, who started this forum, has a whole series of useful videos on Youtube if you've not seen them yet, and a training course on offer too. You've come to the right place!

I find it a pleasure to be a part of the community, and I hope you'll get just as much from being here.

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Thanks everyone for being so helpful!! Hopefully I’ll be able to work this problem out. However, it seems to be an issue specific to Nixon. I realized on closer examination that the crown pins are snapped off, which must have happened when I pressed the back back in. I have a bunch of old junk watches to use so I’ll check out some of the videos and files you’ve given me and then just try a couple things. The only solution I can think of though is to take the crown pin out and put the back on then put the crown pin in after, but I’m not sure if it’s going to work. 
But thanks to the quarantine and social distancing I’ve got plenty of free time! 
But if you all know anyone who is a whiz with Nixon watches in particular, I would love you forever if you point me in their direction!! I have several Nixon and several conundrums in relation to them. 
Thanks again!!
 

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    • Thanks, This watch was in a box of old scrape units that a friend gave me. They used to be his late father's who was a watchmaker before the war and then continued later in life. I picked this one out as it looked like it had potential, and I liked the dial, it's been a bit of a learning curve for a beginner but I was determined to get it going. Now I'm on the final lap it feels good. I'm just wondering whether to invest in a decent set of hand placement tools or stick with the cheap Chinese red thing I have, decisions decision 😆
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