Jump to content

Recommended Posts

Posted

Hello there, I'm from the UK, Preston in Lancashire.

Due to coronavirus and various changes in my industry and life over the last year or so (I was a 3D animator and CGI type person, working freelance), my career looks like it is over and I am considering retraining into watchmaking as I have been a minor tinkerer (modifications to Seikos mostly) for quite a few years, and have been a bit of a watch obsessive for most of my life.

I'm a handy person, good at crafts and DIY, electronics, etc., and I'm hoping to pick this up over the next 12 months or so and then offer servicing to paying customers... I don't know if I'm being naive here? All the same I need something to focus on in the interim as the current state of the world isn't the best for my mental health.

I'm starting from zero, no real watchmaking tools except some cheap Chinese bits and pieces I've used for mods, budget of about £500 to get some starter tools (was hoping I'd be able to get some decent stuff from the start, at least for the most regularly used bits), and, well, apart from that, get practising and learning.

I was planning to pay for Mark's full course and get on with it. If anyone has any buying advice for watches/movements to start practising on it would be appreciated, I can obviously check out charity shops and eBay, but I wondered if it's worth picking up any of the Aliexpress automatic watches of questionable quality to strip down, clean and rebuild? Really don't know where to start with it.

Anyway, hope everyone is safe and well, take care.

Posted

Hi and welcome to the forum   As for tools you already have some cheaper versions so I would upgrade to either A*F brand screwdrivers or the french type, Tweezers of course Dumont . As the drivers and tweezers are the most used get the best you can afford at this time.  Watches to practise on  Usually advise to but Russian/Chinese, as they dont cost a mint and should you wreck one its no great financial loss, some of the Indian seikos are cheap but are sometimes cobbled movements and useful for practise work.  wish you all the best.

  • Like 1
Posted

Hello and welcome.

Regarding practice movements, as watchweasol says, Russian and Chinese movements are good and low investment. Both tend to have conventional modern wristwatch movement design, so you learn to recognise the components and where they belong right from the start. Old pocket watch movements are good because of the size. Everything is a lot less fiddly, but many have significant differences to modern movements, which could be an obstacle to a steep learning curve. An exception to this is the Unitas / ETA 6497 or 6498 which has very conventional architecture and is of a size that can even fit in a larger wristwatch case (>42mm).

If you decide to do Mark's courses, and judging by the quality of his videos and free tutorials they are well worth it, you will need to get a Unitas / ETA 6497 or 6498 to work on. I think he actually uses a good-quality clone (Seagull ST36) which you can get for a good price on  AliExpress.

Other Chinese movements are available new or used for very cheap, but the quality varies wildly, and you will struggle to get exact fitting spares if you break something. I have found that generally the higher the quality of the movement, the easier the parts go back together. For example, the Swiss movements from the 50s and 60s were designed and manufactured to be serviceable, and are comparatively easy to work on. Ebay is a good place to shop for these, for a tenner or less. There are cheap mechanical watches from India available, but they apparently bulk-buy scrap movements  then canniblalise the worst ones for parts. The result is a running watch, but with dirty, worn, and "non-standard" components. Not good to work on!

Having said all that, in your particular circumstances, you might want to look at some alternatives to mechanical watch repair as a means of income. What about simple repairs and battery changes for quartz watches, or cosmetic work (case finishing, modding, individual dials). Just some ideas which might suit your existing skill-set better and give you a quicker way in.

  • Like 2
  • 3 weeks later...
Posted

Nice to see a local lad on this international forum (Penwortham born!).  New to this world too.  Just acquired (from fleabay) an old pocket watch movement and a couple of trench watches to experiment on.  Pocket watch is a non runner but only £12.99 so can't grumble with that.  Its about getting used to the parts and movements and cleaning.  What surprised me the most is the scale down sizes of a pocket watch movement to a wrist watch movement.  Probably an obvious thing but when you are working up close on them - it really stands out.

Hence i would advise on a set of magnifying goggles or equiv.  They come in handy with model making too.

Posted

The question of Loupes and binocular visors  has been discussed at length before on the forum, so I would suggest you use the search function at the top right of the home screen and have a look at the many varied opinions and make an educated choice on the data gleaned,       all the best 

  • Like 1

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Restore formatting

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.



  • Recently Browsing

    • No registered users viewing this page.
  • Topics

  • Posts

    • Sorry @nickelsilver, I'm just seeing this now.  It is a standard metric screw plate. I followed the suggestion of doing the thread cutting in a pin vise.  It took me forever because the piece is so delicate that I cut and cleared chips very frequently.  But eventually I did get it.  Not pretty, but I got it; the first thing I ever successfully made on the lathe. I cut the screw slot with a jewelers saw.  How can I ensure that the slot is centered on the screw head?
    • Hello and welcome from Leeds, England. 
    • Hello, My name is David and I’m a vintage watch collector/ wanna be hobbyist watchmaker from France. I really want to progress into my watch repairing hobby. For now, I’m only having fun servicing my own watches and spare movements, simple small 3 hands from the 50s (Omega, eterna…) Learning step by step or at least trying to 🙂
    • More setbacks and successes...  After letting the watch run in (but before I fixed the BE) a chunk of the radium lume fell off one of the hands and pulverized leaving radioactive dust all over the dial 😞 ☢️ ☠️ So before I could continue further I decided I would remove the radium lume.  I have removed radium lume from hands before where it was already starting to flake away but this time I had to work out what I was going to do with debris on the dial.  I decided that getting everything under water and removing all the lume was probably the best way to go. So here is what I did... I put an essence jar I use for cleaning parts and filled it with water and put it into a big ziplock bag along with the tools I would need - a sharpened piece of pegwood and  a 0.80mm screwdriver  -  I put on a pair of nitrile gloves and a covid style mask and then opened the back of the watch. Now with the back off the watch I could do the rest inside the bag.  I removed the watch from the case and removed the hands from the dial (through the bag) and then undid the dial screws and removed the dial from the movement.  I then put the hands and the dial and the watch case into the water and removed the movement from the bag.  Carefully and slowly with one hand in the bag and one hand trying to poke and hold stuff through the bag I gently rubbed away the lume from the dial and hands with the pegwood. I then took the parts out of the water and removed the jar from the bag (leaving the parts still in the bag) - with the majority of the dangerous stuff now in the water I disposed of this (down the toilet) and gave the jar a good rinse in running water before refilling it and returning it to the bag where I gave all the parts another rinse in the new water.  I then took the parts and put the geiger counter over the top of them and looked at them carefully under UV light to see if there were any flakes still hanging on. I dried everything with some kitchen towel. Once I was finished will all that I remved the parts from then removed the gloves and put them in the bag with the paper towels and the pegwood and thew the bag in the household waste. Finally I gave the dial, hands and case another rinse in the sink under running water.  I didn't bother following up with a rinse in distilled water water because the water here is pretty clear of limescale etc and I find it doesn't mark! So here are the results of my weekends work! Timegrapher dial down (dial up is almost the same) The fixed shock setting New crystal - and lume removed from dial and hands
    • Hi and welcome! I'm new here too—greetings from Leicester, UK.
×
×
  • Create New...