Hello from the UK

[plop]

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.

[watchweasol]

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.

[Nucejoe]

Welcome to the forum.

[oldhippy]

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

[Klassiker]

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.

[plop]

Thank you all, this is all really helpful advice and food for thought.

[Loopylad]

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.

[watchweasol]

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