Taking apart my first quartz watch.

[NewToWatches]

They say humor is a defense mechanism.  Well the following is all true, but what's a newbie going to do?

[/satire on][but only just. . .]

Order of the day.  Wake up, plunk down in front of the computer.  Wait for a client to call back. Watch the “Essential Tools” episode of The Watch Repair Course in the meantime. Realize I have no pegwood.  Would a chopstick and a pencil sharpener work?  Possibly.   Skip on over to eBay (always a mistake).  Check on delivery of a watch that has been in the clutches of the US postal service for six days tho’ the seller is only 60 miles away.  Purchase Seagull ST3620 movement to serve as sacrificial (ahem, I mean . . . educational) learning movement.   Consider the crapshoot that is a Parnis watch from very, very far away. Decide against it.

Client calls.  We confer for several minutes. Then idly scan Amazon for task lamps.  Grab 10x loupe from desk and try to read the movement number on the face of a broken 1960’s Seiko Sportsman.  Move watch closer, blocking overhead light – all is darkness. Grab a pen light. aHa!  Hold pen light with chin against chest.  Instantly blind self by reflection off dial.  Blink. Regroup.  Angle the penlight by listing vaguely to the left.   Discern faint writing, distorted by the curve of the watch crystal.  Hold loupe harder with face.  Strain.  The word reveals itself:   “Japan.”  Hmm. I knew that already. Head back to eBay. Any update on that shipping? Hmmm....

Attorney on the other side of my deal calls.  We speak for a moment and she agrees to have her client consider a change to our document.

Then Moxie, the dog, goes nuts.  This usually means the post has arrived.  And indeed it has, including a Skagen Grenen watch that I picked up cheap because it has a thoroughly busted crystal and a bad battery –  it is the one with three smaller dial complications for the day of the week and two  thingamabobs of mysterious purpose.  One appears to count to 24.  The other?   I don’t love quartz watches, but at $10 it was hard to resist the urge to take it apart at least. Also, compared to an automatic, a quartz watch has about four serviceable parts (if by “servicing” you mean “replacing,” which in this case I do).  Remove the case back. Look for, and can’t find, the release for the stem.  Turn to YouTube University.  Amazingly, there is a video online of a young gentleman taking apart a Skagen pretty much like mine.  At the critical moment in the video however, his hand blocks the place he is pressing with his tool.  Laugh out loud.  You've got to be kidding me. And rewind.  And slow things down to .25x and rewind.  So much for the money shot.  Reflect on how well-made Mark's fix-it videos are. The 10x loupe comes out again and this time, instead of blinding myself or wallowing in darkness I can read, in tiny, tiny letters , a stamping on the movement by the stem, the word: “Press.” And I do, and like magic the stem and crown pull out.  Oh, I am so easily entertained.  The movement falls out onto my mouse pad and the broken crystal pushes out pretty easily after that.  Out come the calipers. 

Revise business documents.  Feel twinge of annoyance that my day job is getting in the way of my problem solving with the watch.

Head to Otto Frei and purchase a mineral crystal of what I hope is the right thickness and diameter.  (Remember the carpenter's adage: "measure twice, cut once.")  Go to checkout and discover that $4.00 doesn’t even get close to the minimum order number.  And if I had that many types of watch crystal in my warehouse, I’d probably have a policy like that too.  Plump for a Presto Hand remover and Canon Pinion remover because it looks like I will need them eventually and I don’t have ‘em.  Gaze longingly at task lamps.

Head over to Esslingers. Solve the pegwood problem. Spend additional $$ on lower power loups, more plastic movement trays, and an anti-static work mat.  Begin to think about how I will explain these purchases to my wife.  Convince myself that the fact that I don’t chase other women or have an interest in boats is somehow going to count in my favor . . .

[/satire off]

Seriously though, today was a triumph.  Instead of a busted Skagen quartz watch, I have the movement out, the case cleaned of glass, and a dozen or so bits all sitting in the compartments of a work tray.  And every time I successfully completed a stage of this admittedly simple task, I got that little hit of dopamine which tells your brain: success-success-success!  I realize that it is only a matter of time before I drop a tiny crucial bit on the carpeted floor and fully explore the reaches of my Anglo-Saxon vocabulary . . . but today was a nice beginning. I'd post a picture of the bits in the box, but I think it will be more impressive when it is back together.