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Hello from Maryland!


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Hello all.  My name is John and I live in Maryland, not too far outside Baltimore.  My obsession with this hobby started about three years ago, after watching Mark's video on how to make your own watch from parts.  I built the watch shown in the picture below, which is powered by a Sellita SW210 and is a great little timekeeper.  Despite my difficulty with fitting the seconds hand, I was bitten by the bug and then built a handful of watches for friends and family of varying designs.  I've recently signed up for Mark's online watch repair course and have just completed level two, servicing a Seagull ST36 in the process.

I'm looking forward to getting to know the community here!

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On 6/23/2021 at 8:22 AM, Michael1962 said:

Have you got any photos of the other watches that you built?

The second watch I built is a pilot's watch based on a Seagull ST36.  The lume on this dial is fantastic.

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The next watch I built is based on a skeletonized ST36.  This one was a real challenge but came out great.  The case is the smallest I've seen for a 6497 at 41mm.  It doesn't use a movement ring.  Instead, the movement is held in place by careful adjustment of the height of the case clamp screws, so that they just touch the caseback when it is screwed down.  I still have nightmares about this case.  I ended up 3D printing a spacer ring to fit between the caseback and those screws.

Guess how many times the winding pinion fell out when I removed the stem with the watch upside down on my casing cushion?  🙂

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I then built a few other watches using Otto Frei's 36mm 2824 case.  Here's one with an open heart dial that uses a reclaimed Hamilton movement:

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