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New member from Australia

Zendoc

By Zendoc
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Zendoc Member

Zendoc

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Hello everyone and thank you for having me in the group.  I’ve long been interested in mechanical watches and have grown a small collection over the years, but I’ve only recently come to believe that it is possible for me to service a watch.  I have a special interest in vintage Russian watches and in general they’re build like tanks, so that’s where I plan to begin my watch servicing journey.  I’ve just begun Mark’s 2nd course and have the required equipment and the recommended movement in order to get started.  Look forward to meeting you in this amazing forum.

Warm regards from down under…

John

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HectorLooi Distinguished Member

HectorLooi

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Welcome to WRT.

Vintage Russian watches are great. I love them too. I have an Amfibia,  a Komandirskie, a Poljot diver's watch and a Sekonda dress watch. They are built like tanks but are prone to a little rust.

What watches do you have in your collection? 

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Zendoc Member

Zendoc

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Hello again everyone and thanks for the warm welcome!

I’ve been having a lot of fun and have just completed my 3rd service.  I have quite a collection of Raketa watches from various times in the companies history and several have the 2609HA movement, so my first 3 watch services have been from my Russian collection. This is a sturdy and very forgiving movement and I have a collection of spares on hand to cope with disasters.  The hardest skill set for me to learn was disassembling, lubricating and then reassembling the balance shock system - the cap jewels are tiny and the springs very - well, springy - and it took me much practice on an old unit to feel confident manipulating the cap stone especially.  It  has taught me great patience.  The first attempt took me 45 minutes and I lost the stone and the spring took a leap and joined the Russian space programme.  I found myself breath holding and with an elevated heart rate during that painful first attempt.  But, after a lot of practice simply assembling and disassembling, over and over,  a spare unit something went click in my brain and I could do it.  I serviced a watch yesterday  and the process involving the shock system took only a couple of minutes, top and bottom, including cleaning the end stone and chaton in naphtha, lubricating it and replacing it. I felt a great sense of achievement.  Never thought I’d be able to do it.

Michael1962 - I’ve been buying my tools on line from eBay and AliExpress mostly. I haven’t found any local suppliers with competitive prices.  I’ve also bought from Cousins UK, because in some cases their prices were lower and shipping not too expensive.  My watches I buy online - I’m always on the hunt and they come up everywhere.  They’re not as much of a bargain as they once were.  The older Russian watches seem to be more popular these days.  It took me quite some time to find a couple of genuine Raketa Big Zeros in good condition - there are so many fakes and badly mod afflicted versions on the market - but the hunt is all part of the fun for me.  And now, thanks to Mark, I can begin to service them.  

Such a fun hobby but so much to learn.

Cheers,

John

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