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frenchie

By frenchie
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frenchie Distinguished Member

frenchie

Posted
Posted

Hi everyone,

 

Newbie here. I got started because my favorite watch (Swiss Army Cavalier, very basic watch but I like it) broke and the guy at the shop wanted $390 to fix it. He said it needed a new movement... Well, I can't afford that kind of money for a $200 watch.

So I looked into fixing it myself. Bought a few basic tools ($30), a movement (ronda 515, just like the original, for $15 shipped with a battery :) ) and replaced the movement. 30 minutes later : done. 

I skipped the part where I took the whole movement apart, took me the whole afternoon, I was so nervous, I probably took 50 pictures to make sure I could remember !! And of course the next day I found out that I could just get a brand new movement... and Ronda publishes the diagrams of their movements, so putting it back together took less than a couple of hours.

 

My grandfather was trained as a watchmaker. My parents still have all the tools and parts in a really cool cabinet with a whole bunch of tiny drawers. Can't wait to go home and steal the thing :p maybe they won't notice it's missing...

 

Other than that, I also wear a Festina quartz watch (first "nice" looking watch I ever bought as a student... $85... I saved money for a whole year to afford it !), and an automatic Swatch "skeleton style" watch (no dial). Nothing fancy.

 

Hoping to work on a few mechanical pocket watches for fun, and get them to tick back to life. I might play with a couple of wrist watches too if I find an oldie that needs TLC.

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DJW Super WRT Addict

DJW

Posted
Posted

Welcome to the Forum! Yikes, $390! I do this as a hobby, but also do some repairs for a select group of people. I'm by no means an expert at the business end of watch repair, but that sounds wee bit high to me. I repaired/replaced an ETA quartz movement on a Tag Heuer 2000 for a customer recently for $100, the movement was only $19. But that's just me. I really don't know what the going rate is to be honest! I'm sure I was low, but who knows! 

 

Also, be prepared to break the first mechanical watch that you work on (if it's not already broken). I did! I grabbed the movement like I was eating a cookie and snapped the pivot on the balance staff! BTW, that was also my first repair!

 

You can go as far as you want with this, so be prepared to be overwhelmed at first. It does get easier the more you do, though.

 

Regards.

Don

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autowind Distinguished Member

autowind

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Posted

Welcome to the forum's Frenchie, there are all skill levels here and whatever your question someone should have the answer.  As a hobby watches are fascinating,  a watch that is not running is dead,  now the question is why has it died?  Finding the answer and getting it running again can be very rewarding.  If you watch Marks videos you will learn more than from any book and you will also learn the right way to do it.

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