Spreadsheet?

[rossjackson01]

Anyone got a spreadsheet that they use for repair information? I'm new to the hobby. However I have collected a number of watches and have them in various states of disassembly. How do you keep a record of where you are up to. Do you keep a log, or know just by experience?

If anyone has such a spreadsheet Could you let me see a breakdown? I can then make my own.

Many Thanks

Ross

[clockboy]

I doubt that but there are spread sheets to work out mainspring strengths etc. A good practice is to keep a notebook to make notes of date of repair any complications encountered etc. Another essential practice is to take pics as you strip any movement. I have a folder in my picture app just for watch and clock repairs. 

[rossjackson01]

Clockboy.

Yes. I have started to do that. I'm taking photographs of each item I remove. They are entered into my watch folder by Brand and type

I'll make a sheet detailing watch, brand, type, strap, day obtained. Movement, items replaced etc.

Thank you for your response.

Regards

Ross

[spectre6000]

Ha! I feel you. Major spreadsheet household here between my wife and me. Very few things manage to get by without appearing on some spreadsheet or another. 

That said, I don't use a spreadsheet to keep track of watches. I have a few dozen on hand at a time lately. I play the 404 game, and when one comes in, I remove the strap (and 99% of the time, toss it), then it goes in one of four boxes: "A Team" (successful buy that meets all of my buy criteria), "B Team" (I took a gamble and lost, was lied to, or just made a mistake; borderline throw aways, but are probably worth fettling for the cheap practice), "Keepers" (go into my personal collection), and "More skill/tools/parts required" (self explanatory). A watch doesn't come out of its box until it goes under the knife, and I work on one at a time owing in part to the limitations of other organization strategies. When a watch is done, it goes into a little plastic bag with whatever notes seem pertinent for listing it for sale, and into a fifth box with the others. If I hit a snag, or am waiting to build up a reasonable parts order, I'll reassemble as far as practical, and put it in a small plastic bag with a handwritten note into the last box saying what it needs/what's wrong/what still needs to be done/etc. Once that box is full, I go through and order whatever is needed parts wise. If there are any that fall under the tools category that I feel ready/have the funds for, I'll hunt down whatever tool. If it needs more skills, it just goes back into the box until I feel like I can handle it.

In another setting, I might have a spreadsheet, but my desk serves n-tuple duty. It's my work desk (computer, keyboard, mouse, documents, etc.), watchmaking desk (fill in the blank), electronics, toy repair, etc. etc. etc. It's a roll top desk with limited space, and in order to roll out the watchmaking spread, I have to put away the computing spread, etc. If it were easy to have both available simultaneously, I might have landed on a spreadsheet approach. Admittedly though, part of the attraction to the hobby is that it's entirely analog. I do enough with computers every day ever that it's nice to get a break.

[Plato]

Do people really use spreadsheets outside of the workplace? There's nothing more dull in life than a spreadsheet, no offence intended. 

[jdm]

12 hours ago, Plato said:

Do people really use spreadsheets outside of the workplace? There's nothing more dull in life than a spreadsheet, no offence intended. 

I started using spreadsheets like 20 years ago and found them to be invaluable to be organized, accurate, and in control of my data about anything that is important or of interest to me. Then Google sheets came around and that was another big step forward.

[Nucejoe]

9 hours ago, Plato said:

Do people really use spreadsheets outside of the workplace? There's nothing more dull in life than a spreadsheet, no offence intended. 

 The site watchparts.org lets you post the parts you have for sale, which is to be in a spreadsheet, I sarted to but gave up, I too find it dull, specially that had to learn spreadsheet as I was going.