Books for Beginners?

[grsnovi]

Greetings all, new to the forum. Ordered 2 Elgin movements today on eBay and should be ready to begin making a mess in a week or so...

I suspect that I'll subscribe to/watch Mark's courses and I already have copies of: Practical Watch Repairing by de Carle and the 2nd edition of The Watch Repairer's Manual by Fried but I was wondering if there were any "better" books? I've also been watching Marshall's YouTube videos.

One concern that I have is that my left eye has been affected by a stroke that I had a year ago. While both eyes are open, I (mostly) see fine however if I close my right eye the center 50% of my left is occluded by a gray cloudiness. Effectively my depth perception has been trashed. I'm not sure how my ability to work using a magnifying visor or monocular loupe will be affected. Grabbing screws the size of a grain of sand might prove challenging.

Anyway, I'll be giving it a go and was wondering if there were any books newer that the mid-1940's that you found useful.

- Gary

[Nucejoe]

3 hours ago, grsnovi said:

 been watching Marshall's YouTube videos.

Digital microscopes I wonder. 

 

[grsnovi]

I've been wondering about scopes. I doubt that a binocular scope would be of any use to me with my left eye. I do have some familiarity with USB digital camera scopes through my previous job. They work pretty well (and they're cheap). I suspect one might do for inspection work. I guess we'll see where I end up...

[Paul80]

10 hours ago, grsnovi said:

 

One concern that I have is that my left eye has been affected by a stroke that I had a year ago. While both eyes are open, I (mostly) see fine however if I close my right eye the center 50% of my left is occluded by a gray cloudiness. Effectively my depth perception has been trashed. I'm not sure how my ability to work using a magnifying visor or monocular loupe will be affected. Grabbing screws the size of a grain of sand might prove challenging.

Sounds more like macular degeneration have you been checked for that ?

I have poor left eye vision but get on fine with my stereo microscope

No optician can get a prescription that gives anything but a blured left eye image, but on the scope I can adjust it so the left eye is nice and sharp, bizarrly I get a sharper left eye with my glasses when driving at night bizaar or what.

[LittleWatchShop]

10 minutes ago, Paul80 said:

bizarrly

Possibly because of astigmatism.  Bright light narrows the path to the retina...through the undisturbed part of your lens.

[grsnovi]

5 hours ago, Paul80 said:

I have poor left eye vision...

My left eye problem originated with a stroke and cause retina damage that can't be reversed. I had had several TIA's and the doctors at the hospital decided that I need to have a carotid endarterectomy which I did. Following the surgery several small pieces of plaque made their way into my eye. If you were standing in front of me and I closed my right eye I wouldn't be able to see your head (although I'd see around the grey cloud that obscured your head). With both eyes open I just need glasses.

[Nucejoe]

 Aren't we ALL making a mistake here.

Look,  this guy   is wearing one loupe only.   LOL 

Regards.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[grsnovi]

On 3/27/2022 at 2:19 PM, Nucejoe said:

 Aren't we ALL making a mistake here.

Look,  this guy   is wearing one loupe only.   LOL 

You're absolutely right - one eye seems to work just fine. I was worried about depth perception but having now torn apart an Elgin 313 I've had no trouble finding and removing screws.

[Mstelm]

How is there no book recommendations in this thread?

[Mstelm]

Also new member I guess, the book question got me to sign up. I’m not sure what sort of member I’ll be, honesty up front. I’m interested in reviving watches passed down to me, did not see an introduction thread.

still, laser focused on replies about good books for beginners of watch servicing 

 

Hello and Thank you

[LittleWatchShop]

The Watch Repairers Manual by H. Fried is a good start.

[Neverenoughwatches]

On 3/27/2022 at 3:23 AM, grsnovi said:

Greetings all, new to the forum. Ordered 2 Elgin movements today on eBay and should be ready to begin making a mess in a week or so...

I suspect that I'll subscribe to/watch Mark's courses and I already have copies of: Practical Watch Repairing by de Carle and the 2nd edition of The Watch Repairer's Manual by Fried but I was wondering if there were any "better" books? I've also been watching Marshall's YouTube videos.

One concern that I have is that my left eye has been affected by a stroke that I had a year ago. While both eyes are open, I (mostly) see fine however if I close my right eye the center 50% of my left is occluded by a gray cloudiness. Effectively my depth perception has been trashed. I'm not sure how my ability to work using a magnifying visor or monocular loupe will be affected. Grabbing screws the size of a grain of sand might prove challenging.

Anyway, I'll be giving it a go and was wondering if there were any books newer that the mid-1940's that you found useful.

- Gary

Hi Gary. I have both those 2 books but only glanced at them really. I will admit I like to discover how things work for myself with a little basic knowledge, that's just how I've always done things. When I have a problem then I will seek help. JD Richard did a vid a little while ago describing all the books he has collected. Might be worth a look. George Daniels is a little later than Fried and de carle arguably the best watchmaker of all time. 

[grsnovi]

@NeverenoughwatchesI have the Daniels book. Not really what I expected but interesting and I really love the illustrations.

On another topic, I rec'd word that my oils have shipped, I also rec'd my three Elgin partials yesterday and was advised to also search for the "red" Elgin Materials Catalogue (so I have that coming by month's end).

[Neverenoughwatches]

4 minutes ago, grsnovi said:

@NeverenoughwatchesI have the Daniels book. Not really what I expected but interesting and I really love the illustrations.

On another topic, I rec'd word that my oils have shipped, I also rec'd my three Elgin partials yesterday and was advised to also search for the "red" Elgin Materials Catalogue (so I have that coming by month's end).

Is the Daniels book really indepth? 

[grsnovi]

Just now, Neverenoughwatches said:

Is the Daniels book really in-depth? 

The Daniels book essentially tells you how to make your own watch, from scratch using a lathe and cutting your own gear teeth. That said it doesn't really spend a lot of time on how one might design their own movement but if you need to know how to cut (and undercut) your own screws for a balance wheel, he's your guy.

[Neverenoughwatches]

1 hour ago, grsnovi said:

The Daniels book essentially tells you how to make your own watch, from scratch using a lathe and cutting your own gear teeth. That said it doesn't really spend a lot of time on how one might design their own movement but if you need to know how to cut (and undercut) your own screws for a balance wheel, he's your guy.

Okaaayy. Maybe not quite where we are at then . I read a little about him a couple of months ago. I think he made 8 ? watches in total. One recently sold for 1 million +. Something for us to aim for . 

[grsnovi]

I'm not planning to make a watch - although I did see a video where a guy put together something that looked like a Panerai from OTC parts.

[Neverenoughwatches]

6 minutes ago, grsnovi said:

I'm not planning to make a watch - although I did see a video where a guy put together something that looked like a Panerai from OTC parts.

Was that Nekkid ? Joe ?

[grsnovi]

I think so...

[Mstelm]

Thanks for the replies guys

[JohnR725]

15 hours ago, grsnovi said:

he Daniels book essentially tells you how to make your own watch, from scratch

What makes Daniel's book interesting is he tells how to make things found in watches. In other words if you need to replace a missing component very likely he tells you how to make the component.

Here's an interesting website and an interesting book on the website. You can either look at it or scroll down and downloaded in a variety of formats it's free. What makes it also interesting despite when it was written not really a lot has changed it's still a very useful book for learning watch repair.

https://archive.org/details/TM9-1575

Then on the same website there is some other watch company stuff sometimes it's hard to find it looks like they have way more Waltham stuff.

.https://archive.org/search.php?query=Waltham watch

Then here's a really good book the older editions tend to be better because they cover doing more Like making things versus just replacing them but still each edition is good.

The Swiss watch repairer's manual H. Jendritzki

14 hours ago, Neverenoughwatches said:

Okaaayy. Maybe not quite where we are at then . I read a little about him a couple of months ago. I think he made 8 ? watches in total. One recently sold for 1 million +. Something for us to aim for . 

Here's a link to what happens when you get obsessed with George's book.Roger has a really interesting story is that a lecture once we talked about how he went to meet Georgia was quite amusing. Fortunately he was obsessed and he came back a year later.

https://www.youtube.com/user/rwsmithwatches/featured

 

 

 

 

 

[grsnovi]

I continue my search for interesting books and recently received this book. 

Unlike some of the older reprints (Practical Watch Repairing by Donald de Carle originally published in 1946 or The Watch Repairer's Manual by Henry B. Fried originally published in 1949 but updated in 1961) this one was copyrighted in 2016, so it is up-to-date as far as tools, oils, time graphers, suppliers, etc...

The author approaches his presentation targeting the hobbyist rather than the aspiring watchmaker. In my opinion there's a difference in the approach. 

Like Mark's online courseware, this book references a simple Unitas/ETA 6497 movement (or the Seagull ST25 which is relatively large, cheap and available).

I highly recommend this book for the beginner who has yet to pay for any other instruction but who is looking for more than watching 1 hour YouTube videos hoping to pick things up by watching.

[gbyleveldt]

I can only agree. I have it as well and I think it’s a good resource for a beginner for little money

[Kalanag]

This advice in the light of my personal experience made me thinking about an apron 

„Even if you think you are not the apron type, I would strongly advocate the use of one, unless you wish to spend most of your time under the bench with a torch and magnetic strip…Bulldog clips are used to secure the bottom part of your apron to the edge of the bench or table you will be working at, to create the safety net mentioned earlier. “

(Excerpt from: Maintaining and Repairing Mechanical Watches by Mark W Wiles)