Jump to content

Tutorials by Alex Hamilton


Recommended Posts

1 hour ago, Kalanag said:

There is a new channel called „It‘s About F*****g Time“ by watchmaker Alex Hamilton (known on Youtube by his channel „The Watchsmith“) . The new channel is dedicated to watch repair tutorials for beginners and worth watching imho.

https://youtube.com/channel/UCXV8h3I9pnfZuDpg6xEM_8w

He's a great guy and has a brilliant sense of humour. He goes into quite deep detail as well. Hehe, he even gave me a shout out in one of his videos 😛

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Subscribed on my computer but was unable to find using search on the Fire Stick/TV where I watch most (so I actually had to log-in on the TV). Will run through what he's got posted to date...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

We can remove the balance- cock assembly  safer than the bearded guy.

Do not remove the cock screw, just loosen it enough to loosen the cock, once you have partially unpinned the locating pins,  proceed with removing the cock screw. 

With this approach you have the cock secured on the mainplate by the cock screw( not fully unscrewed, not removed) , preventing cock from falling off as you are unpinning it. 

                Better safe than to look pro.

 

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

45 minutes ago, Nucejoe said:

We can remove the balance- cock assembly  safer than the bearded guy.

Do not remove the cock screw, just loosen it enough to loosen the cock, once you have partially unpinned the locating pins,  proceed with removing the cock screw. 

With this approach you have the cock secured on the mainplate by the cock screw( not fully unscrewed, not removed) , preventing cock from falling off as you are unpinning it. 

                Better safe than to look pro.

 

That’s a very good tip, thank you. Suffice to say I’ve had the cock jump off the plate when trying to lift it off the steady pins, only for it to land next to the movement with hairspring attached. And a few more grey hairs in my beard 🤣

  • Like 1
  • Haha 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

My watchmaker used to say " hairspring is the first part newbies ruins and spend most time on to sort out often with poor results". 

Bunch of good advice from Alex though,     don't ruin it to begin with.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 6/21/2022 at 4:25 PM, gbyleveldt said:

Hahaha no ways, I thought you knew from the Tissot video?

Nice one bearded buddy👍. Call me number 246. Lol 😆 

3 minutes ago, Neverenoughwatches said:

Nice one bearded buddy👍. Call me number 246. Lol 😆 

Maybe I'll send you this. It seems quite apt now i know you also have a mass of facial hair. (As well) 😆

16559152244372036939529477045648.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

10 hours ago, gbyleveldt said:

Hahhahahahaa awesome!

So you are the man to talk to about Seikos, cool. Its good to specialise, my forté is being a lazy good for nuthin 😄. Nah this is my gym top 

16559575213922589202267376599419.jpg

8 minutes ago, gbyleveldt said:

I can pretty much taste the irony. Gorgeous George🤣 He is a big one though . Wow

Actually a big softy and was prancing around with 5 other little dogs. When you are this big and dominating you dont need to be aggressive, life is sweet. Anyway love your channel 👍 watched a couple and will watch the rest as well. All power to you matey for having the bottle, something I've been considering for a little while. I hope you do well, lets get you up to some big numbers subs. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, Neverenoughwatches said:

So you are the man to talk to about Seikos, cool. Its good to specialise, my forté is being a lazy good for nuthin 😄.

I wouldn't call myself an expert by any stretch of the imagination. It's just easier to find parts for Seikos than for the average swiss watch so that's what I gravitate towards. That Tissot was a classic example of what a typical swiss movement costs to repair vs what it's worth. It's doing pretty well video wise but outside of that it's still worth maybe $100-$150 after it was restored. A nicely restored popular Seiko is worth more and costs less to repair for the same effort (I'm talking divers here). The point may be moot as I don't sell any of the watches I get going again haha.

Lazy, nah, any guy that works with his hands the whole day is far from lazy. At the end of the day, you can stand back and see what you've made with those hands. I know you said it in jest but us "works with our hands" types are a dying breed. My son turned 18 now and he couldn't be bothered (nor can most of his friends) working with his hands. They all want the cushy jobs; I guess it's my fault for being soft with them. Whew, that went dark quick...

1 hour ago, Neverenoughwatches said:

Anyway love your channel 👍 watched a couple and will watch the rest as well. All power to you matey for having the bottle, something I've been considering for a little while. I hope you do well, lets get you up to some big numbers subs. 

Thank you very much Rich, I really do appreciate it.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I really liked Alex's video on dressing your tweezers and screwdrivers and ordered a rolling screwdriver jig yesterday.

I'm not that enthused about having him walk me through the mechanical disassembly/re-assembly of an ST36 where there is (or hasn't been yet) ANY mention of lubrication. 

To be fair he's only put up 7 videos so far and they've been well done. If nothing else, I'm planning to dress my (brand new) tweezers and screwdrivers and practice picking stuff up.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I suspect he will be dedicating a video solely to lubrication, hence why he hasn’t brought it up yet. I get the impression that he’s compartmentalising each subunit of a movement per video and focusing only on that. Would be a great resource as well down the line: “I’m battling with a balance, oh yes it was such and such video”. Easiest way to get to the important stuff, as opposed to skipping through an hour long video with every thing in it.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, gbyleveldt said:

I suspect he will be dedicating a video solely to lubrication, hence why he hasn’t brought it up yet. I get the impression that he’s compartmentalising each subunit of a movement per video and focusing only on that. Would be a great resource as well down the line: “I’m battling with a balance, oh yes it was such and such video”. Easiest way to get to the important stuff, as opposed to skipping through an hour long video with every thing in it.

Just finished watching the 7s26/36 seiko 5 sports restoration, cracking video and the finished watch and end display made it look bloody gorgeous 👍. Need more subscribers matey a lot more.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thank you Rich! Those were my first ones so feeling my way in the dark then. I’m still sitting with a dilemma as to format. Do I talk and try and be informative (boring you to tears in the process). Or do I just keep my trap shut and get on with it? Looking at the analytics, it suggest people prefer me quiet. Which is fine as it’s less work. But then it’s no longer informative and only entertaining. Hmmmm

Link to comment
Share on other sites



  • Recently Browsing

    • No registered users viewing this page.
  • Topics

  • Posts

    • These are all American movements (with the exception of the "Rubis"), and are all almost certainly "negative set" which means the stem is part of the case. So it's normal that they are all missing- they are with their cases. You will need male square bench keys to wind/disarm them. Vintagewatchstraps has a great writeup on the different systems. But basically, any American "x" size movement will fit any case for that size, possibly with some adjusting of the stem position. With Swiss movements, there is some interchangeability between calibers, usually within the same maker's range, but not really overall- there are thousands of different stems out there.
    • Hi, I'm very new to watchmaking and this is my first time posting here.  I've bought a lot of 10 vintage pocket watches size 0s from e-bay and just got them today.  Most of the balance wheels sprung quite freely and thus seemed like a worthy endeavor as a first batch for exploration.  I've just realized that none of them have any winding stems. Is there any way I could source appropriate winding stems for the movements? There seems to be assortments of various stems selling in bulk on aliexpress, but would any of them fit?  I've read on other threads that some people lathe their own stems (which is waaaay out of my current skill set, which is pretty much nil). Others say that you 'just have to try a few and see if they fit'. I would much appreciate any advice for this matter. Thanks!
    • Nice work.  In the last year, I have been servicing Accutron 218s.  I have the official Accutron hoder that provides electrical contact to the movement.  It is a pretty clever design.  There is a cut in the ring of the holder (shaped like a "C").  When in relaxed state, the holder is slightly smaller than the watch movement.  You spread the cut slightly and drop the movement in and release.  Very clean.  I have made 3D versions of this setup.  Have not explored using it generally for other movements.
    • Double Oooooo   Removal tool? Dreamed of one of these. However, Kalle on Chronoglide showed everyone my system with the pegwood. Worked a treat. Felt so chuffed to be mentioned. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tTFrXjiyGKc 46:40 for the wheel removal. Mentions me at 50:00 and does the removal with the pegwood. Felt like my 15 minutes of fame.  
    • Sirius. Thank you for helping others with that information. This is why this forum is so good.
×
×
  • Create New...