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swiss2k

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Hello everybody!

My name is Dmitrii, I am 33 years old, and I am from Zurich, Switzerland.

Recently I have started my long-time passion of watchmaking. Although I have done a lot of nerve-racking things in my life, watchmaking takes the lead at testing my ability to resist throwing everything at a wall to smithereens. The journey started when I bought my first broken Omega Seamaster Cosmic, the plan was simple, find the defect, repair and service the watch. After a month I had about 5 watches, disassembled and waiting for parts (thank God my wife does not know how many I have).

Now back to the first Omega. I really wanted to make my first build perfect, everything new, everything as the manual says and bla-bla-bla... Well guess what? Parts don’t fit!

So yes, this is how I ended up here.

Thank you!

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Edited by swiss2k
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6 hours ago, swiss2k said:

Although I have done a lot of nerve-racking things in my life, watchmaking takes the lead at testing my ability to resist throwing everything at a wall to smithereens. 

Haha. Maybe not the kind of approach to have, you desperately need to get this out of your system, if you are even thinking this way and ok maybe not acting this way then you are going to struggle with watch repair. Things have to remain calm and relaxed in your head at all times as it will effect your work without you even realising it. As with everything our decision making is based entirely on our mood and emotion at that particular moment. Favourable positive decisions and outcomes are the products of a serine mind. And before you ask no i am not religious in any way, just smart, logical and experienced in life. If you feel something rising in you head because the repair is not going well then back off for a while and grab a cuppa. I myself have a wicked temper, over the years have i learnt to control it, not easy sometimes but more than worth the effort and much better than the negative outcome.  Oh by the way welcome swiss2k, this is a great helpful friendly forum. I actually rate it the best watch repair forum in the world obviously  as i am member,  a few of the other members are ok too, sort of 🤣

Edited by Neverenoughwatches
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Welcome to our little group!  I also can say I have encountered a few watches in my time that tested my patience.  And I tend to have a rather mild temper.  All I can think of to say is: be prepared.  Some watches can be difficult.
I always try to remind customers up front that some repairs take time and must not be rushed.  More mistakes happen when we hurry.  I try to take a break when I begin to feel rushed or frustrated.
I also try to prepare in other ways.  One of the most aggravating things that can happen is when a click spring, in the process of being removed for cleaning, goes "ping" and shoots away so quickly that you have no idea where it went.  So, I now place the movement in a clear plastic bag when removing them, and I have stocked up on a large variety of click springs of all kinds.  I have done the same with screws, because they can go missing too.  I have lots of screws.  I have learned that if the part is small, and cheap enough, it is good to have many in stock, because they are often the things which go missing most.
That really is all I can advise: go slow at first, do not rush.  And be as prepared as you can be for what may happen.  That, and some very good screwdrivers and very good tweezers solve a lot of problems up front.

Edited by KarlvonKoln
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17 minutes ago, KarlvonKoln said:

Welcome to our little group!  I also can say I have encountered a few watches in my time that tested my patience.  And I tend to have a rather mild temper.  All I can think of to say is: be prepared.  Some watches can be difficult.
I always try to remind customers up front that some repairs take time and must not be rushed.  More mistakes happen when we hurry.  I try to take a break when I begin to feel rushed or frustrated.
I also try to prepare in other ways.  One of the most aggravating things that can happen is when a click spring, in the process of being removed for cleaning, goes "ping" and shoots away so quickly that you have no idea where it went.  So, I now place the movement in a clear plastic bag when removing them, and I have stocked up on a large variety of click springs of all kinds.  I have done the same with screws, because they can go missing too.  I have lots of screws.  I have learned that if the part is small, and cheap enough, it is good to have many in stock, because they are often the things which go missing most.
That really is all I can advise: go slow at first, do not rush.  And be as prepared as you can be for what may happen.  That, and some very good screwdrivers and very good tweezers solve a lot of problems up front.

Perfect advice from Karl. Within a month of starting i realised as Karl has said that i needed some stock behind me to backup any losses or breakages i would eventually encounter. And yes tweezers and screwdrivers you should choose of good quality and learn to dress  and shape them accurately. It does make a huge difference to driver slippage and tweezer pingage.

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    • See, what has happen is a normal consequece of the reducing the hammer size and changing it's shape by the removing metal from it. But here the hammer is adjustable and just adjustment is needed to correct, and this is what You have done. There is a rule for the adjustment and it is that the hammer must lay firmly on the seconds counter heart and there should be a litle free play in the same time of the minutes counter heart/hammer which alows counter movement of about 0.5 min on the small dial hand (+/- 0.25). Of course, there is no way to make one hammer to delay from the other, as they are one single part. What has changed too is the slope of the hammer head and thus the orientation of the heart has changed, and thus the switching finger position. This led to need of the finger position correction. The rule here is that switching of the minute counter has to start when the seconds counter hand is on '59'. Of course, the seconds hand must be positioned as so the resetting is at '0' exactly. If switching is earlier than 59, there will be no problem, but it will be wrong as reading can be not correct. If the switching starts later, the problems that You described can happen.
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