Low Cost Homemade Watch Parts

[Michael]

Progress to date on homemade watch parts, The movement is an Avia I bought off ebay for a few pounds. I will buy the glass and strap in the future (hopefully if things get that far).The plan is the rest of the parts will be DIY

 

 

Case fabricated in 3 parts

 

 

Raw material for case

 

).

[Geo]

Excellent Michael, I look forward to seeing the finished watch. :)

[SSTEEL]

Superb, looking great!

[clockboy]

Michael that's a real challenge looking forward to the results. Best of luck

[rogart63]

Great work. Looking forward to see the rest of the watch getting finished. What is the size of watch? 

[Andyclient]

Very impressive , great work

[Michael]

Thank you all very much for positive comments. The OD excluding the lugs is 40mm

[Vich]

Well done, looks like good work to me.

Cheers,

Vic

[bobm12]

Very impressed with this project! Great job Michael! Keep us up to date!

 

Cheers,

 

Bob

[GeorgeClarkson]

Impressed! Following...

[svorkoetter]

Very impressive! I'd like to tackle a whole watch build (except for the movement) some time.

[ricardopalamino]

I'm Impressed and inspired !!  I may try to build a Tourbillion in the not to near future ....All kidding aside , it is looking good .....

[Michael]

A bit more progress. Just the crown to make, put on some dial markings, and a clean up and tidy.

 

Hands made out of a broken main spring. Hour wheel extended

 

Fourth wheel ground down to remove sub seconds

 

Crown will be made out of an old brass bolt and fitted to an extended stem

 

Dial markings to be added

Watch is keeping good time

[Geo]

I'm really impressed with your progress Michael. What finish are you going to apply to the finished case?

[Vich]

Outstanding work Michael,

 

Truly impressed that you made those hands yourself but please tell, how did you manage to cut the spring steel to that accuracy, was it some sort of die or was it by hand. 

 

Looking forward to the next installment.

 

Cheers,

 

Vic

[Michael]

Hi Geo, I had not thought of changing from the raw brass and just buffing when needed. However, your post has got me thinking. If I do anything I think it would be gold plated, unless you have any other suggestions?

 

Hi Vic, they were done by hand, and I am not entirely happy with them, but time restraints means I need to press on. The method I used was actually quite easy, and it was as follows;

 

Cut an over lengthed piece of main spring and bend reasonably flat

Soft solder at the ends to a thin piece of oversized brass. I used 0.5mm as it is what I had for the dial base

Drill the hole where it fits onto the hour wheel

Then use a dremmel type tool with grinding disc to shape your hand to how you want it. The brass helps to grip it, and also to control the grinding.

During the grinding the hand will naturally come away from the brass. Grind off to finally release the hand from brass sheet.,

Tidy up as required with dremmel type tool and then sand on a piece of wet and dry, both sides.

I put the hands on a 2mm piece of brass sheet and heated from underneath. As soon as hands start to turn light blue take the heat away

[Geo]

Hi Michael,

If it was me, I would give PVD coating some serious thought. There are various different colours to choose from, and the the finish is very durable. Gold plating will wear fairly quickly even if it a heavy coat, so I wouldn't recommend it.

Check this out:- https://www.pvd-coatings.co.uk/applications/decorative/

[Vich]

Thanks for the info Michael,

 

Most ingenious and quite frankly they look ok to me, I wondered how you got them so thin.

 

Cheers,

 

Vic

[Michael]

Crown made and dial markings put on. Glad to be getting close to the finish line!!

 

 

 

 

 

[xzqt]

Look nice.