Finally organized

[Jaime]

Hi everyone. I just wanted to show a few pictures of my newly organized watches. I’ve been practicing dismantling and reassembling movements everyday but have yet to have the watch work again when I’m done.  I have a little watch graveyard building haha.  I figure you have to break a few eggs to make an omelet or however that saying goes. This is sooo frustrating but I’m learning.  I’ve thought about giving up but I really think I can get it in time. Anyway, I have a lot of questions but I have to decide which one to ask. I don’t want to sound stupid or ask something that has been covered a million times already. I try to search the feeds but it’s confusing. Okay, back to watches… wish me luck lol. 

[JohnR725]

2 hours ago, Jaime said:

I’ve been practicing dismantling and reassembling movements everyday but have yet to have the watch work again when I’m done.  I have a little watch graveyard building haha.  I figure you have to break a few eggs to make an omelet or however that saying goes. This is sooo frustrating but I’m learning.  I’ve thought about giving up but I really think I can get it in time. Anyway, I have a lot of questions but I have to decide which one to ask. I don’t want to sound stupid or ask something that has been covered a million times already.

Nice organizational skills they look really nice and organized in the box. Then because they're in drawers you can at least see them versus having watches in a variety of locations scattered around here and there. But I'll skip over who does that

I like to relate learning watch repair as similar to learning to be a doctor. In other words ideally should start off with studying learning how a watch works perhaps look at a watch repair book. Do not assume that watch repair videos online are worthy of learning from. Then once you're ready to work on your first patient it's an ongoing learning process. Everybody on this group is still learning there are no experts on this group at all. There's people that are better than others but there are no experts were all learning.

One of the things that you need to learn is diagnostics. In other words there should be some watches that just require cleaning possibly a mainspring if it's set. Then the watch would run versus trying to repair unknown watches with unknown problems. But even then unfortunately with pocket watches things pop up because their vintage. You never know what the last person did to the watch so there can always be issues.

Then as far as questions go this is the newbie section. The newbie section came about when newbies thought they should have a safe place to go and newbies would help out each other. Unfortunately typically newbies don't help out each other as they just don't. But this is the right section ask whatever question you feel like For instance read the fine print this is the safe place to ask your questions.  I

So you in the right place to ask a question or basic questions that everyone before you has asked.

Then there's the other problem of my theory of watch repair is that typically each and every watch is unique so it's best to start with a particular watch when you're learning on and we work on that.

 

 

[Nucejoe]

Neat, as for asking questions, start with stupid ones. 

Good luck Pal.

[RichardHarris123]

Indeed, ask anything you want.  We are here to help. 

[rossjackson01]

Brilliant. Impressive. Well done. No question on this forum is treated as stupid. It's only stupid if you don't ask. Glad you are with us. 

[oldhippy]

I could never work at a tidy bench, mine was a complete mess, stuff all over the place.

No question is stupid so feel free to ask anything. We are all here to help. Photos can help a lot as some on here like you are beginners and do not have the experience as others but like to join in. 

[RichardHarris123]

11 minutes ago, oldhippy said:

could never work at a tidy bench, mine was a complete mess, stuff all over the place.

Mine starts off like that, gets progressively more chaotic until I have no choice but to tidy again.  Rinse and repeat. 

[Neverenoughwatches]

6 hours ago, Jaime said:

Hi everyone. I just wanted to show a few pictures of my newly organized watches. I’ve been practicing dismantling and reassembling movements everyday but have yet to have the watch work again when I’m done.  I have a little watch graveyard building haha.  I figure you have to break a few eggs to make an omelet or however that saying goes. This is sooo frustrating but I’m learning.  I’ve thought about giving up but I really think I can get it in time. Anyway, I have a lot of questions but I have to decide which one to ask. I don’t want to sound stupid or ask something that has been covered a million times already. I try to search the feeds but it’s confusing. Okay, back to watches… wish me luck lol. 

Nice set up Jamie, of course i would eyeball the dumbells as well . Watchroom/gym nice combo , someone after my own heart. All questions are relative, fitness inc. If its me you are asking .  I have the same holder on your bench , is more of a case holder than a movement holder really. A bit too high to be working from unless you can make a little platform to raise your hands and arms, otherwise very nice.

[linux]

Hey Jamie,

I love the organizing drawers but I have to ask where you got all those pocket watches?  That's quite a collection for sure.  Ebay? 

Can't help with your progress as I'm half way through my first disassembly and using a new 6497 so I could better follow Mark Lovick's lessons.

How many have you buried so far?

[GuyMontag]

I have drawer envy.

[Jaime]

On 12/1/2023 at 8:48 PM, JohnR725 said:

Nice organizational skills they look really nice and organized in the box. Then because they're in drawers you can at least see them versus having watches in a variety of locations scattered around here and there. But I'll skip over who does that

I like to relate learning watch repair as similar to learning to be a doctor. In other words ideally should start off with studying learning how a watch works perhaps look at a watch repair book. Do not assume that watch repair videos online are worthy of learning from. Then once you're ready to work on your first patient it's an ongoing learning process. Everybody on this group is still learning there are no experts on this group at all. There's people that are better than others but there are no experts were all learning.

One of the things that you need to learn is diagnostics. In other words there should be some watches that just require cleaning possibly a mainspring if it's set. Then the watch would run versus trying to repair unknown watches with unknown problems. But even then unfortunately with pocket watches things pop up because their vintage. You never know what the last person did to the watch so there can always be issues.

Then as far as questions go this is the newbie section. The newbie section came about when newbies thought they should have a safe place to go and newbies would help out each other. Unfortunately typically newbies don't help out each other as they just don't. But this is the right section ask whatever question you feel like For instance read the fine print this is the safe place to ask your questions.  I

So you in the right place to ask a question or basic questions that everyone before you has asked.

Then there's the other problem of my theory of watch repair is that typically each and every watch is unique so it's best to start with a particular watch when you're learning on and we work on that.

 

 

Thank you for the advice. YouTube videos were confusing me so I bought an online coarse so that’s a bit better. I have a few books but I seem to do better if I can see it. So far I am only practicing on Waltham 18s. I’m using movements that run and my goal is to take it apart, clean, oil and put it back together and still have it run again. I just feel bad because I keep ruining running watches. I don’t want to use broken ones because then I can’t tell if I did it right if that makes sense. I see what you mean though about learning diagnostics. I would have no idea what is wrong with a watch. Sometimes on ones I’m working on there will be a cracked jewel and if I didn’t know it runs I would have thought that was the problem. So much to learn and it’s so time consuming. I will be working on watches and look at the clock and 6 hours went by! 

9 hours ago, linux said:

Hey Jamie,

I love the organizing drawers but I have to ask where you got all those pocket watches?  That's quite a collection for sure.  Ebay? 

Can't help with your progress as I'm half way through my first disassembly and using a new 6497 so I could better follow Mark Lovick's lessons.

How many have you buried so far?

Hi. I have buried 5 but I have over 2000 so I guess I can spare them lol. I got them in an estate deal. I know nothing about watches but as I was going through them I started getting interested in them. I am taking an online course that’s pretty decent. I have the same watch as instructor so I just follow along watching him and pause as needed. Good luck to you. It’s been very frustrating for me yet I refuse to give up!

[JohnR725]

5 minutes ago, Jaime said:

So far I am only practicing on Waltham 18s

are these full plate 18 size Waltham watches? personally I would suggest staying away from full plate watches 16 size would be a much better thing to learn with.

 

6 minutes ago, Jaime said:

I don’t want to use broken ones because then I can’t tell if I did it right if that makes sense.

this is why typically for newbies to the group I always recommend a brand-new Chinese clone of the Swiss 6497 pocket watch. This way they can take something apart put it back together and make sure that it actually runs. The problem with starting with broken watches when you have no experience at all and the watch still doesn't run you haven't learned anything and where you going to blame as to why it's not running something that you did or whether you just didn't fix an existing problem? Which is why when you start with a brand-new running watch and then it doesn't run then you realize that maybe you have to be a little more careful more to watch repair than just ripping something apart tossing it back together.

Then on full plate watches are more likely to run into cracked jewels it has to do with how you get the pallet fork in and usually end up with cracked jewels. Then pocket watches a lot of times use natural stones so they tend to have natural flaws depending upon how bad the flaw in his you may or may not have to worry about it. Then the problem is if you're going to get worried about it replacing it can be an issue or basically you may not be able to replace it at all as it wouldn't really be a practical thing to do and you don't have all the tools supplies etc.

 

[Jaime]

22 hours ago, Neverenoughwatches said:

Nice set up Jamie, of course i would eyeball the dumbells as well . Watchroom/gym nice combo , someone after my own heart. All questions are relative, fitness inc. If its me you are asking .  I have the same holder on your bench , is more of a case holder than a movement holder really. A bit too high to be working from unless you can make a little platform to raise your hands and arms, otherwise very nice.

Thank you. Yeah my gym somehow morphed into a watch room. And I really need the exercise now after sitting and working on watches all day long lol. 

9 minutes ago, JohnR725 said:

are these full plate 18 size Waltham watches? personally I would suggest staying away from full plate watches 16 size would be a much better thing to learn with.

 

this is why typically for newbies to the group I always recommend a brand-new Chinese clone of the Swiss 6497 pocket watch. This way they can take something apart put it back together and make sure that it actually runs. The problem with starting with broken watches when you have no experience at all and the watch still doesn't run you haven't learned anything and where you going to blame as to why it's not running something that you did or whether you just didn't fix an existing problem? Which is why when you start with a brand-new running watch and then it doesn't run then you realize that maybe you have to be a little more careful more to watch repair than just ripping something apart tossing it back together.

Then on full plate watches are more likely to run into cracked jewels it has to do with how you get the pallet fork in and usually end up with cracked jewels. Then pocket watches a lot of times use natural stones so they tend to have natural flaws depending upon how bad the flaw in his you may or may not have to worry about it. Then the problem is if you're going to get worried about it replacing it can be an issue or basically you may not be able to replace it at all as it wouldn't really be a practical thing to do and you don't have all the tools supplies etc.

 

I didn’t know about the Chinese clone.  A fellow newby mentioned he was working on a 6497 but I just thought it was a watch type.  I will look into that definitely. My biggest struggle by far is putting the plate back on and getting all the pins in place. The pallet fork and escape wheel are my nemesis’s!! I didn’t work on 16s because I thought it would be harder because they are smaller. I have more of those though so that would be good. Ok stupid question- will the Swiss watch be mostly the same as what I’ve been learning? I don’t need to be more confused. Isn’t there an “American clone”. 

[Neverenoughwatches]

5 hours ago, Jaime said:

Thank you. Yeah my gym somehow morphed into a watch room. And I really need the exercise now after sitting and working on watches all day long lol. 

I didn’t know about the Chinese clone.  A fellow newby mentioned he was working on a 6497 but I just thought it was a watch type.  I will look into that definitely. My biggest struggle by far is putting the plate back on and getting all the pins in place. The pallet fork and escape wheel are my nemesis’s!! I didn’t work on 16s because I thought it would be harder because they are smaller. I have more of those though so that would be good. Ok stupid question- will the Swiss watch be mostly the same as what I’ve been learning? I don’t need to be more confused. Isn’t there an “American clone”. 

Full plates can be difficult, there is a lot to accurately position under the plate in one go. Try putting one or two plate screws in at one side but only lightly screwed down and then carefully feeding each wheel into its respective hole from one side of the movement to the opposite end .Gradually turn the screws down very carefully as each wheel falls into place. This way each progressively placed wheel stays in position.