Trying to gauge the quality of my services because i'm being offered my first paid gigs. How's this reading look for a 7s26 movement?

[Birbdad]

7 hours ago, Razz said:

Seikos are not crap! This is crap (see below). I picked this at a car boot (swap meet or flea market here in the states) for $5. I showed the seller that it was fake and we had a brief conversation about why would someone fake a Seiko? I could not help but posting it here because I think the OP's watch is what this watch is trying to be. An interesting aside is that the quartz movement is a Sunon SP28 and has 4 beats per second and so kind of looks like it "sweeps" like a mechanical. I may cross this into another case as the movement is worth more than the $5 as is the case...

That's pretty wild. The caseback reminds me of those awful mumbai specials, they use that same font and logo for their fakes yet weirdly, the dial on that cheap fake is pad printed and of pretty decent quality compared to any fake seiko i've ever seen. To pair it with that oddball quartz movement, that's pretty fascinating.

[Razz]

1 hour ago, Birbdad said:

That's pretty wild. The caseback reminds me of those awful mumbai specials, they use that same font and logo for their fakes yet weirdly, the dial on that cheap fake is pad printed and of pretty decent quality compared to any fake seiko i've ever seen. To pair it with that oddball quartz movement, that's pretty fascinating.

In some ways I like the layout and the details on the fake dial as much or more so than the original...I agree pretty interesting indeed.

[Waggy]

17 hours ago, Neverenoughwatches said:

Haha i was trying to think of examples where a customer would not consider he had damaged the watch. I came up with playing golf

Small world, I gave a watch I had just serviced to my brother-in-law about a year ago as a gift, the next day he went to play golf wearing the watch and at the end of the game he noticed that the dial marker at 11 O'clock had fallen off and wedged itself under the minute hand stopping the watch dead. Unfortunately we were visiting him in Canada so I had no tools to fix it with me so I had to fly back home with it and then mail it back out to him several months later. Lots of people out there have never owned a mechanical, let alone a vintage mechanical, watch before. I think as well as the warranty we should also inform them on some do's and dont's and explain its not like the 300m water proof g-shock quartz watch they are used to

 

[Birbdad]

1 hour ago, Waggy said:

Small world, I gave a watch I had just serviced to my brother-in-law about a year ago as a gift, the next day he went to play golf wearing the watch and at the end of the game he noticed that the dial marker at 11 O'clock had fallen off and wedged itself under the minute hand stopping the watch dead. Unfortunately we were visiting him in Canada so I had no tools to fix it with me so I had to fly back home with it and then mail it back out to him several months later. Lots of people out there have never owned a mechanical, let alone a vintage mechanical, watch before. I think as well as the warranty we should also inform them on some do's and dont's and explain its not like the 300m water proof g-shock quartz watch they are used to

 

Funny you mention. I'm working on a bell matic for the first time in another thread and the 12 oclock indices is very loose. What would you do something about that? Not even sure how to reaffix an indices. The tutorials i've found are for dial restorers who are removing ALL the indices. 

[Waggy]

3 minutes ago, Birbdad said:

What would you do something about that? Not even sure how to reaffix an indices.

I recently did one and the comments are on watch of today:

I think the secret is to glue the feet on the back where they poke through the dial, not the marker to the front of the dial. If the feet are already loose I would gently push the marker back in place and then flip over the dial and add a spot of glue to the feet to stop them pulling out again. I found using super glue gel for this much better than regular superglue (see details in the thread in the link above), but the 2 part epoxy would also work.

IMPORTANT: There was a discussion further down on the same thread about using super glue and I advise you read that also, but I think the bottom line is that  if you leave it to fully cure (>24 hours) before re-installing you are OK.

[Birbdad]

Thanks for the advice everybody. 
That said, I made this thread mainly because I wanted to see whether that was a good service and result for this movement and I think only one person has even commented on it haha. It's more become a thread about what i should charge and warranty.

Am i correct in thinking for a 7s26 movement a delta of 8 with amplitude in the 285 range at full wind (The timing i posted was probably close to half wind.) is pretty damn good for this movement? I have no clue what the mechanical limit of accuracy for the 7s26 is. I know the're basically totally unregulated from the factory and I can get them a lot more accurate than factory settings with a proper oiling and adjustment, the latter alone makes me think I'm worthy of being paid for this work. If there's room for improvement I would like to know if it's even possible to get the delta lower than six or something on a 7s26 without altering or polishing the movement what would a perfectly done service on this low precision movement look like?

[Waggy]

16 minutes ago, Birbdad said:

It's more become a thread about what i should charge and warranty

Ha ha it's always strange where these threads end up compared to where they started. A little like watching YouTube, you start off on watching a video on fixing your sink and end up on someothe opening returned Amazon boxes...?!?!

Oops did I just drag it off on a tangent again??

[Neverenoughwatches]

2 hours ago, Waggy said:

think as well as the warranty we should also inform them on some do's and dont's and explain its not like the 300m water proof g-shock quartz watch they are used to

I guess only folk like us and genuine watch collectors that have some knowledge of the workings actually understand what can undo a mechanical watch.

22 minutes ago, Birbdad said:

It's more become a thread about what i should charge and warranty.

It was the 3 year guarantee that had everyone reeling lol

[tomh207]

20 minutes ago, Birbdad said:

Thanks for the advice everybody. 
That said, I made this thread mainly because I wanted to see whether that was a good service and result for this movement and I think only one person has even commented on it haha. It's more become a thread about what i should charge and warranty.

Am i correct in thinking for a 7s26 movement a delta of 8 with amplitude in the 285 range at full wind (The timing i posted was probably close to half wind.) is pretty damn good for this movement? I have no clue what the mechanical limit of accuracy for the 7s26 is. I know the're basically totally unregulated from the factory and I can get them a lot more accurate than factory settings with a proper oiling and adjustment, the latter alone makes me think I'm worthy of being paid for this work. If there's room for improvement I would like to know if it's even possible to get the delta lower than six or something on a 7s26 without altering or polishing the movement what would a perfectly done service on this low precision movement look like?

For I would think that because we were more concerned about warranty et al than the original question is tacit endorsement of the results shown. The results you showed here are very good in my opinion on what I have learned over the past couple of years since I found myself deep in this rabbit hole. What may be an idea is to outline your process and procedures from start to finish, especially testing/QA on the final job then there may be some suggestions as to possible improvements as the results look great here but this is quite a limited test here shown.

 

Tom

[Neverenoughwatches]

24 minutes ago, Birbdad said:

Am i correct in thinking for a 7s26 movement a delta of 8 with amplitude in the 285 range at full wind (The timing i posted was probably close to half wind.) is pretty damn good for this movement? I have no clue what the mechanical limit of accuracy for the 7s26 is. I

Its good Col, as John always reminds its 24 hours after being fully wound thats more important. Most often a watch is wound once a day , from a  friday to a Saturday morning after a lay in that might extend to 30 hours possibly a little more if lazing around. As the mainspring is coming to an end isochronism will start to be lost through lack of amplitude so to prevent having to reset the time 24 hour timekeeping becomes important.  I have a few new 7s26 models, the end tail of their final production and the quoted manufacture specs are quite grim but i understand covering their backs. Without looking i think it was -25 to + 40ish , i might have that backwards but its something like that. The ones i have are far better.

11 minutes ago, tomh207 said:

For I would think that because we were more concerned about warranty et al than the original question. 

Haha it was , i think most of us were  "  whhhoooa hold up "    its not only what you can achieve on the bench its as much if not more how someone cares for their timepiece.  We all are so careful because we love what we can do. If i take mine off the wrist to do chores then i put it somewhere dry and safe, if i cant it goes in my pocket, i check that pocket for loose change or anything that can scratch. I check it every ten minutes for condensation in that case . Hows Scotland matey ? We have a storm coming, keep safe and dry

[tomh207]

High winds overnight Rich but seems to be calming down.

Tom

[Birbdad]

3 hours ago, Neverenoughwatches said:

Its good Col, as John always reminds its 24 hours after being fully wound thats more important. Most often a watch is wound once a day , from a  friday to a Saturday morning after a lay in that might extend to 30 hours possibly a little more if lazing around. As the mainspring is coming to an end isochronism will start to be lost through lack of amplitude so to prevent having to reset the time 24 hour timekeeping becomes important.  I have a few new 7s26 models, the end tail of their final production and the quoted manufacture specs are quite grim but i understand covering their backs. Without looking i think it was -25 to + 40ish , i might have that backwards but its something like that. The ones i have are far better.

 

That timing was done after letting it run down all night and most of the day. Some companies measure delta at full wind and some measure at half wind. This is probably fairly close to half wind. 

And yeah spec is like a one minute delta. I got 8 seconds here. I haven't measured any factory movements for delta but i see pretty excited people on other forums when there's are around 20 with these from factory. 

 

3 hours ago, tomh207 said:

For I would think that because we were more concerned about warranty et al than the original question is tacit endorsement of the results shown. The results you showed here are very good in my opinion on what I have learned over the past couple of years since I found myself deep in this rabbit hole. What may be an idea is to outline your process and procedures from start to finish, especially testing/QA on the final job then there may be some suggestions as to possible improvements as the results look great here but this is quite a limited test here shown.

 

Tom

Yeah, i'm a hobbyist but i'm pretty meticulous and i have a pretty good understanding of watch servicing now I feel. What i don't know is what a STELLAR watchmakers results for this movement would be. That result would be my goal. Like obviously if this was a fine cosc rolex movement or something this would not be great but i know the mechanical limit for those movements. I don't know it for these as i rarely ever see people give them the time of day. Most watchmakers will just swap the movement. and toss the old one in the trash which is heresy imo. 

[Neverenoughwatches]

4 minutes ago, Birbdad said:

And yeah spec is like a one minute delta. I got 8 seconds here. I haven't measured any factory movements for delta but i see pretty excited people on other forums when there's are around 20 with these from factory

Beating factory specs will always please folk, i would think most seikos out of the box should be better than the specs. Almost finished a marathon run of keeping an old russian raketa running every day for a month. Its hand wound so every morning at more or less the same runout. At just over 29 days its 4mins 16 secs fast,  not too shabby for a rough 50 year old watch.

2 minutes ago, Neverenoughwatches said:

Beating factory specs will always please folk, i would think most seikos out of the box should be better than the specs. Almost finished a marathon run of keeping an old russian raketa running every day for a month. Its hand wound so every morning at more or less the same runout. At just over 29 days its 4mins 16 secs fast,  not too shabby for a rough 50 year old watch.

 

19 minutes ago, Birbdad said:

That timing was done after letting it run down all night and most of the day. Some companies measure delta at full wind and some measure at half wind. This is probably fairly close to half wind. 

And yeah spec is like a one minute delta. I got 8 seconds here. I haven't measured any factory movements for delta but i see pretty excited people on other forums when there's are around 20 with these from factory. 

 

Yeah, i'm a hobbyist but i'm pretty meticulous and i have a pretty good understanding of watch servicing now I feel. What i don't know is what a STELLAR watchmakers results for this movement would be. That result would be my goal. Like obviously if this was a fine cosc rolex movement or something this would not be great but i know the mechanical limit for those movements. I don't know it for these as i rarely ever see people give them the time of day. Most watchmakers will just swap the movement. and toss the old one in the trash which is heresy imo. 

My wrist is my timegrapher now, what change i see week to week is way more important than anything i see in one moment. Apart from a diagnostic point of view i began to despise the tg.

[tomh207]

1 minute ago, Birbdad said:

That timing was done after letting it run down all night and most of the day. Some companies measure delta at full wind and some measure at half wind. This is probably fairly close to half wind. 

And yeah spec is like a one minute delta. I got 8 seconds here. I haven't measured any factory movements for delta but i see pretty excited people on other forums when there's are around 20 with these from factory. 

 

Yeah, i'm a hobbyist but i'm pretty meticulous and i have a pretty good understanding of watch servicing now I feel. What i don't know is what a STELLAR watchmakers results for this movement would be. That result would be my goal. Like obviously if this was a fine cosc rolex movement or something this would not be great but i know the mechanical limit for those movements. I don't know it for these as i rarely ever see people give them the time of day. Most watchmakers will just swap the movement. and toss the old one in the trash which is heresy imo. 

I’m with you all the way. I am working through thoughts myself about how I want to do my testing and quality checks for my own satisfaction, I can be a bit obsessive about getting the “right” result. As @JohnR725 has pointed out on numerous occasions the manufacturer looks at things differently than we generally do. My idea is kinda outlined roughly below, I intend to document it and submit here for opinions and ideas.

1. Watch allowed to settle for 48hrs before commencing testing 

2. T+48 full wind watch and rest it for 1hr

3 T+49 timegrapher test recording beat, rate and amplitude in all 6 positions 

4 not winding the watch in any way repeat test from 3 

5 remediate any issues found from 3 & 4 and retest from 1

6 if watch meets your requirements then wind watch fully and set to the correct time synchronised by hacking if possible to a reliable time source.

7 wind watch every day at the same time or use an automatic winder for the recommended time period to fully wind for the watches power reserve, record the time source time and the time indicated by the watch, this should be the actual time, not the delta

8 at the end of the 7 day test average the daily deltas and assess if this is acceptable to you

 

i know a bit airy fairy but early days with where I want to take it. Having written many acceptance testing documents and procedures my idea is to use spreadsheets for the assessments.  What I am not sure of is what the assessment standards should be, I was planning to use the snippets John has given us from Omega and build on that with research and input from all you good folks.

 

sorry for the ramblings

 

Tom

[Birbdad]

Generally what I do is get it running, let it run for a day or two. do a six position timing at full wind, do a timing at half wind, other than amplitude they usually look pretty damn similar if not roughly the same. 

 

Then i wear it for about a week, check time with atomic clock every day at the same time and chart average daily deviations, so basically time it to my particular wrist behavior. Then i readjust the rate to compensate as i get very consistent results and then i have a watch as accurate as i could need.

But yeah this will be my first time not knowing the behavior of the wrist it will get on.

Edited January 22 by Birbdad

[tomh207]

@Neverenoughwatches problem is Rich that’s fine for your own watches as you have the ability to test them over extended periods. My rambles above are more about having a methodology that gives you a baseline for when it left your bench. Also it could be used to give to the customer to show the expectation and the quality of the work. I am working this through and part of the idea is to include a synthetic test of a week’s “normal “ use.

 

Tom

[tomh207]

Just now, Birbdad said:

Generally what I do is get it running, let it run for a day or two. do a six position timing at full wind, do a timing at half wind, other than amplitude they usually look pretty damn similar if not roughly the same. 

 

Then i wear it for about a week, check time with atomic clock every day at the same time and chart average daily deviations, so basically time it to my particular wrist behavior. Then i readjust the rate to compensate as i get very consistent results and then i have a watch as accurate as i could need.

That’s what I am trying to document so is repeatable and as objective as I can make it and can be used as a starting point for others.

 

Tom

[JohnR725]

52 minutes ago, tomh207 said:

1. Watch allowed to settle for 48hrs before commencing testing 

2. T+48 full wind watch and rest it for 1hr

3 T+49 timegrapher test recording beat, rate and amplitude in all 6 positions 

4 not winding the watch in any way repeat test from 3 

5 remediate any issues found from 3 & 4 and retest from 1

6 if watch meets your requirements then wind watch fully and set to the correct time synchronised by hacking if possible to a reliable time source.

7 wind watch every day at the same time or use an automatic winder for the recommended time period to fully wind for the watches power reserve, record the time source time and the time indicated by the watch, this should be the actual time, not the delta

8 at the end of the 7 day test average the daily deltas and assess if this is acceptable to you

I've been the lectures where people talk about what goes into servicing a Rolex for instance. Your procedure is similar to that where they'll look at it on the timing machine although Rolex gets a little more obsessed with this. in other words Rolex is looking for fully wound up and of course as a reminder fully wound up is not fully wound up you have to wait a little bit like up to an hour 15 minutes after you fully wind up it has to settle for a little bit. Then 24 hours later they compare the numbers. Then it typically goes on auto winder for several days where it records the time and they do an average over the several days. Then comes off the winder and they let it run until it stops just a verified actually run the correct number of hours. Often times people at auto winders think everything is wonderful but the problem is when it's kept fully wound up that's different than if somebody takes it off like overnight where maybe it stops could it won't run overnight for instance.

Oh other things to do looking at the watch. For instance I can't remember the light source but with a very very bright light much brighter than you normally use look at the dial look at the crystal look at the hands you're looking for specks of dust. I can't quite remember how many specks of dust per cubic inch I'm joking about that part but there was a criteria of how much was acceptable and what was not acceptable and because you using a really bright light source makes it easier to see problems where you may casually not see the fingerprint or speck of dust or something

oh to add your knowledge of things cousins is interesting what happens if we search for the word working for instance?

https://www.cousinsuk.com/document/search?SearchString=working

acquired it in the days when Swatch group let cousins have an account and they got a few of them there are way more than this by the way. You may find the very last one of interest doesn't cover everything but gives you a few clues about stuff

oh and one of things express if you doing other people's watches it be really nice to keep a journal a logbook or something and keep your timing results. Like if you hand the customer receipt of I done all of this keep a copy for yourself. I don't do that I'm lazy at work we do keep notes in the computer but we don't keep timing results etc. so I get a damn watch came back but the timing issue and fingerprints where they shouldn't be because it's a pocket watch were somebody could unscrew the back for instance. These are the times where I keep thinking it be nice when I run a timing cycle at the end is to paste it into the record book or something where when it left here it was doing this I don't understand why it's now looking like crap plus a good picture the movement would've been nice.

Oh and if your incoming customer watches always nice to get pictures of whatever comes in just in case somewhere along the line you discover something damaged or broken you can look at the picture to see if you did it or if it came in that way just didn't notice. Also just nice for data fine watches of the end up with lots of them the software we use they photograph everything sword out sometime somebody just photographs the pocket watch case and I don't get the see the movement or somebody writes up a description of the case but not the movement and I'm not sure which watches which was really good the document everything you have to avoid unpleasant confusions that will eventually pop up and be quite annoying. Also if you have an annoying customer make a note of that because they'll be back in the future to bother you again. Especially if it's a pocket watch a take the back off and play with it and it has some of the customers really do like to play with their watches.

 

[Neverenoughwatches]

1 hour ago, tomh207 said:

@Neverenoughwatches problem is Rich that’s fine for your own watches as you have the ability to test them over extended periods. My rambles above are more about having a methodology that gives you a baseline for when it left your bench. Also it could be used to give to the customer to show the expectation and the quality of the work. I am working this through and part of the idea is to include a synthetic test of a week’s “normal “ use.

 

Tom

I became disillusioned with the timegraphing machine a good while back, chasing amplitude on said watch which i think was unnecessary in this case. It also feeds my ocd which is not healthy for me. But yes i understand Col's and your's reasoning, a customer needs some reassurance and also a reality check as to what these mechanical marvels can and can't do. A gesture of a free re- regulation after a month sounds fair for a customer. Awkward position to be in though, if word gets around and then end up being flooded with complicated out of depth repairs. I think we mentioned a little while back, with a service it can often come in working, if it leaves non working then a repairer can have a real problem on his hands. Not sure what the solution is for us hobbyists taking on work, is it safe to admit to only want to work on certain jobs, very tricky. At 21 i had my own business and raked in work of all kinds and being young and eager i did come unstuck a few times and had to quickly learn on the job. Stressful way to learn when your wallet is on the line. As Hector quite rightly said " a man has to know his limitations". But i completely admire and respect anyone brave enough to grab the bull by it's horns and branch out, who knows what can come of it

[tomh207]

@JohnR725 this is why I tagged you, you seem to have a knack for telling us we should be looking at the broader picture of timekeeping rather than one small aspect. 
 

I think for record keeping, results, serials pictures etc. it would be useful to use the database @Waggy created for us. It is extensible and my favourite price being Scottish, free.

 

Tom

[Neverenoughwatches]

45 minutes ago, JohnR725 said:

Often times people at auto winders think everything is wonderful but the problem is when it's kept fully wound up that's different than if somebody takes it off like overnight where maybe it stops could it won't run overnight for instance.

A closer simulation to wristworn could still be achieved with a simple on off electronic timer for the rest periods. Its not perfect just a little closer.

[tomh207]

1 minute ago, Neverenoughwatches said:

I became disillusioned with the timegraphing machine a good while back, chasing amplitude on said watch which i think was unnecessary in this case. It also feeds my ocd which is not healthy for me. But yes i understand Col's and your's reasoning, a customer needs some reassurance and also a reality check as to what these mechanical marvels can and can't do. A gesture of a free re- regulation after a month sounds fair for a customer. Awkward position to be in though, if word gets around and then end up being flooded with complicated out of depth repairs. I think we mentioned a little while back, with a service it can often come in working, if it leaves non working then a repairer can have a real problem on his hands. Not sure what the solution is for us hobbyists taking on work, is it safe to admit to only want to work on certain jobs, very tricky. At 21 i had my own business and raked in work of all kinds and being young and eager i did come unstuck a few times and had to quickly learn on the job. Stressful way to learn when your wallet is on the line. As Hector quite rightly said " a man has to know his limitations". But i completely admire and respect anyone brave enough to grab the bull by it's horns and branch out, who knows what can come of it

Yes Rich, I agree with you. The way I see the timegrapher is it’s an imperfect tool, useful nonetheless especially for diagnostic reasons. It means we have something objective to work with and can show what we are concerned about to our friends here when we ask advice. I have dropped from a lot of specialists/collectors forums one of the reasons is the crazy expectation some of them have of their 50 year old recently serviced watch which wasn’t even a chronometer in the first place. Another funny thing, none (as far as I can find out) of the observatory’s or COSC use timegrapher for any of the certification process.

 

Tom

1 minute ago, Neverenoughwatches said:

A closer simulation to wristworn could still be achieved with a simple on off electronic timer for the rest periods. Its not perfect just a little closer.

That’s why I included in my brief process outline above that if auto then it should be only on for the max time to hit power reserve each day which would probably equate to the design case for the watch.

 

Tom

[Birbdad]

12 minutes ago, Neverenoughwatches said:

I became disillusioned with the timegraphing machine a good while back, chasing amplitude on said watch which i think was unnecessary in this case. It also feeds my ocd which is not healthy for me. But yes i understand Col's and your's reasoning, a customer needs some reassurance and also a reality check as to what these mechanical marvels can and can't do. A gesture of a free re- regulation after a month sounds fair for a customer. Awkward position to be in though, if word gets around and then end up being flooded with complicated out of depth repairs. I think we mentioned a little while back, with a service it can often come in working, if it leaves non working then a repairer can have a real problem on his hands. Not sure what the solution is for us hobbyists taking on work, is it safe to admit to only want to work on certain jobs, very tricky. At 21 i had my own business and raked in work of all kinds and being young and eager i did come unstuck a few times and had to quickly learn on the job. Stressful way to learn when your wallet is on the line. As Hector quite rightly said " a man has to know his limitations". But i completely admire and respect anyone brave enough to grab the bull by it's horns and branch out, who knows what can come of it

Well i have serviced 2 movements. I can tell you one thing, If he'd come to me with some vintage swiss family heirloom thing i wouldn't touch it with a ten foot pole. I know the 7s26 and the nh36 and the 7006 inside and out. I dont' even have a service sheet up when i work on these movements now. I'm dipping my toe in and seeing how it goes. A lot of watchmakers just will not work on seikos and that's why this guys come to me. he's given the thing to two watchmakers who threw it in a drawer for a year and did nothing to it which is a weirdly common thing i hear from people desperately looking for a watchmaker. 

This aint' gonna be my job but i do enjoy it, seem to be pretty good at it now and it can break up the monotony of my art job which i enjoy but i like doing other things too.

[Neverenoughwatches]

49 minutes ago, JohnR725 said:

Oh other things to do looking at the watch. For instance I can't remember the light source but with a very very bright light much brighter than you normally use look at the dial look at the crystal look at the hands you're looking for specks of dust. I can't quite remember how many specks of dust per cubic inch I'm joking about that part but there was a criteria of how much was acceptable and what was not acceptable and because you using a really bright light source makes it easier to see problems where you may casually not see the fingerprint or speck of dust or something

My glass supplier has the same problem with double glazed units, once they are sealed up there is no getting to any dust or marks inbetween. Only way is a visual inspection under florescent lights. There is a criteria that is acceptable but that is much less strict than any dial inspection. Mostly from edge and size restrictions . I once had customer that went around with a torch looking for marks on a full house of windows, she pulled every single piece of glass. So i took the torch out of her hand and then told her to find them again, she couldn't, the few that she did find she had to look very hard to find them . Yeah another not wanting to pay full pops, you get them.

[tomh207]

Just now, Birbdad said:

Well i have serviced 2 movements. I can tell you one thing, If he'd come to me with some vintage swiss family heirloom thing i wouldn't touch it with a ten foot pole. I know the 7s26 and the nh36 and the 7006 inside and out. I dont' even have a service sheet up when i work on these movements now. I'm dipping my toe in and seeing how it goes. A lot of watchmakers just will not work on seikos and that's why this guys come to me. he's given the thing to two watchmakers who threw it in a drawer for a year and did nothing to it which is a weirdly common thing i hear from people desperately looking for a watchmaker. 

This aint' gonna be my job but i do enjoy it, seem to be pretty good at it now and it can break up the monotony of my art job which i enjoy but i like doing other things too.

It is funny the situation with watchmakers out there. I get it if the service costs more than the watch is worth and they tell the customer straight up. I don’t get that they then still turn the customer away even when they have said they are happy to pay. My best friend from Army days in in the same boat you describe Col, seiko 5 with 4912 movement, no one will touch it including seiko. He is muttering about sending it to me to look at for him though the postage from Australia to Scotland and back probably covers the value of the watch.

i hope it works out, if it does look like it’s going ok look at getting some sort of liability insurance though. Probably not going to be an issue doing a couple of watches a year but by the sounds of it you could get busy very quickly, especially when the word gets around.

 

Tom