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Hi from Norway


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Hi all

40 year old guy from Norway here. 
I started getting interested in watches only about three or four years ago when I randomly stumbled upon a watch restoration video on YouTube. I had no idea what I was looking at, but I found it relaxing and therapeutic. I started using it as a sleeping aid late at night 😉 

For the last few years I have been obsessing over watches in general. I am reading books, looking at youtube videos, reading forums and listening to podcasts. Buing and selling a lot of different seiko, citizen, and some others here and there. But now the last month or so I started to think I might want to try some restoration myself! 

That pushed me to buy an online course (that I got a big discount on, but wasn't too impressed by) and also watch every youtube video I could find about the subject. 

I also bought a few books, including "Watchmaker" by George Daniels. 

One of the first things I learned was that I didn't even really know how a mechanical watch really worked. I mean I thought I did, but I didn't. 

I still don't really understand how everything works, but Im learning every day. 

I have ordered SO much tools and equipment and built a small workspace in our basement. The tools range from premium swizz to temu 😉 

When I find the time I want to start to practice on my own cheaper watches, before moving to some buy-to-restore projects. 

Hope to learn a lot from you all!
-Kruttskjegg  (which translates to gunpowder-beard or something 😉


 

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Welcome from Oslo!

I guess I started watching the same videos around the same time - Now I have spent the price of a grail watch on tools and random watches from eBay (happier than I would have been spending that money on an expensive watch!)

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Thank you for your introduction and welcome to this friendly forum.

We all look forward to your contributions and continued involvement. 

If there is anything we can help you with don’t be afraid to ask. Nice clear photos can help a lot.

 

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Thank you so much for the warm welcome! And even a fellow Norwegian ❤️  I already love this forum! 

450458083_1000771834786435_4140683947072197470_n.thumb.jpg.4919e9809c0e1d5248c5ecdf754f50f5.jpg449398869_1156974618912471_1301779352111088536_n.thumb.jpg.a55f2f74f68f4ad0386e24373efa3a6a.jpg

My first and only little project so far was a Seiko KZ211K1 / Landshark / Atlas
7s36 movement.

I have a friend who is a real watchmaker and he told me this was a pretty bad decision for a starter movement, but now I have already dissembled it so its no way back Im afraid.
One of the first screws I ran into was so small you have to use a custom screwdriver from Seiko or make one yourself of your smallest one. That felt like to big of a challenge on my first hour... but I somehow managed to get it done, and It felt so good! 

Next step now is cleaning. I have tried to learn what chemicals to use, but I understand this is a somewhat complicated subject. And we seem to have pretty strict rules in Norway so a lot of the brands and chemicals I see online are impossible to find. 

I think I will start with IPA which I already bought, and maybe buy Zippo Lighter Fluid? Honestly, this movement looks so clean, which was somewhat of a disappointment. The movement would probably be a lot better off If I had just let it be. But at least now I can learn some stuff. 

A few things i learned:

-I loved working on these small things. 
-The parts were a lot smaller than they looked on youtube 😉 
-I need to focus on taking my time. I was rushing and making mistakes because of it.

Cant wait to find another evening to work and learn! 

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4 hours ago, Kruttskjegg said:

The parts were a lot smaller than they looked

This never really stops for me. And more than parts, it's how small tools are. Something that looks as long as a wrist in a photo invariably turns out to be smaller than my little finger when the eBay package arrives.

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Welcome from Sweden! Nice to see more Scandinavians on the forum. We Swedes love Norway even though we know that our love is largely unrequited (which can be understood from a historical perspective).

4 hours ago, Kruttskjegg said:

My first and only little project so far was a Seiko KZ211K1 / Landshark / Atlas
7s36 movement.

I have a friend who is a real watchmaker and he told me this was a pretty bad decision for a starter movement

I can certainly vouch for that. I've been in this hobby for almost eight years but always get nervous when I get a Seiko 7sxx in my hands so don't get discouraged if you fail to reassemble the extremely small cap jewels and their springs. It's a nightmare!

4 hours ago, Kruttskjegg said:

I think I will start with IPA which I already bought, and maybe buy Zippo Lighter Fluid?

IPA is unfortunately a poor cleaner but excellent to rinse with. A very good but expensive degreaser is Horosolv and Renata Essence. As a hobbyist, however, the cost is affordable because you use relatively small amounts. Also, make sure that your IPA is as clean as possible. 70% is not good enough.

18 minutes ago, mbwatch said:

Something that looks as long as a wrist in a photo invariably turns out to be smaller than my little finger when the eBay package arrives.

Did I just pay $500 for this tiny thing?! 🤣

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Hi and thank you all so much for the warm welcome! And thank you for your very helpful reply VWatchie, I really appreciate it. I have family from both Denmark and Sweden and have only positive feelings towards our fellow Scandinavians! 

I was planning on using the IPA last as a rinse, and its 99,9% Sorry for my terrible English at times. But I find it hard to buy something in Norway to use as a degreaser first. 
The only thing I have seen available is the Zippo Premium Lighter Fluid with one ingredient: Light Petroleum Distillate. 

I was hoping to find time to work on my movement this week so I was hoping to buy it from a store here in Norway.  But thanks for some good recommendations that I can order from cousinsuk.com (England). That's where I ordered all of my oils, and I was very impressed by that webshop. 

I now found a Norwegian store that carries this product: https://www.lrultrasonics.com/solutions/111-ammoniated-waterless-watch-cleaning-solution-112

Would this cover all my needs (for now) together with IPA?  

 

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On 7/15/2024 at 3:52 AM, Kruttskjegg said:

That pushed me to buy an online course (that I got a big discount on, but wasn't too impressed by)

May I ask what online course? If you think it's too sensitive, please feel free to drop me a PM.

On 7/15/2024 at 3:52 AM, Kruttskjegg said:

also watch every youtube video I could find about the subject.

Just to let you know, not all videos can be trusted. The channels I would recommend are "Chronoglide Watchmakers" and "Watch Repair Channel". There are other channels that can be trusted but just to name two. I've also created a few videos. None of them has so far been about servicing but instead about tools, reviews and usage. Here's an example.

Oh, I should also mention the "Macro Time" channel by Leo Vidal. Fantastic stuff, and if I'm not misinformed he is here on WRT.

A very popular and highly praised channel is the "Nekkid Watchmaker" but in my opinion it can't be trusted. His oiling technique, or rather lack of oiling technique gives me nightmares. I'm fiercely against trigger warnings but that channel has made me reconsider. 😉

20 hours ago, Kruttskjegg said:

Would this cover all my needs (for now) together with IPA?

I think you're good to go. There will always be "that tool" missing but you can't prepare yourself forever. At some point, you need to get started and then see where it leads.

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2 hours ago, VWatchie said:

 

A very popular and highly praised channel is the "Nekkid Watchmaker" but in my opinion it can't be trusted. His oiling technique, or rather lack of oiling technique gives me nightmares. I'm fiercely against trigger warnings but that channel has made me reconsider. 😉

Have to agree. Become too political in his comments now. Shame. We are watchmakers. Long may we be so.

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Wow I love your recourse page V!  Last night I won a bid on a nice Enicar Star Jewels MRO 1969 (together with a Zodiac from around the same year) I will use your guide as a helping hand, although it might be a slightly different calibre number. In August when Im back from a little vacation I will make a new thread and start working on that. I can’t wait!
I will read up on more of your guides today as well 🙂

Skjermbilde2024-07-16kl_13_13_09.thumb.png.30c2d6055298b489f505243254f5b3ba.png
(not picture of the actual watch)

I didn’t know anything about this brand, but I stayed up for hours reading about it and looking at their old catalog. They had some killer designs going for a period! https://enicar.org/ and https://vintagewatchinc.com/enicar/ 

I must admit that the design on the Star Jewels MRO isn't really for me, so this might be my first "buy to sell" watch. I think (hope) I got a good deal since I only paid around 169 Euro for both watches. 

——

Thank you for your recommendations! Macro Time looks amazing and is a channel a never found before! Im home from work today (covid) so this is perfect 😉 

I used to watch these videos more for entertainment and therapy, than actual learning. But in the last months, this has slowly changed.

It was Marshall from Wrist Watch Revival that first got me into this, and I still love his videos. He has a very calm and relaxing style that I enjoy. The perfect sleeping aid (and I mean that as a big compliment). If Im not mistaken he learned his skills from Mark Lovick / Watch Repair Channel who also runs this forum?

I´m glad you mentioned Chronoglide which I already have learned a lot from 🙂
In the last few days I have watched some videos from https://www.youtube.com/@thewatchmakersworkshop which also have very relaxing smooth videos. 

You got me curious about Nekkid Watchmaker! Trigger warning on a watchmaker channel? haha thats something.

I have a few frends that has tried to push me into filming my upcoming watch rapairs. I used to hate the idea, but lately, I have been thinking it could be interesting to do videos from a beginner’s perspective. Im surprised to discover that a lot of my friends like to look at watch repair videos for entertainment as well. But none have expressed any desire to try for themself.
I watched some of Marshall’s old videos the other day, and it struck me that he explained and talked about some things that were very beginner-friendly and something that made me understand something to «basic» for most repair videos to talk about. Can’t remember what it was of course 😉 

But Im afraid I don’t have the time and energy to do it properly. I want this hobby to be a stress relief. But it is in the back of my head for the next few months and we will see.

—-
I have very high respect for Christian Lass, but his courses wasn't right for me.

I got a good discount and his courses are already a lot cheaper than some of the others, so I guess its not to bad deal. I learned some stuff for sure!

But in the end, I felt like the videos/course were too short and shallow. And also all the videos were shot in one take with no editing. I have ADHD so when I have to wait for more than a minute while something is happening outside the camera focus with no sound or anything… Then Im off to something else mentally.

And I mean… Why not just edit out this minute?  Almost every video had parts that clearly should be edited out.

The level of information available for free is also just astonishing. We are very lucky to live in these times. But it also raises the bar on what I expect from a paid course I guess. 

I think my next step will be to buy the «Getting Started Bundle» on watchfix.com but since I already spent a small fortune on all this watch repair stuff I might have to wait a month or two 😉
 

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  • 1 month later...
On 7/16/2024 at 2:31 PM, Kruttskjegg said:

I think my next step will be to buy the «Getting Started Bundle» on watchfix.com

In my opinion, this is the best and most bang-for-buck watch repair site. I'm on the chronograph course now and it is brilliant. No, I'm not affiliated with watchfix.com in any way.

On 7/16/2024 at 2:31 PM, Kruttskjegg said:

I have very high respect for Christian Lass, but his courses wasn't right for me.

I took his 101 course. I learned a few things but it's not on par with watchfix.com

On 7/16/2024 at 2:31 PM, Kruttskjegg said:

And also all the videos were shot in one take with no editing.

Yes, that's annoying, especially when he starts explaining something, then makes a minor mistake and starts all over. 

On 7/16/2024 at 2:31 PM, Kruttskjegg said:

You got me curious about Nekkid Watchmaker! Trigger warning on a watchmaker channel? haha thats something.

I'm sure he makes a good living restoring watch cases (genius!), but he doesn't seem equally dedicated to movements and can be super sloppy with his oiling. Correct oiling is critical in servicing a movement and if you don't get it right all sorts of bad things will happen, especially in the long run. It's a topic well worth the time to study and practice.

On 7/16/2024 at 2:31 PM, Kruttskjegg said:

I´m glad you mentioned Chronoglide which I already have learned a lot from 🙂

Great! I forgot to mention the Watch Repair Tutorials which is also very good, especially when you're new. I don't agree with everything Alex says, but overall the videos are well-made and very instructive.

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