I love this forum

[GPrideaux]

Greetings from Western Australia.

I first took apart a timepiece, a simple alarm clock, some time in the 1970s. I was fascinated as a child with how things worked. Unfortunately, I was better at taking things apart than at putting them back together. A few years ago, inspired by watching YouTube videos of amateur watch repair, I was bold enough to replace a broken rotor pivot on a 1968 Bulova watch I'd bought on eBay. I was successful, although it was a difficult challenge as neither the screwdrivers I had nor my tweezers were antimagnetic and just removing and replacing the case clamps was a substantial challenge.

I started being a bit more serious about it as a hobby this year, acquiring some proper tools, lubricants, etc. and I have restored a number of watches of different types: automatic, manual wind, and quartz. I've revived a pin pallet pendant watch, and I've been impressed by the build quality of some of the early Seiko quartz watches from when I restored a non-running V400A movement.

I've lost parts and broken parts -- that almost goes without saying. I'm not planning on adding to the YouTube community, but if I did I think my channel would have to be named, "Mistakes were made," as I have had "learning opportunities" from almost every watch I've worked on.

My latest project, one I'm very pleased with, has been a Seiko Rainbow ladies watch with a 1104A movement that had suffered some water damage. It wasn't running, but all the rust was superficial, although the dial is sadly marred. I lost the seconds pivot friction spring when I was trying to just give it a final clean-up and it jumped and vanished. I lost a dial screw when I failed to tighten them before putting the parts into the ultrasonic ... somehow one ended up out of the jar with my cleaning solvents and in the water and when I found it days later it wasn't much more than a brown smudge in the ultrasonic. I broke the tail hook off the mainspring trying to wind it into its tiny 6mm barrel ... I have some Chinese winders but nothing that small, so I made one out of a piece of 5.5mm brass tubing with a 3D printed pusher and using one of the arbors of the bought winders, but when I was trying to get the tail to go into the barrel of the winder it caught on the tubing and came off. Fortunately, it's not a rare movement and a donor was purchased from eBay which filled all the gaps created by my inexpert efforts (and successfully using a different mainspring winder 3D printed using designs found in this forum). (I have a resin printer initially bought to print miniatures for DnD.)

Professionally, I am a secondary school mathematics teacher and I also have a background in electronics. I've made a budget timegrapher using tg-timer from https://github.com/vacaboja/tg and a microphone made from a piezo transducer and simple TL071 op-amp preamplifier. I can't currently justify the cost of the microscope I'd like but have found my cheap Chinese digital microscope to be empowering.

In short, I'm having fun!

Now, if only I can work out what to do with the watches once I've finished with them. I want them all to be worn, not just the few I keep for myself!

In the short time I've been here I have been impressed by the support and encouragement of the members, and I hope to be able to contribute positively, and more so as my experience increases.

Glen

[Neverenoughwatches]

Gaday Glen welcome , 5am UK time ( heaven knows why i dont sleep ) you look exactly like my junior school maths teacher, white hair white beard. He was great,Mr............. cant remember his name but it will come to me. Thats how it started for most of us, as a kid i was always taking things apart to see how they worked. We're a great forum of good lads with plenty of knowledge and lots of banter, enjoy you time here.

  Rich.

[Nucejoe]

Hi GPrideaux. 

You will soon be a addict here.  lol 

Did you know member's standing used to be;   new member, addict and superaddict before, then Mark changed it, superaddict is now referred to as advanced member, but practically an addict.  

Rgds

Edited September 7, 2024 by Nucejoe
Typo

[Neverenoughwatches]

1 hour ago, Nucejoe said:

Hi GPrideaux. 

You will soon be a addict here.  lol 

Did you know member's standing used to be;   new member, addict and superaddict before, then Mark changed it, superaddict is now referred to as advanced member, but practically an addict.  

Rgds

Personally i didn't like those terms, in fact i think i asked mark if i could change mine at the time, maybe thats the reason ? 

[RichardHarris123]

Hello and welcome from Leeds, England. This is indeed a  great site. 

I believe that the top rank you can gain by taking part is 'distinguished member' with advanced member being at Mark's discretion. 

[oldhippy]

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.