Hi From Munich

[colinh]

Hi,

 

I'm not exactly a noob: I took apart my Dad's automatic[*] when I was 5...

 

... and I've been a hobbyist goldsmith for about twenty years, so I already have experience with fiddly little things (like diamonds[**] pinging across the room) and also have some of the equipment.

 

 

[*] reassembling it is on my list of Things To Do.

 

[**] diamonds are easy to find: darken the room and crawl around the floor with a torch. The wee little things SPARKLE!!! :-)

 

 

Anyway, in the meantime I have a whole pile of nice watches:

 

A Longines automatic: my first "proper" watch. I'd just started work and got an advance on my salary (weird, but that's how it was). I was walking along the shopping street with a literal wad of cash in my pocket. Did I invest it in gold? Shares? A house? No—I bought a watch. Oh well...

 

Next, a Movado (museum watch?) : very flat, and just one gold blob at 12. Extremely accurate, but very imprecise :-)

 

Later, an Omega Seamaster Chronograph: Ah. At last. A *real* watch. COSC certified, no less. A "chronometer". Costs significantly more, because it's been so well tested and everything. Unfortunately, by the next day it had gained 17 seconds. I took it back, and they adjusted it. Six months later the stopwatch stopped working. I took it back, it got sent to Omega, and they fixed it. A few years later and the stopwatch has stopped working again... Now there's confidence-inspiring Swiss quality for you.

 

While it was being fixed (this took a while) I saw, and couldn't resist, a Fortis Cosmonaut's Official Chronograph (with the Lemania 5100 movement). My favourite, but not working at present.

 

At the moment I'm making do with a Sinn UX (in black) and a Sinn U1 in Deutscher U-boot Stahl grey.

 

Oh, I nearly forgot: I've got some ghastly thing by a little company called Erbe. It says sapphire crystal on the back, although the front, as I now know, is normal mineral glass. Hmmph. But, it does have a Valjoux 7750 movement inside, for which I'm planning/designing my own case.

 

 

So, I have a pile of watches, some of which I'd like to try my hand at servicing. Having seen some of Watch Repair Guy's extremely good and inspiring videos, I've ordered some tools etc and will try TimeZone's first online course.

 

 

colin

[Geo]

Nice introduction Colin! Welcome to the forum From Scotland, I'm sure you will find the information that you require here.

I visited Munich three years ago when I was on a continental motorcycle holiday with my pal. We stayed not far from the Hirsch Garden and and drank quite a few of your excellent German beers, what a massive place that was. For those that don't know the place, there is outdoor seating for about 8000 people and it has a small truck to collect the empty glasses!

Edited September 17, 2014 by Geo

[WillFly]

Welcome!

[bobm12]

Welcome to the forum Colin and to the TZ classroom where I sit once in a blue moon but like a lot! Very nice online class, highly recommended. My suggestion is, take all 3 in parallel if at all possible. There is also an online (free this time) Seiko class on the internet. Short but enough to get you started in an inexpensive movement. No matter what you do, good tools are essential.

[colinh]

Thanks Geo, Will, Bob.

 

The Beer Gardens really are nice in the summer. In a few days the Oktoberfest starts, which is sort of nice. On the one hand 7500 slightly (to extremely) drunk, but good-natured people, all in one (big) tent (there are about a dozen tents) can be interesting. On the other hand, there are sometimes just too many people. It's like those videos of the Tokyo subway at rush hour, except outside.

 

OK, looking forward to the course(s). Good tools have been got :-)

[bobm12]

Excellent, you are well on your way! The beer bit sounds very good!

Edited September 17, 2014 by bobm12

[colinh]

I just noticed that I've been grossly unfair to my real first "proper" watch, which I found in a drawer yesterday.

 

It's a BWC manual wind watch I got for my 7th birthday from my grandparents. I loved it and wore it every day until the onslaught of the digital watches took its toll in about 1980. To be honest, I quite liked my first digital watch too.

 

Still, I never lost it despite many house and country moves. After decasing it and replacing the winding stem it suddenly works again :-) The acrylic watch glass is broken and one of the watch strap spring bars got replaced by a bent piece of a paperclip. My first watch repair as a pre-teen :-)

 

This nice little watch will be my first victim :-)