Hello from New York (for now lol)

[Gatz]

Hello everyone!

My name is Alex Gatz and I’m a 27 year old traveling registered nurse who works all over the United States in different Emergency Departments. I just found this website through random YouTube binge watching. 

Recently I have been obsessing over watches, and after coming from having an “extreme hobby” background in electronics (arduino/raspberry pi creations/coding, web development, programming for 12 years, pc building, drone building, 3D printing, phone repair/customization) I thought watch repair and perhaps watchmaking would be interesting and fun to start doing. I’m absolutely fascinated with the detail and intricacies of the engineering involved. 

Things like: good lighting; handling tiny components; using all sorts of tweezers; good lighting and magnification are some strong similarities between these two hobbies that I have an excess of experience in so that’s a plus. Now I’m just trying to find a good and cheap place to really sample watchmaking. 

I have read that starting with a new ETA 6497/8 is a good starting ground, or perhaps an ETA 2824? (Probably replicas or copies, links would be great)

I’m also looking for a good book as I love a great reference/guide to be at my side (plus I love books :D). Watchmaking by George Daniels is well over my head, however, it is very interesting. Beginner Watchmaking by Tim Swike sounds interesting but perhaps to basic? At this time my GOAL is to trial working with a movement at the minimum entry level possible. So first I need a movement and second a movement holder Most other tools I do have already.. except levers to pull the watch hands. 

Anyway, any recommendations or direction.. even perhaps links to direct sites or eBay offering would save me a significant amount of time and I would greatly appreciate anything

 

Also, don’t forget, “Be nice to Nurses, we choose the needle size” :P

 

[clockboy]

Welcome Gatz,

Enjoy the forum.

[Endeavor]

Hello Alex;

Well, you are in luck with all your previous hobbies. Not all of it, but it surely helps.

There are many ways to get into watch-repair. You can see watch-repair as the only goal, but you can also make it a kind of journey with D-tours. Enjoying it as much as you can together with your already acquired skills and previous hobbies.

One of the tools which is really handy to have is a Timegrapher. A device which picks up the watch audio and converts that, via software, into information how the watch is running / doing. Of course you can buy such a machine, but I think (with your background) it's much more fun to make one yourself. Feel free to go all the way, but that requires a total understanding how a movement / escapement works. An in between solution is the Watch-o-Scope and it's great fun to build. Op-amps, capacitors, you can get your oscilloscope out, drooling from excitement & joy while building it ....... Perhaps you can even improve it ??

Here a link to the W.O.S: http://www.watchoscope.com/

There is also a (very) long thread on this forum: https://www.watchrepairtalk.com/topic/3002-d-i-y-watch-timing-machine/?tab=comments#comment-4156

As for which movement to start on; that is very individual, depending on your skills, your self confidence, how far you want to push yourself etc. Most people start on bigger movements, my first movements were two 17mm ladies movements (ETA 2541) because I had a big challenge ahead. Very individually indeed.

My advice is go for a good working movement. You know that it worked well before you started on it and if it doesn't after you are done, well you know who is the culprit. If possible, buy two identical movements, so if you ruin a part, you have back up spares. Learn yourself to perform "ghost" repairs; that's to say, don't leave any marks, so nobody can see you have been there. Best of course are two new, or new old stock (N.O.S) movements. After you are done, any scratch and you know who did it

As for movement holders ...... you can buy the Chinese, but I've been there and to avoid agony I would advice you to go directly for the Bergeon 4040 and the Bergeon 4039. They will go you a long way. Same advice counts for screwdrivers; get yourself a decent set. Doesn't have to be top of the range, but a good mid-range ..... I'm sure there is plenty of advice on this forum. Tweezers; Up to you and what works for you; I have some cheap Stainless steel (non-magnetic) and a brass from China and they work great for me .......

 

Again, plenty tweezers discussions on this forum, how to maintain them etc etc etc.

Anyway, enjoy your new endeavor and if it goes south, there is plenty of help .........

 

 

Edited October 2, 2018 by Endeavor

[ecodec]

Hi Alex and welcome. Looks to me like you are well on your way to a new hobby. Books! Look at de Carles Practical watch repairing  and Frieds Watch repairers Manual , I still refer to them.  All good wishes. Regards Mike. The old Watch Jobber.

Edited October 2, 2018 by ecodec
More info.

[oldhippy]

Welcome to this friendly forum.

[Watchtime]

Hi, welcome......In regards to your profession I hope you can find the time to enjoy this wonderful hobby and do some reading on the forum

[Gatz]

20 hours ago, Endeavor said:

Hello Alex;

Well, you are in luck with all your previous hobbies. Not all of it, but it surely helps.

There are many ways to get into watch-repair. You can see watch-repair as the only goal, but you can also make it a kind of journey with D-tours. Enjoying it as much as you can together with your already acquired skills and previous hobbies.

One of the tools which is really handy to have is a Timegrapher. A device which picks up the watch audio and converts that, via software, into information how the watch is running / doing. Of course you can buy such a machine, but I think (with your background) it's much more fun to make one yourself. Feel free to go all the way, but that requires a total understanding how a movement / escapement works. An in between solution is the Watch-o-Scope and it's great fun to build. Op-amps, capacitors, you can get your oscilloscope out, drooling from excitement & joy while building it ....... Perhaps you can even improve it ??

Here a link to the W.O.S: http://www.watchoscope.com/

There is also a (very) long thread on this forum: https://www.watchrepairtalk.com/topic/3002-d-i-y-watch-timing-machine/?tab=comments#comment-4156

As for which movement to start on; that is very individual, depending on your skills, your self confidence, how far you want to push yourself etc. Most people start on bigger movements, my first movements were two 17mm ladies movements (ETA 2541) because I had a big challenge ahead. Very individually indeed.

My advice is go for a good working movement. You know that it worked well before you started on it and if it doesn't after you are done, well you know who is the culprit. If possible, buy two identical movements, so if you ruin a part, you have back up spares. Learn yourself to perform "ghost" repairs; that's to say, don't leave any marks, so nobody can see you have been there. Best of course are two new, or new old stock (N.O.S) movements. After you are done, any scratch and you know who did it

As for movement holders ...... you can buy the Chinese, but I've been there and to avoid agony I would advice you to go directly for the Bergeon 4040 and the Bergeon 4039. They will go you a long way. Same advice counts for screwdrivers; get yourself a decent set. Doesn't have to be top of the range, but a good mid-range ..... I'm sure there is plenty of advice on this forum. Tweezers; Up to you and what works for you; I have some cheap Stainless steel (non-magnetic) and a brass from China and they work great for me .......

 

Again, plenty tweezers discussions on this forum, how to maintain them etc etc etc.

Anyway, enjoy your new endeavor and if it goes south, there is plenty of help .........

 

 

Thank you very much for the information you provided. I’ll take your advice and purchase the nice movement holder, and Chinese tweezers. I’m intrigued by watch o scope. I do indeed have an oscilloscope I drool over the opportunities to use so I will most likely grab that and get to work; in fact I have another project I made that I could just reuse for this one by changing a few parts around. 

In reguards to movements to use, I do believe buying two new ones is a great plan. I like a good challenge challenge and I am probably over confident. Would an eta 6498 or 97 clone be terrible to start with? They appear to be very common. Is there another movement that is more common or more commonly clones that I could acquire for less cost?

thanks again !

[Gatz]

19 hours ago, ecodec said:

Hi Alex and welcome. Looks to me like you are well on your way to a new hobby. Books! Look at de Carles Practical watch repairing  and Frieds Watch repairers Manual , I still refer to them.  All good wishes. Regards Mike. The old Watch Jobber.

Ok I’ll be glad to have a look at those. Thanks

[Gatz]

16 hours ago, Watchtime said:

Hi, welcome......In regards to your profession I hope you can find the time to enjoy this wonderful hobby and do some reading on the forum

Thank you. I have made some time. I’ve been obsessing over watchmaking recently, probably to much.

[Endeavor]

@Gatz; As for the movement of your choice; as long as you take a movement which is well documented. Even better a movement which is clearly shown in a "Walkthrough" (search the movement of your liking in the Walkthrough-section) or find a well explained video about it on YouTube. Mark has some very good video's, but there are others too. One word of caution; Marks is a professional and so is the content in his videos. On YouTube you will find the whole spectrum of watch-repairers, from excellent to complete idi*ts. Not always easy for a novice to distinguish the differences.

Of course, the icing on the cake would be a movement for which you later (if it still works? ) can find a case, crown, dial & hands and make it your very first self-serviced and self-made watch. Looking on eBay, the ETA 6497 / 98 (Seagull ST36 series) seem to have those option. Perhaps there are other movements too? Do you want / require a date function or are you happy with just the time? Those things you have to ask yourself before buying; what do you want to learn from the movement and what is it that you want later from a watch if you pursuit the "icing"  ?

As for the Watch-O-Scope.; It also has to make sense cost-wise. If you are a Mac user and have to purchase a Windows computer for it, then you much better of buying a Chinese Timegrapher 1000 or the 1900.

There is a long thread on this forum as well:

https://www.watchrepairtalk.com/topic/4124-chinese-timegraphers/

I'm a Mac user and so far I haven't been able to get the (32-bits?) W.O.S. software to run on the Windows 10 section of my Mac, neither via Bootcamp nor via Wine. For the W.O.S. I use an old Dell laptop (Vista) which was given to me.

I would love to get W.O.S. to run under OSX ........ that could perhaps be a nice future project for you; write (in cooperation with Stefan?) the W.O.S. OSX software ?? Now, that would be some challenge !

For sure, it will force you to go deep inside the workings of a escapement and it would be great for the (DIY) watch-repair community  ...... you will bring us the cure

Anyway, that is future music ....... Start at the beginning and ground yourself first

Edited October 3, 2018 by Endeavor

[yankeedog]

Before you go into something pricey, as as far as watches go I would tell you to start out on something low cost and decent quality.something like the caravelle line introduced by bulova back in the sixties.they have cheesy cases, but they were sealed well .on the outside they may look like they were dragged down a NYC sidewalk,but on the inside they are usually in good shape respond well to service and are a good thing to learn on. I use a 10 x loupe and various powers of reading glasses  for magnification.

[Nucejoe]

Hi there: 

I suggest starting with whole pocket watch in runing condition, this remains a good idea til you havn,t broken anything, Once you break a part you will be at the mercy of part providers or ebayers who would want to charge you the price of a watch for the part. 

So, endevours idea, getting two of the same watch makes multilpe sense, Or should we say a watch plus an extra movement.  

Finally, used ladies watches have no retail value, unless high end brands.

Regards