My humble watch repair journey

[BreatheNBeat92]

Hey RWI Family,

Firstly, a little about myself, Im from Montreal Canada and Im 32 years by the grace of Almighty, I say that because I’ve been a CFer since birth and my life expectancy was 6 years. At one point in my twenties my disease took my lungs away and they failed. I was bed ridden for few years on heavy oxygen and then was blessed with a new life through Double Lung Transplant exactly 7 days after my wedding. Post transplant had little share of Sarcoma then glaucoma due to the toxic meds which I will need for life.

I was always interested in watches in general and collecting them. Due to not being able to afford luxury gen pieces, always hung around reps for them and one day I found RWI on the web and ever since I sometimes lurked without being a member. Spent some time just scrolling the forum pages my on-bed days. Ever since I had a dream and passion to tinker watches as a hobby if ever I got out of bed and was able to breathe, I would definitely dig more into it.

Now that im breathing like most people, Thanks to Almighty, I like to tinker watches and my passion has pushed me to improve my skill set and knowledge.

I was very hesitant and shy since few years to create a thread, due to my lack of skill and knowledge, basically being a noob haha. Now, after being encouraged and inspired by few members of the forum, namely @Oascom , @dogwood , @KJ2020 , @PsychoTee16 and @WatchSmith.US and a watchmaker friend outside the forum. I decided to create this thread and hopefully will keep it active by posting my small works and progress.

This thread is in no way to interfere in the threads of people I have mentioned above, they are the people I admire and look upto.

I request all to kindly not bash me as I am just learning and maybe don’t pick up explanations very fast, that’s due to my toxic anti rejection and steroid meds. I am very excited and confident to start this and keep all of you posted of my progress. Ok! Enough of the boring stuff, here is my bench. Yes! It is inspired and asked permission by to build a similar one by our great member @Oascom.

Voila!

Best
TF

 

[KJ2020]

You are off to a great start bro, welcome to the wonderful world of watchmaking! There are no stupid questions and we are all here to help each other.

Your greatest assets will be patience and a willingness to re-do your work after making mistakes. Sometimes we even get it right the first time around!

 

[BreatheNBeat92]

You are off to a great start bro, welcome to the wonderful world of watchmaking! There are no stupid questions and we are all here to help each other.

Your greatest assets will be patience and a willingness to re-do your work after making mistakes. Sometimes we even get it right the first time around!

Thank you brother! Im very grateful of you always supporting.
Indeed will get that patience and practice over time

 

[dogwood]

Congratulation on starting your watchmaking journey thread. I love your bench setup.

And I admire your courage to share the history of your battle with cystic fibrosis. I dated a girl in university who had CF. She taught me how to do percussion physio on her — staying alive and healthy with CF is a daily struggle. You have my respect.

And since you’ve had a double lung transplant, I assume you’ll want to take excellent care of your new breathers… I’d strongly suggest you run a HEPA filter in your work area, and add a few extra layers of activated charcoal fabric as a pre filter. Activated charcoal is excellent at absorbing volatile organic compounds (VOCs) which come off many of the fluids we use in watchmaking (one dip, epilame, naphtha, etc). The HEPA filter will also help keep your bench clean of dust and lint.

 

[Jackster]

Hey RWI Family,

Firstly, a little about myself, Im from Montreal Canada and Im 32 years by the grace of Almighty, I say that because I’ve been a CFer since birth and my life expectancy was 6 years. At one point in my twenties my disease took my lungs away and they failed. I was bed ridden for few years on heavy oxygen and then was blessed with a new life through Double Lung Transplant exactly 7 days after my wedding. Post transplant had little share of Sarcoma then glaucoma due to the toxic meds which I will need for life.

I was always interested in watches in general and collecting them. Due to not being able to afford luxury gen pieces, always hung around reps for them and one day I found RWI on the web and ever since I sometimes lurked without being a member. Spent some time just scrolling the forum pages my on-bed days. Ever since I had a dream and passion to tinker watches as a hobby if ever I got out of bed and was able to breathe, I would definitely dig more into it.

Now that im breathing like most people, Thanks to Almighty, I like to tinker watches and my passion has pushed me to improve my skill set and knowledge.

I was very hesitant and shy since few years to create a thread, due to my lack of skill and knowledge, basically being a noob haha. Now, after being encouraged and inspired by few members of the forum, namely @Oascom , @dogwood , @KJ2020 , @PsychoTee16 and @WatchSmith.US and a watchmaker friend outside the forum. I decided to create this thread and hopefully will keep it active by posting my small works and progress.

This thread is in no way to interfere in the threads of people I have mentioned above, they are the people I admire and look upto.

I request all to kindly not bash me as I am just learning and maybe don’t pick up explanations very fast, that’s due to my toxic anti rejection and steroid meds. I am very excited and confident to start this and keep all of you posted of my progress. Ok! Enough of the boring stuff, here is my bench. Yes! It is inspired and asked permission by to build a similar one by our great member @Oascom.

Voila!

Best
TF

Welcome friend, That bench set up looks awesome, when I first set up mine it was small like a childs desk but I modded it and coated it in rubber matting (which smelt aweful) your set up definately put mine to shame. I havent worked on watches now for a couple of years, maybe one day ill have the time to get back into it.

I would scour ebay and buy cheap mechanical watches, I would strip them down and attempt tomre-build them, my failure rate was extremely high, but I loved every minute of it! I cant explain the feeling I had the first time I dropped in a balance and it started ticking... I was beside my self with pride!

Ive lost more click springs than I care to mention and spend many times scrambling on all fours searching for them, some never to be seen again.

Enjoy your journey and I eagerly wait to hear of your tales of success and failure!

 

[BreatheNBeat92]

Congratulation on starting your watchmaking journey thread. I love your bench setup.

And I admire your courage to share the history of your battle with cystic fibrosis. I dated a girl in university who had CF. She taught me how to do percussion physio on her — staying alive and healthy with CF is a daily struggle. You have my respect.

And since you’ve had a double lung transplant, I assume you’ll want to take excellent care of your new breathers… I’d strongly suggest you run a HEPA filter in your work area, and add a few extra layers of activated charcoal fabric as a pre filter. Activated charcoal is excellent at absorbing volatile organic compounds (VOCs) which come off many of the fluids we use in watchmaking (one dip, epilame, naphtha, etc). The HEPA filter will also help keep your bench clean of dust and lint.

Thank you man for your kind words and thoughts.
Indeed just keeping yourself up and moving is a daily battle with CF- nature of the beast

I have a basic amazon air purifier running in my work area but HEPA filter is really a good idea. I didnt know about activated charcoal fabric u til you mentioned that i pulled it up. This sounds like it will help with the odors from the fluids we use indeed, and they seem to irritate my new recycled airbags sometimes causing some cough.
Thank you once again

 

[BreatheNBeat92]

Welcome friend, That bench set up looks awesome, when I first set up mine it was small like a childs desk but I modded it and coated it in rubber matting (which smelt aweful) your set up definately put mine to shame.

Thank you for kind kind words man speaking of childish look at this when i just started. A coffee table in my lounge haha


I also bought a lot of seikos from a seller on ebay, mostly rusted and non runners, with some i got them to beat some are just in my drawers lol.
We all have been on the knees i find haha in search of those springs
I will definitely keep it posted in here of what I am doing lately haha. Thank you for hanging in here

 

[PsychoTee16]

Slick setup!
Look forward to seeing your journey!

Take it from me, it takes time. Get some clone ETAs and Rolex’s, and practice on those. Slowly build up your tool collection, and PLEASE get the good stuff. Don’t by the cheap stuff, you’ll just regret it later on. Save up and get the good stuff.

I’m a firm believer that experience is the best teacher. The theory behind it all is nice to know, but you figure a ton out from just doing it.

I will echo @dogwood comment about the HEPA. I recently added one to the workspace, and it has made a decent difference. You’ll never eliminate dust unless you got to a positive pressure system, but the filters do help a lot.

As always, reach out if you have any questions! Your in good hands with this community here, especially the array of watchmakers we have.

TB

 

[Subzed]

Great story, more power to you brother!
I am jealous of your set up. All of my cheap tools are in a Tupperware container, Ha!

 

[BreatheNBeat92]

Slick setup!
Look forward to seeing your journey!

Take it from me, it takes time. Get some clone ETAs and Rolex’s, and practice on those. Slowly build up your tool collection, and PLEASE get the good stuff. Don’t by the cheap stuff, you’ll just regret it later on. Save up and get the good stuff.

I’m a firm believer that experience is the best teacher. The theory behind it all is nice to know, but you figure a ton out from just doing it.

I will echo @dogwood comment about the HEPA. I recently added one to the workspace, and it has made a decent difference. You’ll never eliminate dust unless you got to a positive pressure system, but the filters do help a lot.

As always, reach out if you have any questions! Your in good hands with this community here, especially the array of watchmakers we have.

TB

Thank you man, really appreciate your kind words.

Those with caring thoughts have a special respect in my heart cz these battles aren't easy.
I agree with you 100% that your best teacher is experience. Its something to read and watch and learn but another thing to be practical about it.

Haha watchmaker tools and equipment are a new fetish once you get deeper into the hobby can never have enough and always feeling like upgrading, but slowly
Will definitely get this HEPA filters.

This community is simply awesome. Thank you once again for the support

 

[galevin]

TF, I also agree with Jackster that having cheap watches to disassemble and reassemble is a great way to learn. You can pull up a YouTube video and watch the disassembly of a similar watch while you do it on the bench. Better to start with the shitters before you start working on the expensive watches. If you want some working automatic watches to practice on, send me dm with your address and I’ll find you 3 working automatics that you can have to practice on. Try to disassemble and reassemble and confirm after assembly it continues to work. Great practice. I wish you all the luck in the world and drop me a line if you want some autos to play with.
Gerald

 

[BreatheNBeat92]

Great story, more power to you brother!
I am jealous of your set up. All of my cheap tools are in a Tupperware container, Ha!

Thank you bro!
haha I bit the bullet twice and upgraded and now many upgrades are on the Wishlist xD

 

[mt666tm]

Amazing work bench. After 10+ years of tinkering my work bench is an old 50-something inch Samsung TV laying flat on two wooden sawhorses and all my tools are in a fishing tackle box, moreso that they are mobile, but also lack of space. One day I aspire to have the time and space to have a bench like yours. Respect!

 

[Jackster]

When I started out I signed up to Mark Lovich's watch repair tutorial, it was very helpful. And as @galevin says You Tube is definately your friend, when you cant for the life of you remember which wheel goes where it is invaluable, my pause button is worn out!

I am truely gealous that you are experiencing the joy of watchmaking. As I said I'm far too busy at the moment building &renovating I simply dont have time for it, all though I still manage to find time to be on this forum

Tbh i struggled with two things when playing with my watches...
1. It really messed with my eyes, if I spent more than 2 hours at a time at the bench I couldn't focus for the rest of the day!
2. I felt like it was a very insular hobbie and alienated me from my wife, she was absolutly fine with it but it bothered me that I spent a lot of quality spare time not in the company of my better half. If she left me I'd be back at the bench before you could say Bergeon!

 

[flashu]

Thank you for sharing, congratulations on your journey , keep us posted !
Great reading

 

[BreatheNBeat92]

Amazing work bench. After 10+ years of tinkering my work bench is an old 50-something inch Samsung TV laying flat on two wooden sawhorses and all my tools are in a fishing tackle box, moreso that they are mobile, but also lack of space. One day I aspire to have the time and space to have a bench like yours. Respect!

Thank you for your kind words. Damn that’s dedication right there.
Much respect

 

[BreatheNBeat92]

TF, I also agree with Jackster that having cheap watches to disassemble and reassemble is a great way to learn. You can pull up a YouTube video and watch the disassembly of a similar watch while you do it on the bench. Better to start with the shitters before you start working on the expensive watches. If you want some working automatic watches to practice on, send me dm with your address and I’ll find you 3 working automatics that you can have to practice on. Try to disassemble and reassemble and confirm after assembly it continues to work. Great practice. I wish you all the luck in the world and drop me a line if you want some autos to play with.
Gerald

Thank you sir. And really grateful for your offer for auto watches. I have some clones on eta and rolex to play with.
And yes YT is a virtual university haha

 

[BreatheNBeat92]

So a little work going on. I have an L&R master, i bought a auto reverse unit off ebay, trying to solder and make it work. 4 hours later no luck.

If anyone has done this and can help im grateful

 

[BreatheNBeat92]

So a few days ago when I came home from work, as I was taking off my watch I noticed the time was wrong, upon closer look I saw the hour marker had come loose and was stuck with the seconds hand. I decided to fix this and also swap the dial with a genuine 16610 dial and swap the crystal with deep crystal as well.

I fixed the hour marker with slow epoxy mainly at the back of the dial but a very very tiny dot under the hour marker as well.

Here are some pictures

 

[BreatheNBeat92]

Hello all, past weekend I was working on servicing a SH3135 I believe it is. I had it in my parts drawer and have all the parts that needed to go into to complete the movement. I also had 2-3 balance completes for these movements. I assembled the movement first time without oiling just to see if these parts for the movement in part drawer were any good. I plan to then disassemble, clean and oil and reassemble.

As soon as i assembled the movement and put the pallets back, they had power and I placed the Balance spring. The movement did not run. I noticed the balance had some wobble and wouldn't seat properly. I decided to inspect it closely then under the digital microscope I have. Guess what? I think the balance stuff pivot on one end is broken.

I then tried to place in a VR 3135 that I had laying around, the pivots on that seem to be ok but still the movement does not run. No I can think of either the SH and VR balance are not compatible or there is something I am still missing in my assembly. If any one can help me with this, I would be very thankful. I do not have another SH balance complete to test it and also do not know if I can source one from somewhere.







Broken pivot