Sharing Major Williams' Watchmaking

[majwilliams0308]

As some of you know, I have been a watchmaker for some time now. I saw some of the wonderful threads from my watchmaker peers and decided to start a thread to share my work with others here. Not intended as marketing but more a share in the joy and passion that we all have here.

I started because I had sent a genuine dial to a modder and let's just say it came back in a condition that I felt I could have done better with my extremely limited knowledge. I then invested in equipment and movements up front to begin learning.

I started by learning on the 2824 movement and struggled just assembling the gear train, and that's when I decided to get more formal training. I took 2 different watchmaking courses online, became certified by AWCI, and the rest is history. I'll use this thread to document some of the watches I work on, work that I do, and I'm happy to answer questions as well. Mostly I just enjoy contributing to the community. What I have learned with watchmaking is that there is almost no upper end to the skill level. When you think you have mastered something, you either re-learn a technique in a different way, or discover a whole other series of skills you must learn in order to solve another type of problem.

I absolutely love working on Patek, AP and Vacheron, and I consider Rolex a wonderful but more 'commoditized' watch.

Some recent pics:

Rolex Work:

^^Recently began the 'bezel lip mod' for the GMT.

5712 work:

^^ Disassembly prior to cleaning in the watch cleaning machine

^^ Disassembly prior to cleaning in the watch cleaning machine



3K Patek work:

15202/16202 work:

^^16202 white gold plating, SW dial, quick date change, pizza hand trim mod

^^Rebrushing

AP 15500 work:

^^ Gen bezel, dial, dw, hands, screws. Refinished bezel, midcase, bracelet.

^^Rep vs Gen crown


Gold plating work:

^^ White gold plating

More to come

Also, I saw this on a random watchmaking video where they were interviewing their watchmakers, and I completely identify with this guy:

 

[Karbon74]

Wonderful

 

[Treacherous_A_Tickle]

Amazing work

 

[Ralphista]

Compliments, bro . You’re a watch MASTER !

 

[DD60]

Very nice. Thanks for sharing. You never know when sharing examples of your work may influence another member to get into being a watchsmith.

 

[Plaasbaas]

Great Work, thanks for sharing.

 

[Jossé]

That 16202 dial..... Thanks for sharing and great work!

 

[rhorton1023]

OMG your work is amazing. And quite honestly inspiring. I’ve always wanted to get into working on movements but unlike the rep world where I have happily fell down the rabbit hole…I am absolutely terrified of falling down THAT rabbit hole. My husband would truly kill me.

 

[Cubby]

Thank you for sharing. You have an amazing ability. post like these make me want to learn more about how the watch works.

 

[Mikie C]

That VC is beautiful. Are you selling it?

 

[mumum]

I am very impressed and by the great word of mouth of your talents! Nice work brother!

 

[cotti-rottie]

impressed.....and jealous, well done

 

[alexismontes]

This is inspiring to me as someone who loves to take things apart and putting it back together. I'm a complete newbie to the watch space so thank you for sharing your journey and maybe one day I'll become half as good as you are.

 

[dogwood]

Great to see you starting a thread Major. Looking forward to following along.

 

[Cubatobaco]

This is fantastic! Great work! I can't wait to see more,

Question(s): Are these your personal watches or ones that people has sent to you for servicing / modding?

 

[majwilliams0308]

This is fantastic! Great work! I can't wait to see more,

Question(s): Are these your personal watches or ones that people has sent to you for servicing / modding?

Thank you! Most of these are ones for other folks except for the final VC you see there.

 

[Cubatobaco]

Thank you! Most of these are ones for other folks except for the final VC you see there.

Thank you for taking the time to reply. Are you currently accepting new watches? If so can we discuss via PM?

 

[Falter]

Ok this is long overdue and I'm not writing this as some sort of advertising for Major but just my honest thoughts from previous work I had him do.

@majwilliams0308 is as legit as they come.

I've had issues with multiple frankens in the past and he was always the one who ends up solving them.
Also had an issue with a BBR RM055 and nobody I asked even wanted to take a look at it until I sent it to Major and he had it fixed within a couple days.

So damn blessed to have someone in the same state as me who has this amount of skill in watch making and open to solving problems rep or not!

 

[majwilliams0308]

Some Gold plating work:

BP Factory RG 15400:

This is a franken build with gen crown, bezel, xtal, dial, etc etc. I was asked to color match the bracelet and case with white gold to the genuine parts.

Genuine 15202 dial (on left), compared to ZF dial (right):

Dial had to be modified to get it to fit appropriately.

Gen 15400 dial (and DW), white gold plated screws:

 

[yodog]

impressive!