Thanks for popping by and taking the time to read a bit about my watchmaking journey.
I'm a team manager in financial services by day, a hobbyist (for now) watchmaker by night, and also working towards my horological qualifications. No children, so I have a few spare moments to tinker with my Triumph.
My experience started with genuine watches, in 2016, when a second hand Omega Speedmaster Reduced had dust under the crystal. Took it to a reputable watchmaker on the Strand in London, thinking it would be in safe hands. The dust was indeed gone, but as an added bonus, there was a big ding on one of the lugs from the case-back removal tool. Down the rabbit hole I went - armed with my affinity for fixing things large and small, I spent an entire day hand polishing the case to get rid of the ding. Once that was done, and after purchasing my first Swiss made screwdriver, I continued with regulation and disassembly, to see how hard would have been to do it myself. After that, I proceeded working on cheap Chinese movements for practice and reading more and more about the watchmaking world and slowly expanding my working space.
Fast forward to 2019 and after a few upgrades from that initial Speedy Reduced, I thought I’d really like a vintage Rolex, how hard would it be building one? Here comes RWI and the replica world. Decided I’d start with the logic 'go big or go home’, and go straight for my grail watch, a 1680. Disappointment comes again, after I sent a 1570 caliber movement to be serviced and it came back full of fibres. So, once again, I decided to do things myself, and a few technical docs later, I’d serviced my first vintage Rolex movement.
I continued working for a while on vintage ladies watches, Zenith, Omega, which made everything else seem like a breeze due to the size difference. From there, I took on ETA non runners, bringing these back to life, and other vintage pieces from Ebay and then moved to work from family, friends and word of mouth projects, having had the chance to see a variety of movements, both replica and genuine. This was a self thought journey, not an easy one, as I'm a perfectionist so many hours have been spent on getting everything correct. With the pandemic and more time on my hands, I decided to take this to the next level by joining the ranks of the horology scholars, so currently also working towards my watchmaker qualifications.
Here's a summary of what can I do - I specialise in ETA variations, Rolex 3xxx but can look at other movements as well. Don't work on replica chronos but will add the latest 4130 to my list soon.
I can address any ad-hock request, movement regulations, keyless reset, dial swaps, hand swaps, crystal upgrades, genuine parts upgrades etc. (I don’t source parts) and polishing services to some extent.
My workshop is always growing but I try and keep a very minimal approach to the workspace for cleaning purposes.
The replica world and building watches - that previously mentioned 1570 ended up in my now grail watch, a 1680 which I built over the course of a year, slowly collecting genuine parts for it, back when prices were still decent, with only the mid-case and hands remaining to upgrade. That expanded into different Rolex builds, a DJ for my Mrs as she kept eyeing my watch and then some other variations (I really like the camel brown suede straps).
I'm a team manager in financial services by day, a hobbyist (for now) watchmaker by night, and also working towards my horological qualifications. No children, so I have a few spare moments to tinker with my Triumph.
My experience started with genuine watches, in 2016, when a second hand Omega Speedmaster Reduced had dust under the crystal. Took it to a reputable watchmaker on the Strand in London, thinking it would be in safe hands. The dust was indeed gone, but as an added bonus, there was a big ding on one of the lugs from the case-back removal tool. Down the rabbit hole I went - armed with my affinity for fixing things large and small, I spent an entire day hand polishing the case to get rid of the ding. Once that was done, and after purchasing my first Swiss made screwdriver, I continued with regulation and disassembly, to see how hard would have been to do it myself. After that, I proceeded working on cheap Chinese movements for practice and reading more and more about the watchmaking world and slowly expanding my working space.
Fast forward to 2019 and after a few upgrades from that initial Speedy Reduced, I thought I’d really like a vintage Rolex, how hard would it be building one? Here comes RWI and the replica world. Decided I’d start with the logic 'go big or go home’, and go straight for my grail watch, a 1680. Disappointment comes again, after I sent a 1570 caliber movement to be serviced and it came back full of fibres. So, once again, I decided to do things myself, and a few technical docs later, I’d serviced my first vintage Rolex movement.
I continued working for a while on vintage ladies watches, Zenith, Omega, which made everything else seem like a breeze due to the size difference. From there, I took on ETA non runners, bringing these back to life, and other vintage pieces from Ebay and then moved to work from family, friends and word of mouth projects, having had the chance to see a variety of movements, both replica and genuine. This was a self thought journey, not an easy one, as I'm a perfectionist so many hours have been spent on getting everything correct. With the pandemic and more time on my hands, I decided to take this to the next level by joining the ranks of the horology scholars, so currently also working towards my watchmaker qualifications.
Here's a summary of what can I do - I specialise in ETA variations, Rolex 3xxx but can look at other movements as well. Don't work on replica chronos but will add the latest 4130 to my list soon.
I can address any ad-hock request, movement regulations, keyless reset, dial swaps, hand swaps, crystal upgrades, genuine parts upgrades etc. (I don’t source parts) and polishing services to some extent.
My workshop is always growing but I try and keep a very minimal approach to the workspace for cleaning purposes.
The replica world and building watches - that previously mentioned 1570 ended up in my now grail watch, a 1680 which I built over the course of a year, slowly collecting genuine parts for it, back when prices were still decent, with only the mid-case and hands remaining to upgrade. That expanded into different Rolex builds, a DJ for my Mrs as she kept eyeing my watch and then some other variations (I really like the camel brown suede straps).
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thank you kindly.
