Working On My Own Watches

[mikenike]

I've always been a very technical guy. I learned enough to be a proper Stihl tech from lurking their manuals, I work on cars, computers, electrical work, plumbing, name it (with proficiency).

How difficult is it to service and repair these Asian movements in comparison to those trades?

Is watch repair just basic part-replacing, but at a smaller scale? Is there any engineering involved in the technical repair of a watch?

tl;dr

Is it easy to service and repair automatic watches?

 

[xkqwts]

It's definitely harder than the stuff you listed, mainly because the components are so tiny. You also need quite the toolkit, so if you're not working regularly or for the fun of it on watches, it might be cheaper to just send them to a watchsmith for repair.

There are a lot of tutorials on youtube, I'd suggest getting a cheap toolkit as well as some cheap old automatic watches from ebay/craighslist/flea markets and just play around with them.

 

[KJ2020]

Watchmaking is not for everyone. That said, if you are patient and determined you can do just about anything. I suggest watching some of Mark Lovick's videos and order a cheap watch with a 2824 movement you can play with and see how you like it.

http://greekdimis.blogspot.com/2014/...-2824.html?m=1

One of the biggest challenges I faced starting out was mastering the reinstallation of the click spring. Here's a pic from the linked video showing Mark installing a click spring. He does it in a second and makes it look easy.

The first 4 times I tore down a movement I lost the click spring. It is is so small and you have to put tension on it to install the click next. ZING! It shoots off across the room! Talk about frustrating and defeating. Your project just got sabotaged, you are dead in the water. I found the lost click spring ONCE, the rest are gone baby gone.

Click spring replacements cost $6.80 from Otto Frei, plus $9.40 shipping. $16.00 for a tiny piece of wire not worth 16 cents. They are so elusive that even my shipment of 3 was missing one, I was painstakingly careful opening the vial they came in.

While I was awaiting shipment I determined to find a way to succeed at doing this. I made a contained workspace like you see in sterile assembly lines. So far it has worked every time to contain my flyaway parts. Since then I have developed an approach that minimizes the flight risk, but it's always an apprehensive part of the rebuild.

Hope this helps you decide if you want to do this. There are other challenges like removing hands without scratching them or the dial, or bending the hands, etc. But there is a also a great amount of satisfaction in wearing a watch you have completely serviced by yourself.

Best of luck,

KJ

 

[mikenike]

Watchmaking is not for everyone. That said, if you are patient and determined you can do just about anything. I suggest watching some of Mark Lovick's videos and order a cheap watch with a 2824 movement you can play with and see how you like it.

http://greekdimis.blogspot.com/2014/...-2824.html?m=1

One of the biggest challenges I faced starting out was mastering the reinstallation of the click spring. Here's a pic from the linked video showing Mark installing a click spring. He dies it in a second and makes it look easy.

The first 4 times I tore down a movement I lost the click spring. It is is so small and you have to put tension on it to install the click next. ZING! It shoots off across the room! Talk about frustrating and defeating. Your project just got sabotaged, you are dead in the water. I found the lost click spring ONCE, the rest are gone baby gone.

Click spring replacements cost $6.80 from Otto Frei, plus $9.40 shipping. $16.00 for a tiny piece of wire not worth 16 cents. They are so elusive that even my shipment of 3 was missing one, I was painstakingly careful opening the vial they came in.

While I was awaiting shipment I determined to find a way to succeed at doing this. I made a contained workspace like you see in sterile assembly lines. So far it has worked every time to contain my flyaway parts. Since then I have developed an approach that minimizes the flight risk, but it's always an apprehensive part of the rebuild.

Hope this helps you decide if you want to do this. There are other challenges like removing hands without scratching them or the dial, or bending the hands, etc. But there is a also a great amount of satisfaction in wearing a watch you have completely serviced by yourself.

Best of luck,

KJ

But one should probably leave working on a co-axial Omega movement to the pros, correct?

 

[KJ2020]

Oh yeah, I won't be touching my gens for a while!