It’s always been a thorn in my side that old BestFit catalogues go for a lot of money (I paid £60 for mine), and that they are hard to get.
Finally, I got around to cut mine up and scan them in. I also ran some ocr software over them, so they are searchable.
Update – there is a US company that holds the copyright for the Bestfit catalogues, and they have asked me kindly to remove the download link – no problem, and I wasn’t aware of the fact that someone had acquired the copyright to the catalogues. Please go to https://mccawcompany.com/featured-products/bestfit-encyclopedia-books-111-111a-digital-download-pdf-version.html of you want to buy their copy at a reasonable price.
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Thanks Christian – you wouldn’t happen to know the password for the original BESTFIT files would you??
I have them saved but forgot the password to open them!!
Sorry, but I was asked by the copyright holder not to publish the files any more.
Looks like the link above has expired. Here is a new link that worked for me.
https://mccawcompany.com/?s=encyclopedia
Nice and helpful. Well done to all of you
Regards Debbie
Damn! I arrived too late; but thank you for trying to share. I found a guy not long ago who uploaded some stuff from the official Swiss catalogue (Swiss bestfit) that’s free to download if you or anyone else is interested.
https://omegaforums.net/threads/download-official-catalogue-of-swiss-watch-repair-parts-1949-1959.88089/
THANK YOU SO MUCH
Wow! I already have these however just wanted to say what a great gesture this is – good stuff!
A fine gesture, Christian, sharing a goldmine of information from the modern history of watchmaking in the days when companies cooperated with inderpendent repairers rather than restricting access to parts and knowledge.
Quote from part 2 ” the informed man is more successful..” not if ETA has anything to do with it.
You are the opposite of evil!
Your availability is fantastic, thanks!
Thank you. You have a very informative library. The Pics of your Zodiac Seawolf 712-916. I think I have the same watch. Mine doesn’t work.
Thank you !
Firefox 69.0.2 and Windows 7 but cannot download the pdfs
Hi Colin,
I’ve added a download link for older browsers that can’t display the pdf files – that should do the trick.
Yes that works a treat. Many thanks for this wonderland of information.
Dear Christian,
Thanks a lot for this! Very generous of you and very much appreciated.
Excellent, thanks a lot! The OCR’ed text should be very handy, compared to endless searching through the paper copy.
Maybe some years in the future, you can ask an AI to generate clickable links for the near infinite amount of cross-references in these books 🙂
That will be the day I believe in the power of AI 😉