Time to fork out some serious money. Even though my trusted Perl Sona watch cleaner has served me well, it was time to get an automatic cleaner, as the manual one is quite time consuming. So the old one is on eBay, and I picked up a used Elma RM-90 from a retiring fellow watchmaker. I’ve had it for a day, and already love it!
Next on the list was a new timegrapher. Not that my trusted Chinese one for Ā£160 didn’t do the trick properly, but you can’t be seen in the world of serious watch repair with a Chinese timegrapher. So a couple of grand later, and I have a brand-new Witschi Watch Expert III in the workshop.
For 15x the money of the Chinese one, you get a bigger display (that is harder to read), and it shows exactly the same beat rate, amplitude, etc. as the Chinese one. Down to the last s/d. But you can do Omega co-axial escapements on it, so there is some advantage. And I can call myself serious now š
The funny bit about the watch cleaning machine was that it only came with the 6 movement holder, and no baskets, which I ordered from hswalsh.com today. That does tell you a bit about how watches are cleaned in the real world out there.
I promise that you can come by my workshop at any moment in time, and I will show you a layer of dust on the 6 movement holder, as I don’t intend to ever use that.
Iām pretty sure the new one is Chinese also..
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What chemicals we have to use in the jars? Can they be bought easily and from where?
I use the L&R range of cleaning and rinsing fluids, and you can buy them from http://cousinsuk.com/
So, I’ve started the bidding! This would be a little bit of a step up from the small ultrasonic cleaner I’ve ‘borrowed’ from work for the last 6 months. Are you keeping the old timegrapher as a spare or selling that too? š
For the time being, I want to keep the old timegrapher. Happy bidding on the cleaning machine!
I don’t think anyone would have described your watchmaking as “not serious” even before the acquisition of a fancy new grapher š
The cleaner looks a serious bit of kit though… it dries the components as well does it?
The old one had a drying chamber as well. The only real difference is that it is automatic.