Hello everyone, I’d like to introduce myself. My name is Ray and I have the huge pleasure of letting you all know that I am Christians apprentice.
I am 40, married and from Northumberland, I enjoy rock climbing, motorcycling and of course I am absolutely obsessed with wristwatches! Continue reading
Another day, another Speedmaster project 😉
This one came over from Belgium, and there are two cases, an extra dial, a spare movement, and some small bits. Let’s turn this into a Speedy! Continue reading
The world of clocks and watches isn’t only re-bushing and oil, we sometimes are allowed out of our workshops to attend events.
This Tuesday, I was privileged enough to be invited to the launch of the Solar Time Clock made by George and Cornelia de Fossard at The Clockworks in London, hosted by Dr. James Nye. I have blogged three years ago about the project, and after about 5000 hours of work, the two have finished their masterpiece.
Thank you James for hosting the event, which I truly enjoyed.
I’ve done quite a few of these, and blogged about some of them, but this one deserves a post of its own, and you will see in a bit why … Continue reading
My aversion to dial spots (those little adhesive dots used to glue on dials) knows little bounds. It’s a shoddy job, the dial can still turn with time, and in my book, it’s not an appropriate repair. On a £2 quartz movement, dial spots might be appropriate, but on anything mechanical, I’d rather not.
Above, a dial with broken off feet. You can still see some remaining dial spots, and, in preparation for the new dial feet, I have marked the centre of the feet on the dial. I use a sharp needle and a pair of tweezers as a ruler. Continue reading
I’m very happy to have gotten the #1 watch repair blog award from feedspot!
If you repair watches, you know the feeling of your heart sinking when removing a chronograph sub-hand and the tube stays on the runner, and the hand comes off without the tube.
Once the dial is off, you can carefully remove the stuck tube with the hand remover, and with a bit of luck, it doesn’t fly 10 yards through the workshop. Continue reading
Schluep Campo and Aerni start their book with the merger of the Swiss ASUAG (Allgemeine Schweizerische Uhrenindustrie Aktiengesellschaft / General Swiss Watch Corporation) and the SSIH (Société suisse pour l’industrie horlogère / Swiss Watch Industry Corporation) in 1983. I always assumed that Nicolas Hayek was the “saviour” of the Swiss Watch Industry, developing the Swatch, and saving the industry from certain death single-handedly. Continue reading
Dear Readers,
If you have read my last post, you know that I’m working on a watch parts database. After some slightly sleep-deprived nights, the first version is live for testing. Don’t be surprised if the site goes up and down a bit, but I guarantee that all data you enter will be safe, and is backed up nightly. So nothing you enter will get lost.
Give it a go at watchparts.org.uk!
If you have any stock of spare parts, please register, and upload your stock. You can do that with a CSV file, or enter line by line. If a manufacturer is missing, let me know, and I will add it for you. It’s beta testing time…
In the next week, I will develop a search functionality (at the moment, you get to see a list of all parts available on the database, which is fine for a couple of thousand), and add other bits and bobs. If you have Ronda staffs, enter them as manufacturer Ronda, and the Ronda staff number as the manufacturer part number, and voila, they will end up in a list of all Ronda staffs with dimensions and compatible movements. Winding stems to follow…
Enjoy,
Christian
Everyone working with watches knows the problem: spare parts. Especially for older watches, it can be really hard to find the right part. Never mind the right price.
I know that every watchmaker in the world sits on a huge amount of parts. A lot of these never get used, people don’t even know what they have (I am a bit guilty here as well), and when they give up working, the parts often end up on the tip, never to be seen again.
Some people are out there collecting the parts and selling them on Ebay, and I’m forever indebted to their effort. Continue reading