Hi everyone, i would like to try to build my own watch in the Raketa USSR style, how do you thin ki shoild proceed?

Does anyone know how to repair a m66 movement or what I could interchange out? I have a Timex Q Quartz | Ref. 97970 that stopped working the day after I got the battery changed and I don't know what to do since my repair shop won't touch it with a 10ft pole. Any tips are appreciated, thank you

Hi folks.

Apologies for the terribly gauche question about salary!

After yet another crummy day in the corporate world that I am feeling less cut out for by the month, I am feeling the tugging at my heartstrings more than ever to run away to Upton Hall, cut off all ties from the world and barricade myself in until they make me a recognised fBHI!

In all seriousness, my question is what is a realistic timeframe to enter into the profession, what sort of salaries should be expected at different stages( first year after starting, a few years in, bigger retail gigs vs independent etc) and any advice you could share? I have a chunk of hobbyist experience(see below) but wondering if salaries and time to train would actually be something I could realistically achieve.

I’ve looked into the BHI Distance learning courses a few times, even just for the fun as a hobby, but never quite taken the financial plunge. Are the BHI courses a legitimate pathway from hobby to full-time employment, and how long/ how much money should be expected to be paid all-in?

A bit of background: I’m currently a hobbyist tinkerer and self-taught myself via online means to service movements, but fully respect and appreciate the big gulf in level between a weekend watch breaker like me and a pro. That said, I’m fairly proficient around automatic movements - worked my way through dozens of old Swiss movements when learning(although my eBay purchase history may push that into triple digits soon haha), then moved on to hunting down and playing with everything from 1940’s eta 853s, 19th century Waltham pocket watches, a few omega automatics (including the dreaded 1010), omega quartz, some more modern workhorses like 2824’s, dozens of ebauches. Certainly still at the “watch fixing” level and not “watchmaking” - not setting jewels or replacing pivots, but I’ve certainly done enough for this to be a genuine desire and not just a flippant question.

Any help, advice or cautionary tales of the pro’s is warmly appreciated.

I'm buying a watch and find mechanical watches fascinating, but don't like the idea of either paying more for servicing than I originally paid for it, or keep buying new watches. Hence I'm wondering what it would take to service the watch myself and wether it would be feasible to maintain it for the years to come, provided I am willing to learn and study watches. I know that it is not recommended to try tinker with a watch myself, but I'm willing to take the risk, so can we set that aside?

So as I understand it, one should service the watch every 5 years, which means lubriating the parts and changing any parts that are worn out. My question is which parts are the most likely to wear out and how expensive or difficult it would be to source the parts? I'm currently looking at Citizen NH9131-73L, and it looks like you at least can't easily find the exact movement anywhere, but I'm wondering how difficult it would be to find individual parts? Would it make sense to buy spare parts now so that I have them when something needs replacing?

Amateur watchmaker here and I was hoping to ask what does the Seitz do that the Horia (or the Horia clone) doesn’t? Do you need both?

And this is probably a very silly question but can a staking set be used in place of a dedicated jeweling tool to remove and install jewels?

I’m at a point where I have all the basic tools and I’m starting to look into bigger purchases as I get into more in depth work.

Normally I would hold off and just spend the next 6 months doing research on my own but if I’m honest with the potential incoming tariffs I honestly just want to get some of the bigger tool purchases out of the way before the price becomes even more expensive.

Thank you for any insight or opinions!

I love how varied the community is on different subjects so I’m hoping to get some better insight from you guys.

Hi

Can someone please help me identifying this lathe and its configuration in the video below?

It appears to be a small machinist lathe, but I would appreciate any insights or information regarding its specific make and setup.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7jNF0zhOqtE

Many thanks!

Hi guys! I’m working on a FHF 908 automatic movement and I accidentally broke one of the springs holding in the balance jewels. Does anyone know where I can find replacements? I already sent a message on Watchuseek, but I’m also posting here just in case I don’t get any responses. Thanks for the help!

Hi all,

I'm just coming out of high school and looking for a career in watchmaking, hopefully ending up with my own watch repair store along with a bit of watch dealing. I'm from Australia and currently looking at WOSTEP and K&H Watchmaking in Switzerland however there is a watchmaking course offered in Sydney that gets me a Cert III in Watch and Clock Service and Repair which is much cheaper than going and living in Switzerland. Is Swiss training worth it or am I better off studying here?

My only other concern is the pay is not that great from what I have heard.

Thanks in advance!

I know this is kind of crazy as it runs the gambit so I'm going to break it up into sections.

For me collecting watches I feel the movement is half of the watch and I do enjoy having watches with different movements

If you could only have one watch that you had to rely on what movement would you choose? Assuming the watch would have a hard life, be worn every day and the only maintance if lucky maybe some oil.

And this is assuming that the movement was made in spec and properly lubed and demagnetinzed, regulated when made plus the case is well made with good gaskets a thick crystal and screwdown crown no display back and maybe even some type of anti-magnetic iron covering on the case back and dial.

As for holders it could be solid metal, plastic, I'm not sure if I have ever seen a movement ring that's supposed to give some wriggle room or give but that could be a possibility.

I guess the specs would be if you had to make 1 watch that's an automatic and it would have to survive a very long and hard life, I have heard of daily driver watches never being serviced before and the person just adjusting the speed so it could still roughly tell the time but In all of these cases the movement is not being made anymore.

Maybe you can sometimes oil it but can't rely on swapping out the movement or getting new parts.

I will break the autos down by nation and 3hz /4hz (I know Vostok is not 3 but I will put it in the 3l

chinese 3hz, so many if then are made but the majority seem to be a mix of miyota clones or miyota clones with Seiko magic lever. I don't own an automatic Tongji but in China I found a couple of nice 17 and 19 jewel tonji watches made in the 70s, I got them serviced for a low price and Im pressed by how well they run but I don't think they make good quality ones anyone let alone autos.

I did buy a freind a watch with a Mingzhu 3 hand no date movement (it was when I went to Guangzhou watch market before NH35/6s movements flooded the market as before that it was miyota, some real and some fake orient, some real and some fake ETA then the mingzhu movements that looked and operated a lot like miyota 8s but they had GMTs, and pretty much all rolex looking complicstions apart from chronos. I don't even know if china makes a 3hz chronic apart from the ST19.

Anyway it's been over 10 years and he had been wearing that watch every day and one time I changed the gaskets and adjusted the speed for him, maybe it was a lucky find no idea.

Russian movements. Not sure if Vostok provides 3rd party but they did. I do like QCd Vostok movements as they can be accurate, they have alot of jewels and I love the sound a 18900bph watch makes. It's nearly as nice as a 18,000bph

I know Vostok makes some bad movements with low QC but no idea since the war but before the war they where starting to improve .

I have managed to get my prewar Vostok running within COSC but not sure if that's just dumb luck, I just went with a nice 090 case and classic dial with no date, modified the spring so it was tight and put in a cut to fit sharkmesh.

In the instruction manual it says to get it serviced every 10 years...

Japanese movements.

Old 21/22J Seiko movements without hacking and handwinding (I'm not sure but maybe most are made in Japan and some movements can still be found and also cheap watches with the movement but a movement that can't handwind can be a problem.

I know that ever since TMI took over or changed names the Seiko NH30 movements I don't think any are made in Japan anymore and I guess they are all made in Malaysia and maybe a part of china not to far away from HK but wages in HK are a little high. Maybe in HK if little human work is needed.

I have only had 1 NH30 movements come Dead on arrival the rest have been fine but I do wonder how the NH34gmt will stack up as I think I remember reading that Seiko said something about maybe the date/GMT swinging arm if the NH34 needs some oil every 2 years, not sure.

But when sii made movements I sold both Japanese Seiko and non Japanese and with a lopupe and timograph I could not realy tell any difference at all even the machining marks looked the same and on the timograph they seemed to be the same.

But it seems TMI are putting prices higher by about 40 or 50rmb per movement in bulk

Making them more expensive than the Japanese made miyota 82xx, maybe the cost of the 83xx is similar and so will the Japanese made s.epson YN55 / 6 (orient F6)

With movements like the Miyota 8215 I have had good luck especially with accuracy and find that I can regulate them better than a NH30

Not sure about the bi-directional winding efficiency but piling the rotor bearing seems to go a long way every couple of years, ok the pre hacking watches I could backhaxk them and ok the new ones they hack but.

It's nice they have a version with extra power reserve but I know it's not direct seconds drive and some people have said they have problems with the seconds hand slipping. Personally I have never seen this. Not sure if a subseconds dail would make it more reliable and robust They have been out a very long time but I have not owned one for so long so no idea.

The s.epson YN55/6 (F6 one with date the other with day date) to me I have allways preferred them over the 4r30 and I know many complain they are only 22j but I find them to be more accurate and the balance wheel seems to be more weel mwde with the haiesoeint beint quite hard compared to Seiko.

Out of the Japanese movements I did. The NH30s have the most positional variation.

Now going onto 4hz movements.

Chinese ETA clones. I only bring this up as I have a Chinese HZ ETA 2824 25J clone movement in a watch and it's one of my most accurate movements, had it for nearly 6 years and no broken teeth or handwinding issuies and it's outperforming most ETA and Stellita top movements I have but maybe I got lucky.

HKPT5000 seems good but with seagull sometimes they have no lube at all and with peacock wellnit has a bad name.

Then it seems like Hangzhou are making some micro microrotor 4hz movements I know the original HZ5000 had a subseconds but they now have a new one with central seconds and a date but no idea if it's a direct drive.

But the 7000 series as in the 21j 4hz 70hr power reserve movements with most Rolex complications. Dandong also makes a similar movement but it seems the 7500 was used in a production watch and it ran pretty well.

While these movements are mostly made so fingers can make Rolex clones maybe if they put a micro adjustment on them, you the jewel count maybe and go with a standard available and size and dial type like maybe ETA style it could be a good movement.

The Miyota 9000 series. Just for example I feel movements like the 9015 and 9039 are really good, they are relatively new movements and in sure they have made heavy use of computer design, more modern materials and oils while being a 4hz movement that's thinner than the 2824 and has no hand widing issuies.

I'm sure oiling the rotor will help but as far as accuracy is concenered I have been told when regulated it's better than a basic ETA 2824-2 / Stellita it would have been nice if they put a microadjsutment screw on but I think miyotas plans to be a huge player for what would be potential ETA customers is paying off. Also they have a nice 9075gmt with jumping hours.

It also seems that citizen has invested in MJLP and some of the movements they make just seem to be miyota 9000 movements but with more decoration. A micro adjust speed screw and I think they are supposed to be drop ins for 2824-2s so ETA dail not sure if they have a uni-directional rotor but they seem to be quite expensive.

STP movements I have no idea, some people have said they are seagull movements assembled in Switzerland but I did not like the look of the GMT movement they make as in a factory 2836gmt, it put me off wanting to get a Zodiak and they seem to be owned by the fossil group.

I have no idea about 4hz 3d party TMI but they seem to be expensive and it seems that soprod movements use some Seiko tech but I have no idea how good they are, maybe their version of the 2824 has no handwinding issuies but it seems alot of people who used to use them dropped them due to servicing issues or no one being able to service them.

As for kennisis Im not sure if you can call them a 3rd party manufacturer as sure they supply movements to 5 or more brands even a fashion brand and some talk of in the future maybe they will sell 3rd party but maybe not as good.

I'm not sure if having a a free-spring balance would be better for reliability and being uontonhabdle abuse but I have a few friends who purchased Tudor watches and one was running slow and the other stopped. Both went to get serviced by Tudor and they send them back movements with different serial numbers ( one ended up getting a refund) this was a while ago so no idea what they are like now.

ETA.

While an ETA was my second auto movement I do prefer ETA 2824-2 movements over Stellita SW200-1 movements, have had problems with both.

I have no idea about the handwinders like on the Hamilton field khaki

But I have a pre-coaxial omega with a 23j 2892 and it's a great movement.

But my most accurate movements is a Stellita SW330-2 (it has about 57 hours or power reserve a clone of the 2893) and since the standard 2892/3 movements have 21 jewels I doubt it effects performance maybe omega just put 2 extra jewels on to make it sound fancy but Stellita added 4 jewels to I think the arbour snd mainsping, it seems Stellita adds jewels to most movements but maybe it's not a complete waste on the 2893/3

No handwinding issuies they wind nicely and the SW330-2 setting the time date and GMT hand just feels tighter and better than a friend's 2893

So if you had to choose an auto movement 3rd party what would you choose and if you had the option of going "in house" or using a movement not in production but you could find a vintage one in good condition what would you choose.

As for quartz are 3rd party solar from miyota or s.epson any good?

My first adult sized watch when I was 9 had a miyota 3 hand quartz movement with date and a 10 hour battery life. Now they are discontinuing these movements and I think maybe some Swiss ,3rd party have 8 hours but I have only changed the battery once it lasted well over 10 years and the battery that is in it is at around 10 years but I did put a slightly bigger battery inside as it's all I had.

But I have noticed that both miyota and smepson are selling solar quartz movements

The Miyota is just a simple 3 hander, I have no idea how good they are but I was told in the past an eco drive should last around 30 years if charged regularly but the capacitor / battery will eventually need to be changed.

Has any more advancements come with solar quartz (apart from IC, Bluetooth and such like I have seen on some Casio watches)

Is there something weird about the operation of the Seiko NH38 movement compared to the NH35 and similar movements? I've been told that to use the NH38 you have to unwind the crown, wind the watch, pull out the crown all the way, push in on the crown once, then push in on the crown a second time then screw down the crown. It seems like the NH38 has a lot of extra crown pushing in. Anyone know why the crown/stem/movement has that quirk?

How old are you? Where did you go to school? Where do you live? How many years of experience do you have? What's your salary?

I know this is insane but I will ask anyway. I saw someone make a paper watch and I have a lot of time on my hand and want an insane project. How do I go about this? Is there a source for all the parts and parts specifications ? I know it sounds crazy but I would like to replicate an already existing movement. I will probably fail but I still think it's worth trying tia

Hi! I’m thinking about making my brother a watch for Christmas, and I’m trying to create a watch dial with a custom picture printed on it. Anyone know if there’s anyone out there who will do it? Thanks!

Hey there, I recently finished editing a book which was written by a man who's son has died in war, im going to meet him soon, and I'm thinking of gifting him a watch that has a photo of his son at the dial, with the good looking case at 38mm, as for the movement I think it would be good with vh 31 mecha quartz or just quartz for accuracy, no hour and minute markers (maybe 12 3 6 9) and some nice hands, on a steel jubilee bracelet and a leather strap / military strap if he wont like bracelet, and put that in a wooden gift box. To be honest my budget is terribly low 🫤, and I want to order on Aliexpress, here I will put questions, and I will be so happy if you will answer them all, thank you in advance!

1. Are there sellers that offer engraving on the back of the case?

2. How do I know if the dial will fit in the case, as well as the movement?

3. Is there anything I should add?

4. What do you like and what you do not?

5. How would you do it?

Like an idiot I forgot to go slowly with the setting lever screw and now it’s loose but I can’t get the stem out to actually take apart the movement and reseat it as it’s still in the case.

Any ideas to get the stem out would be appreciated.

I have a VK63 movement that has a defective battery latch that won’t hold the battery in place. In the same order, they sent me the wrong dial as well. If I return these, how long do I have to expect my money back and how trustworthy is their return policy?

Hi Guys, So i'm trying to get a replacement Push pin and button for the y121 Movement. Does anyone know the size i need and is there a specific size for the push button? Apologies if this is a silly question, i've got a few but don't seem to fit. Many thanks!