I have been fascinated by the idea of mechanical watches. Last month I ordered an HMT Pilot from India, still haven't received the watch yet. I'm not a rich man and my budget is limited. Recommend me a very cheap, but decent watch.

I'm looking to start a difficult side project where I want to create my own mechanical/automatic watch movement entirely from scratch, including a gyro tourbillon and all the intricate engineering involved. I aim to design and build everything myself (exept the gears, jewels and screws), and I'm looking for resources to guide me through the process.

Specifically, I'm searching for a book that covers:

Designing and constructing mechanical watch movements(like different various you can set one up or explaining when you would need e.g 2 main springs). Engineering complications like gyro tourbillons. The step-by-step process

I’d prefer a book (in English, German or Danish) that doesn’t rely on modern techniques like 3D printing or CAD designing, as I have no experience with that. Something older or traditional, focusing on classic paper scetches, would be ideal.

If anyone knows of any resources, links or books, I’d really appreciate your recommendations!(I want to add I do have a little knowledge but not to much but I have nothing against a complicated book.)

Thanks in advance!

Hello everyone,

I'd like to know the right primer to use before starting to paint with acrylics. ( how many coats? If many are needed) is sanding required in-between coats? I would like to know the varnish I may use after painting.

Thank you all a million for your support.

I remain grateful.

Warm regards Hemanth

Hey all!

I’ve been looking into building my own watch, and I want to try my best. I’ve found the movement i like, but not a case yet. I want to make it skeleton or open heart type, so that you can see all the parts moving and stuff. I can’t find the model number of the movement, or a case that fits. Here are some pics to look into, but would it be possible to use any 36mm case, if the movement is around 33,6 mm? Or is it much more complicated? + I also added the inspiration for the watch i would like to build.

https://preview.redd.it/2skv4qx0eb1e1.jpg?width=2292&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=a0e8e071541ac03a260f3f16056e6770299b627b

https://preview.redd.it/ed8udrx0eb1e1.jpg?width=2154&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=2790c77c602f25c2f362be7f3044a7a35fc4096e

https://preview.redd.it/haf0jqx0eb1e1.jpg?width=2732&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=e04e4231bba89ca2472c18273401ac7864e34de7

https://preview.redd.it/xq2t5sx0eb1e1.jpg?width=1289&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=2ae34deab7445afa4be059dc5a08fa6f239791f8

Hello folks,

I’m going to be undergoing a spinal surgery where some bone is removed (likely small shavings), and I’m trying to see if I can keep the bone. If so, I want to incorporate them into something to wear - one thought as I’m just starting to enjoy watches would be to have custom watch hands made of the bone, or to otherwise somehow incorporate the bone into a watch. Would anyone have any ideas/recommendations who I should talk to about this, or how to proceed?

Thank you!

I never seem to have the mainspring I need when servicing old, typically manual wind watches. I bought some batches from ebay, but they tend to be mostly cocktail sized mainsprings. Aka, the junk nobody wants. Is there a place I can get a decent assortment of mainsprings?

Hi, I’m new to watchmaking I have been involved with the buying and selling of watches but have always been interested in making and repairing. Does anyone know any online courses where I could do watchmaking and get a degree, I’m uk based and can’t really travel anywhere like weekly so I am in need of a degree, need some advice, thank you in advance :)

Hi everyone, I recently bought a NH38 for a build and it arrived yesterday apparenting to be working fine.

I made the build and everything went according to plan, but this morning when I picked up the watch it was not working. I figured it was a matter of it being storaged for quite some time and running out of winding but even after winding it manually and moving it around to see if the self winding mechanism would work the watch still does not work at all. (The balance wheel is not moving at all)

If anyone is aware of a possible solution I would appreciate if you could share it with me.

I got around to finally installing https://www.amazon.com/Mechanical-Winding-Movement-Wholesale-Discount/dp/B096ZKJFBW into a case with this dial, https://www.ebay.com/itm/395386286316

Problem is that I can't install the dial to the movement using the eccentric screws that bite into the dial feet. It appears to me that the dial feet are maybe both too short and maybe not thick enough?

Is it somehow possibly user error or do I just need to give up on this movement and move on to better quality movements?

I think I screwed up. Everyone kept saying make sure the whole thing is nh35 and you won’t have issues. Made my order and now my dial is so small compared to the watch case. Does the dial size need to grow to fit the case, even though both are nh35? I’m completely new to this and I think I’m already hooked.

Startup founder building a custom minimalist skeleton watch with a multilayered openwork dial—something elegant, with depth but not overly complicated. I’m inspired by the beauty of exposing the mechanical movement but I’d like to keep the movement simple, considering ETA 7001 or Unitas 6497/6498. I’m dedicating up to a year to the project and my design will feature bronze/copper hands and a two-layer skeletonized dial.

Questions:

✨Learning Resources: Any book recommendations, online courses, or tutorials on watchmaking and skeletonization? ✨Essential Tools: What basic tools do I need to assemble a skeletonized watch? I’m hoping to keep costs low and start with the basics. ✨Cost-Effective Sourcing: Where can I find affordable, quality components (e.g., ETA 7001, bronze hands)? For keeping costs down, which parts should I buy and which should I try to make myself?

So I know you can get lume watch dials. But, is it possible to get one where parts of the dial face glow. Not all of it, just small selective dots. The best way to explain it is, would it be possible to have a night sky and the stars in the sky had the lume effect?

Sorry if it’s a stupid question

San Martin 40mm Watch NH35 Automatic Mechanical Waterproof 200m Gradient Red Dial SN0118-G1 SN0118

I want to know if the back of this watch can be changed out to be a transparent one. Where would o get the part? How can i figure out if this can work and where to get that part?

https://www.aliexpress.us/item/3256806675735914.html

Hi,

The title pretty much sums up what I want to do. I wanted to get into watchmaking for a while so got 7 defective watches from Ebay for 15 Euros with shipping included. Unfortunately almost all of them are pretty much garbage 1 jewel or 0 jewel movements. I want to sacrifice these to learn some basics. But I am not sure if they are suitable for this purpose since the movements are so low end. Anyway there are some photos:

I want your opinions to what to do with these. Should I start messing with them or should I get a more common and simple new movement like Seagull ST36 to try taking it apart and putting it back. I do not have proper tools yet so I will have to buy those before doing anything anyway and I can get new movements to experiment with as well.

Here I have 2 same Kienzle German movements with 0 jewels but both of them have ruined hairsprings it seems so I can not make 1 working watch from 2 of them.

The watch I like the most is this no brand one. It won't stay wind up. The gears slip back uncontrollably if I wind it up a bit and unwind themselves but it still barely works with the stored energy. I feel like this has the highest change of being restored as it will run if the problem with the self unwinding gets solved.

I like the military watch look here

Again very basic movement. Seems like a good place to practice

There is also this Automatic watch with calendar. I think this one looks pretty good too but the movement is lot more complex so I will not touch it. It will not wind up and the rotor was loose in the case. The time can be adjusted but something with the winding mechanism seems to be seized.

It does look pretty though.

way to complex to practice with

There is this very uninteresting looking small watch, I was expecting it to be garbage quartz but it is actually mechanical:

https://preview.redd.it/du1zhut4ww0e1.jpg?width=6240&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=1b2b0232f60c90065df03a3fe1c4d3ba22fd18ee

I was not expecting to see such a movement in there. Still low end I assume, also has no crown for some reason. Is there a way to get crowns for these?

Other than that there is this unrepairable garbage timex movement on the right:

https://preview.redd.it/zttzop5dww0e1.jpg?width=6240&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=9eb49d88796f882fd4e13bb6d7682849219d4c0f

And these are the garbage German watches I talked about, I did not bother with taking a good photo of these:

https://preview.redd.it/n7v57o3hww0e1.jpg?width=6240&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=8801196a2a12d91a8873fa625be200b2ba80cdb9

Looks like I got what I paid for. I had no expectations here and only got these to learn and get into the hobby. Any advice is appreciated.

I'm trying to learn how to disassemble, service, and reassemble a watch. I tried once without knowing what I was doing, ruined it immediately. Watched a bunch of youtube videos, bought a bunch of tools, and tried again. I now have 2 more that I made worse lol. One of them was too ambitious, an automatic with day/date. I have definitely improved at some things but I'm wondering how many watch movements I'm going to have to buy here and what a normal number of tries is before you succeed.