Skip navigation

Monthly Archives: February 2008

Micromechanics, Part I

February 6, 2008 – 9:36 pm

By request, today I will go into more depth on my micromechanics training. To review, I attended the Lititz Watch Technicum. It is a WOSTEP Partner school in Lititz, PA fully funded by Rolex. The first major segment of the training covers micromechanical skills needed for watch repair. Before we ever started working on actual [...]

By J.Peter | Posted in Watchmaking School, watchmaking | Comments (4)

Super Tuesday

February 5, 2008 – 10:39 pm

I know it’s not the weekend, but I can’t resist this opportunity to comment mid-week on a non-watch related topic. Here in New Mexico voter turnout for the democratic caucus was high today. It was the first ever caucus in New Mexico and polls were open from noon to 7pm. In Rio-Rancho some voters waited [...]

By J.Peter | Posted in Weekend Offtopic | Comments (0)

Mainspring Winders

February 5, 2008 – 10:26 pm

On this Super Tuesday edition of Tuesday Tools I focus on mainspring winders. Why does a watchmaker need mainspring winders, if we always replace the mainspring when we service it? Occasionally when you receive a new mainspring from a supply house it is wound too large to simply “shoot” it into the barrel. When this [...]

By J.Peter | Posted in Tuesday Tools, watchmaking | Comments (3)

Break-In Period — True or False?

February 4, 2008 – 7:56 pm

I don’t spend tons of time in watch forums like Timezone, but I have spent a fair amount of time over the past few years. One of the things people are always discussing is a “break-in period” for a mechanical watch. Here is my official opinion on the matter. I say opinion but it is [...]

By J.Peter | Posted in watches, watchmaking | Comments (0)

A tribute to Gordon B. Hickley

February 3, 2008 – 8:55 pm

I lost a good friend last Sunday, that I had never met. Gordon B. Hinkley, president & prophet of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints passed away last Sunday. Although I never met GBH in person I have heard him speak countless times and read so many of his writings, speeches, sermons, & [...]

By J.Peter | Posted in Weekend Offtopic | Comments (0)

OSU Watchmaking

February 3, 2008 – 8:17 pm

The University of Oklahoma has revamped it’s watchmaking program. It is unclear to me if they remain a WOSTEP partner school or not, it looks like they are focusing on AWCI-CW21 recognition instead. That would be a bold move, but I believe it would be a smart one. A press release on the school’s web [...]

By J.Peter | Posted in Watchmaking School, watchmaking | Comments (2)

Announcing a new blog in Spanish

February 3, 2008 – 3:24 pm

Since I speak spanish and recently stumbled upon some great blogs in spanish dedicated to watches I have decided to launch a spanish language version of this blog. You will find it at ElRelojMeHabla.wordpress.com I invite all you spanish speakers to visit me there. Debido a que hablo el español y a cabo de descubrir [...]

By J.Peter | Posted in watches, watchmaking | Comments (0)

Does my watch really need to be serviced every X years?

February 1, 2008 – 9:12 pm

I have seen this question on the internet countless times and I’ve heard it in person plenty of times. For example: I tell customers that their modern watch should be serviced about every 5 years. Does it need to be serviced that often? Yes! I’m not going to go on about the analogy with the [...]

By J.Peter | Posted in watches, watchmaking | Comments (3)