December 23, 2008 – 8:45 am
Up until just recently, setting the current phase of the moon on a client’s watch at work used to involve me referring to a calendar on the wall and then counting off the number of days since the last full or new moon. I would then use this information to set the watch, first [...]
December 11, 2008 – 8:38 pm
I’ve been curiousily investigating transparent electrodes to try and develop a larger touch display for my Tissot T Touch, in hopes of one day being able to develop it into pocket watch dimensions. I love my T Touch, though I tend to use it mainly for adventuring and rarely ever pull it out for daily [...]
December 10, 2008 – 9:56 am
The mystery has been solved! Several months ago, we posted about a set of mystery tubes made of brass that ended up proving themselves useful to repair the seconds counter hand for a vintage chronograph movement. As it so happens, those mystery tubes are actually bushing wire, and hail from a time when zero and [...]
December 8, 2008 – 11:03 am
My birthday is coming up this weekend and because I won’t be able to make it home to visit my family then, they decided to throw an early birthday dinner for me while I was home for a short visit. Among the much appreciated gifts, including some new hiking gear and a few surfing documentaries, [...]
November 27, 2008 – 8:16 am
Earlier this week, the watchmaker who works beside me handed me a watch that he was having an impossible time trying to get a damaged bracelet off of. The screwbar attaching the bracelet to the case had not been properly installed in the past and a sizeable portion of the screw head on one side [...]
October 27, 2008 – 11:02 am
Last week I mentioned that I would carry out some tests with a fellow watchmaker to confirm whether or not the rose-coloured plating on vintage Omega watches contained any gold, as a follow up to a discussion that sprouted off of this post on the Omega 321. Following are the results from the samples we tested.
J.Peter made a [...]
October 24, 2008 – 8:30 am
As J.Peter alluded to in his post on mainsprings, replacements for many older mainsprings are no longer being produced and the reserve stock available through parts suppliers is beginning to wane thin.
I happened to have just such a mainspring, for an old chronograph, come across my bench several days ago for which I was unable [...]
October 21, 2008 – 3:11 pm
One of my favourite clocks has been stolen, right from the wall of Craiglea Clocks in Edinburgh, Scotland.
A small, understated, one of a kind piece, it is - to the best of my knowledge - the most accurate mechanical tidal clock in existance. Built by retired clockmaker, Archie McQuater, it is able to predict spring [...]
October 19, 2008 – 7:29 pm
An interesting thread of comments sprouted over the weekend on this post, which made reference to the types of plating used on Omega movements.
Click here to join in the discussion.
I have made arrangements with a fellow watchmaker to subject some old-stock Omega bridges to a standard jeweler’s gold test later in the week and will report [...]
September 18, 2008 – 10:16 am
Two weeks ago I attended the wedding of a good friend from watchmaking school, who also happens to be a fellow co-founder of Alliance Horlogère. At the reception afterwards, I sat with another great friend of ours who is also a watchmaker. As might be expected, the conversation throughout the evening drifted in and out of what we’ve [...]
