The gasket system used by Rolex to seal their sapphire crystal (the “glass” that protects the dial and hands) to the watch’s case, is one of the best in the industry. I have yet to encounter a better engineered, more reliable, or impermeable system than the one they employ on their Oyster cases. In an [...]

Ever since John Harrison first used them in his H4 pocket watch, to defeat the longitude problem, jewel bearings have played a pivotal role in the precision of nearly every serious watch or chronometer produced since. They are now so ubiquitous and commonplace that most watchmakers take them for granted. We shouldn’t. The time and [...]

Here’s a handy tip for letting down the power in the mainspring of an ETA or Valjoux 7750, without the hassle of disassembling the automatic section, achieved by lifting the click spring out of its seating and disengaging the reverser stop click. Check out the video below for a breakdown of the steps involved. Via [...]

A few months ago we showed you a mainplate from a watch that had somehow come to be damaged through severe mishandling. Today, we’re going to show you another damaged mainplate. This time, from a modern watch calibre, whose mainplate was damaged through a combination of poor engineering, overuse, and lack of service. The mainplate [...]

A short interview with the highly esteemed, master watchmaker, Philippe Dufour, debuted today on TheTImeTV, detailing some of the plans that lie ahead for an initiative he has been spearheading alongside Robert Greubel and Stephen Forsey of Greubel-Forsey. Their ambition with the project is simply this: to demonstrate and archive all of the necessary skills [...]