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 [...]
September 10, 2008 – 3:11 pm
I had the pleasure of getting a look under the hood of Omega’s vintage chronograph calibre 321 for the first time this week and was duly impressed. Predecessor to the now classic calibre 861, which earned its place in the history books as the movement which ran in the famed “First Watch Worn on the [...]
August 11, 2008 – 10:25 am
I recently had a client inquire as to why the minute hand on his watch always seemed to trail the second hand by half a minute or so whenever he set the time. This can be a common problem, particularly on mechanical watches because they need to be set more often. Most people either don’t [...]
If there’s one thing I’ve learnt about this industry since stepping behind the red curtain, it’s that it’s not all that the glossed horological PR front makes it out to be. I have had a number of disappointing revelations about my trade since I first set out to become a watchmaker, and my school was [...]
