February 19, 2009 – 8:59 am
Russian Watch Lover left a comment about my review of a Vostok watch I serviced. He asks what I would recommend for a mechanical watch under $100. Don’t get attached to it. When you buy a mechanical watch for under $100 you should expect it to be only moderately accurate (within 10 or 15 seconds [...]
February 10, 2009 – 8:44 am
Probablly not, but I bet you want one. Our friends at watch site perpetuelle.com are currently running a contest until April 2nd where you can win an Omega Speedmaster Date (retail $2,980) simply by: 1)signing up to their site, 2) visiting this forum, and 3) starting a new discussion topic which includes a photo of [...]
February 9, 2009 – 4:16 pm
This article puts what I do into an entirely different perspective. I strive for watches to be accurate within a couple of seconds a day. These guys make clocks that if they had been built during the big bang would still be accurate to within a second. Super Clocks It’s a good thing people like [...]
January 23, 2009 – 8:59 am
It’s that time of the year already. SIHH (Salon Internationalde de Haute Horlogerie) is several months before Basel this year (it’s going on now)and the blogosphere is reporting lots of new models from the Richemont brands and the few other brands exhibiting there. You might check out Men’s Watch Review for some of the models [...]
December 12, 2008 – 1:45 pm
You may have missed the first puzzler back in March. I don’t have any prize available at the moment but I would love to hear what you all think about this one. Don’t forget to think like a watchmaker. The customer brought this watch to me today. The crown came off in his hand with [...]
November 3, 2008 – 9:13 pm
With the exception of the Pavel Bure pocket watch I serviced a while back this was the first Russian watch I have serviced. The watch is a 17 Jewel manual wind Vostok. Here are my impressions: Overall finish of the movement is very poor. I have seen Chinese counterfeit movements that were as well finished [...]
October 30, 2008 – 9:57 pm
As a watchmaker I strive to leave no marks in a watch. It is always my goal to return a watch to a state that is like new. Some watchmakers will scribe a repair mark in the case back. Other watchmakers use a permanent marker to write inside the case back. I leave nothing. But [...]
October 28, 2008 – 10:35 am
I sometimes have to deal with a watch company which I won’t name (it’s not Rolex) that has trouble with their customer service. On a recent occasion I was told that despite their invoice stating that case refinishing was a part of their full service they were unable to refinish a certain style of bezel. [...]
October 25, 2008 – 10:36 am
The New York Times released an advertising supplement this past week focused on watches. The articles were way better than average for this sort of thing. One of their features was a new website they have launched for watch lovers. The user interface is unique and it has boutiques for many high end watch brands. [...]
October 20, 2008 – 8:11 am
In a continuation of posts on the fundamentals of watches here comes talk of the gear train. The first post discussed the mainspring and barrel. A gear train is a collection of toothed wheels and pinions which interact to transfer rotational energy from one location to another. As watchmakers we usually talk about these elements [...]
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