Watchmaking

[Anonymous No.1645323]

I want to get into watchmaking. What tools do I need get into horology? What's the best introduction to it?

[Anonymous No.1645420]

>>1645323
i don't know much about this field but I know you're gonna need a good set of files

[Anonymous No.1645502]

>>1645323
I think you need to have a good set of screwdrivers desingned for that.
Some kind of optical zoom.
And you probably know some parts.

[Anonymous No.1646554]

>>1645323
>What's the best introduction to it?

Usually a 6 to 10 year apprentice position.

You don't know anything about watchmaking.

Buying the tools won't give you the ability to repair or assemble watches.

[Anonymous No.1646625]

http://www.clockmaker.com.au/diy_seiko_7s26/chapter1.html

[Anonymous No.1647003]

Probably your best bet is to look into getting into quartz watch repair (you can get the movements pretty cheap) and focus on surface work. Ie work on strap replacements, replacing crystals, replacing gaskets, maybe some face work.

Once you get used to that and start collecting some tools you might want to look at "building" your own watch. Otto Frie is my go to tool place.

[Anonymous No.1647017]

>>1645323
As someone who has actually studied this, take an introductory class from TimeZone Watch School. It will cost you a few hundred dollars but you'll have an idea of the workings of a mechanical watch and an ETA 2801 watch. The base class doesn't go into advanced topics like proper oiling or replacing jewels, not that you're going to drop another few hundred on the tools required to do so. If you go through all their classes and decide you want to make a career out of it, try and get into a SAWTA school (http://www.sawtacertification.org/the-schools)), it's a 2-year full-time program.

[Anonymous No.1648218]

The best introduction is probably the Timezone course or one of the Mark Lovic courses.

I went to school and have been doing it professionally for 20 years. But for a year or so before school I would work on them to get practice, with a set of screwdrivers a couple of pairs of tweezers movement holder and like one type of oil and a fine oiler. Parts cleaned in lighter fluid. With just those tools you can do basic work. I had a jewelry supply house in my town and got good Dumont tweezers and real screwdrivers; the local library had several books on the subject. You can do it.

[Anonymous No.1648265]

how do these retards function in real life?
>I want to get into a difficult hobby but I'm too retarded to even google the basics

[Anonymous No.1648318]

>>1648218
>good Dumont tweezers and real screwdrivers
Dumonts are based but I have a set of nice Bergeon screwdrivers and they suck ass - the set screws that hold the blades in the handle come loose and allow the blades to slide up and down, and the blades themselves chip and deform so easily. For the kind of money I paid (I think it was $250 for an 8-screwdriver set), I'd expect some carbide tips or some shit. At least hardened tool steel.

[Anonymous No.1648486]

George Daniels book on watchmaking.
https://www.amazon.com/Watchmaking-George-Daniels/dp/0856677043
There also used to be a correspondents course on watchmaking, from back when watchmaking and repairing was an actual standard career.
I forget which one it was, but it was probably from the 1950s or 1960s.
It won’t help too much with quarts watches, but if you learn the info from the Daniels book and the correspondents course, you should be set for making high end watches.

George Daniels made watches have sold at auction for $200,000 and up.

[Anonymous No.1648527]

>>1648318
Facom makes mini watchmaking size screwdrivers in France.
I don’t know it they actually make them themselves, or whether there’s a separate French manufacturer, although I suspect the later.
While I haven’t used them for watch purposes, the quality seems high.
You want the metal handled version.
The same screwdrivers are sold under the USAG brand, which is part of Facom.

Alternatively, moody in the US makes nice screwdrivers.

[Anonymous No.1648643]

>>1645323
I've heard good things about Toyo/Proxxon/Sakai etc (same, just rebrands) mini lathes like the ML-210 for watchmaking. They're maybe a little big if anything, but good precision. Also fairly simple to convert to CNC.

[Anonymous No.1648700]

>>1648527
I have a no-name set of 'french' screwdrivers as well as the Bergeon set. Both in the spinning stand. Even though they were probably around a third the cost of the Bergeon, I do believe the french set is much higher quality, albeit not as pretty.

[Anonymous No.1648756]

>>1648318
The set screw working loose is a problem with all watchmaker's screwdrivers. As to tip quality, I use mainly Horotec and they are great, I have a bunch of really old Bergeon and Bob (used to be a common maker, they had ball bearing heads decades before Horotec existed) that are fine too. Carbide would be too fragile. The blades should be just soft enough to be able to file them, about equivalent to "blue" steel or like 57 rockwell.

I don't think Facom or anyone else make appropriate screwdrivers. The three I use the most are 1mm, 0.8mm, and 0.6mm. That's pretty small.

[Anonymous No.1650889]

>>1648756
The Facom screwdrivers are available in some smaller sizes.
I’ve also found sets of the Watchmaker screwdrivers labelled Made in France, that are identical to the Facom drivers, and some Horotec sets are also Made in France, and also look identical.
Whoever in France is making the screwdrivers, they make nice drivers.