I am composing this online guide to hand down the 20+ years of experience, repairing watches, to others who would like to discover the art of watch fixing. It is completely totally free for anybody to use although it is aimed at the battery fitter, jeweller or amateur watch repairer who has a percentage previous experience and wish to begin healing watches. I am restricting my guide to Quartz enjoys just as this is a subject that is not covered well elsewhere and yet they are most of watches you will be asked to repair. Mending mechanical and automatic watches are covered in lots of locations and books (i gained from this book 'Practical Watch Repairing' by Donald de Carle which is an old book but great) however to repair and fix these takes a lot more experience. This is why when fixing mechanical watches you can charge more cash for repairing one of these than you can charge for repairing most of quartz watches.
Regardless of this, there is decent money to be made repairing quartz watches and it is much easier to find out too as there is less variation. The simple reason that fixing a quartz watch is simpler is they have actually not altered much in the last 30 years while mechanical watches have actually been around for centuries while the first Quartz Watch was produced in 1969.
To be a Good Watch Repairer you require experience so it is a life times learning to become qualified mechanical watch maker (horologist), while you can rapidly broaden your service into repairing quartz watches with this online guide.
In this guide I assume you can open a watch back, change a bracelet and utilize standard tools properly. If not, then this guide might not be for you (if I get time in the future I will make a beginners guide too).
OBVIOUSLY you can't just start turning screws ... there are a variety of things you will require to do (and get) in preparation. You will have far better outcomes, and a a lot more satisfying experience if you make the effort, effort, and expenditure to get the majority of the products listed below BEFORE beginning. Remember that these are simply the bare essentials ... a severe repair person has numerous other specialized tools ... but we'll conserve that for another discussion. The bottom line is that preparation and having the ideal devices is vital to success of any repair work job!.
Workspacerkspace with a tidy, flat surface area. For a beginner a cooking area table will do just fine, but as you become more major you might wish to consider a watchbench made specially for repairing watches and a good fluorescent lamp which is easier on the eyes. A watchbench has small integrated in drawers for all of the tools and parts you make sure to build up gradually.
The style is high, with a surface area that (when sitting) is close to the face so the repair work individual does not need to downturn over when working. Some technicians will put cork or linoleum on the surface area. These soft products stop parts from bouncing away, and aren't hard sufficient to harm anything dropped on them. Some benches even have a slide out "parts catcher" that presses versus the stomach when sitting. Mine is a wood frame with a loose piece of canvas tacked to the bottom. When a part is dropped and goes "over the edge", this fantastic device captures it!
A lot of novices will (as discussed above) begin at a kitchen area table. A good pointer for operating at a table is to put down a fine piece of white fabric (like a plain white pillowcase or cheesecloth) to do your work on. The primary benefit for doing this is if you drop one of the parts, it won't bounce away and become lost. I recommend white since tiny screws (and so on) are simple to find. This practice will also conserve your table from scratches, and secure your watch from the tables difficult surface. To keep it from shifting, you might wish to think about taping it down with masking tape as well.
Screw-driver set
You WILL require an excellent set of watchmakers screwdrivers. This is a MUST. The sets found at the outlet store for working on glasses and so on will trigger more difficulty than they deserve. They are not accuracy made and you will easily damage or remove the extremely polished screws found in a lot of watches. The eager eye of a severe watch collector will pick this up instantly; it diminishes the appearance of the Helpful resources watch thus decreasing worth of your watch. Locate and purchase a set of watchmakers screwdrivers. Even a beginners set will be far better than anything you can discover at the dollar-store.
The appropriate method to hold it (Right Below) is to grip the screwdriver shaft between the thumb and middle finger, with the index finger on the cupped end (which turns). Press down on the top of the screwdriver and rotate it in between your thumb and middle finger; turning the screw.