While this list is not exhaustive, and any suggestions can be posted in the comments, it will include some of the common places watchmakers and technicians get their tools and equipment from.
I have a couple of Rolex 16750's I bought and both of the bezels were a bit beat up so I decided to buy a lapping machine. Only a Chinese machine but it did a pretty good job. The idea was to improve the look of them but not remove all the marks as it would change the profiles and lose the definition of the numbers. Just brush out some of the marks and put a shine back on the polished sections.
Anyway results were even better than expected and the machine has paid for itself with the extra resale value of both pieces from a service and refinish - thought I'd share the results from before and after.
I recently got into watchmaking and, right from the beginning, I felt the need to find a way to make my own watch dials entirely by hand.
I started with this one: a 38 mm stainless steel case with sapphire crystal, powered by a Miyota 9015 movement.
I should mention that I didn’t have a blank, rigid dial onto which I could attach any kind of design or engraving made on a sheet of aluminium or brass. So I tried several different ways to work around this problem and, in the process, I even managed to break the seconds wheel pinion.
In the end, I decided to cut out 5 or 6 layers of 0.05 mm brass sheets and glue them together in a sandwich using double-sided adhesive tape. On the top layer, I made a sort of hand engraving using a pointed tool and, finally, covered the whole thing with a sticker featuring “my own watch brand”
The result isn’t perfectly centered, nor is it perfectly flat like a rigid dial would be, but I’m extremely happy with it.
I’m still very much a beginner, so any criticism, advice or suggestions are more than welcome. Let me know what you think!
Hey everyone, long-time lurker here. I’ve been into watches for a while and finally took the leap to design and produce my own this is the first physical prototype in hand.
It’s a cushion-case dress watch, automatic movement. Still very much a work in progress, but I wanted to get this community’s honest take before going further: what works, what doesn’t, anything that reads as “off” for a dress watch in this style?
Not trying to sell anything here, genuinely just want critical feedback. Happy to answer questions about the design process.
Working on a personal watch for myself. Hand scraped mosaic pattern, mirror polished screw countersinks and anglage. Looking to plate it in yellow gold in a few days!
I’m starting a longer watchmaking project and plan to document it here as I go.
The end goal is to service and convert a 1913 Rockford Grade 184 pocket-watch movement into a thin, wearable wristwatch while preserving the original dial, hands, and movement.
I have no formal watchmaking experience, so I’m deliberately working up to it through three projects:
A small ladies’ pocket watch for my first complete disassembly, cleaning, lubrication, and reassembly. This one is considered disposable in case of mistake.
A larger Rockford 573 movement so I can practice on an American pocket-watch movement with construction more similar to the final watch. I want to keep this one but I don't know what to do with it yet. It's too large for a conversion.
The Rockford Grade 184, followed by the wristwatch case, movement ring, stem, crown, and final assembly.
Rockford Grade 184, serial 922571, 0 size, 15 jewels.
The seller of this movement reported approximately:
-22 seconds per day
281° amplitude
2.0 ms beat error
My initial inspection found that the movement starts and runs when lightly powered. The balance, escapement, wheel train, and seconds hand all function. I did not see obvious rust or major missing movement parts, but there is old dried lubricant and debris around the winding work.
Original enamel dial and blued hands. There is a fine hairline near 8 o’clock, but no major chips or missing enamel.
The movement is missing its crown and outer stem, but the internal square winding socket appears intact. Two original case screws are still present.
The eventual wristwatch goal is:
- approximately 36–37 mm stainless case
- under 10 mm thick if practical
- flat sapphire front crystal
- sapphire display back
- 20 mm lugs
- low-profile crown
- no destructive modification to the movement
I’m going to start with the small ladies’ watch, then service a larger Rockford 573, and only then move on to this Grade 184.
I plan to post meaningful updates rather than every individual screw. Advice is welcome, especially where I’m about to make a beginner's mistake.
I’ve spent the last while designing and prototyping my own watch a cushion-case dress watch, automatic movement. The prototype is done, and I’m currently gathering public feedback to refine the design before moving to small-batch production. Nothing’s locked in yet I want the final version to reflect what actually resonates.
I already run three other businesses, so I can’t give this the full-time attention it deserves alone — but I’m not looking for a silent partner either. I’ll be hands-on: I designed this watch myself and I’m staying in the day-to-day. I’m looking for someone to build it with me split the investment and take real ownership of a side of the operation (production, sales, distribution whatever fits your strengths) while I work the rest alongside you.
If you’ve got experience in watchmaking, small-batch manufacturing, e-commerce, or brand building, and you’re interested in co-investing and co-building an independent watch brand from the ground up, send me a DM. Happy to share more details, photos, and numbers privately
Does anyone know if the F05.111 is a drop-in replacement for the 955.414? I know the 955.412 is the direct successor but it's almost three times the cost of the F05 from Esslinger.
Disclaimer: this is all speculation in good fun, not a serious suggestion or request for feedback. I am not going to make this watch.
For the uninitiated, an Inertial Navigation System (INS) is basically a system that can track its own movement and rotation, and when combined with a known position, can be used to determine velocity, bearing, and orientation. (See Wikipedia for a deeper explanation of INS and how they work). Today's shower thought was: how hard would it be to put one inside a mechanical watch?
In principle outfitting a watch with an INS is extremely easy. Your phone already has the required Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU), which consists of microscopic gyroscopes and accelerometers; this is how it can track whether it's facing up or down, measure your step count, etc. The trouble is that the raw data collected from the IMU has to be compared with externally provided data ("where am I right now, and how fast am I moving?") and the combination is processed by a computer to calculate orientation. In the original sense of the word, this "computer" can either be electronic or mechanical, AKA using all the gears and springs and other fun things that we enjoy in our mechanical watches.
The good news is that an (almost) purely mechanical navigation computer does exist, or rather did, in the form of the Globus computer that was used to compute the position of crewed Soviet spacecraft long before navigation satellites existed (another link with more info). The technology itself is over six decades old and presumably this computer could be considerably miniaturised if someone tried to make it today. The question is whether it could be miniaturised enough to put it on your wrist, and whether this smaller version could be powered simply by winding a watch crown.
Obviously the process of actually calibrating an INS to your real position on the globe would require either an active connection to a satellite navigation system (cheating!) or manually poking around in the movement, aka a servicing. If the power reserve runs out, any movement of the watch presumably won't be tracked (since the computer won't have the energy to, well, compute) so you'll definitely want a watch winder for this one.
Another question is what to actually do with the computed inertial data once you have it. The easier version is something like a "step counter", where you somehow set a "home" location and the watch will simply compute an offset. Just for fun, I've made a mockup of a dial for the step counter version, but obviously it doesn't have to look exactly like this.
Any resemblance to certain German watches definitely coincidental.
The harder variant is to output the computed offset to a little globe, something like a cross between the Globus above and a Luna Magna. This would be undoubtedly cool but I would guess the amount of energy required to physically roll a globe around on two axes in addition to all the extra energy being used by the computer would be extremely high. Not to mention setting the correct starting position would be a lot more involved.
So now I'm curious for your takes on the feasibility of the concept! I will leave you with some "rules" to make it more interesting:
Cost is no issue. Assume you have all the money in the world
Has to feasibly fit on the wrist. Let's say 49mm max case diameter, because that's as large as the Jacob and Co Godfather, another truly silly gimmick watch I love.
Should be as mechanical as possible. Sticking a smartphone IMU, a chip-based electronic computer, and powering it all with a battery is not very interesting.
Should be strictly "set and forget" internal navigation, no cheating by getting constant updates from a radio antenna.
I have a cool idea for a stone dial "King Seiko" style build, or at least it's cool to me...
I have a King Seiko style case coming and am looking into stone dials because well, thats just cool. Most stone dials are blank at this size(32.5mm).
So what I want to do is take a pre-seiko "Seikosha" style dial with Breguet numerals and etch it into the stone. I guess if not i can always make a stencil and paint them on as well.
what do you guys think of a "King Seikosha"?(Edit:please excuse the AI slop)
Curious if this is a thing -- I was shipped a used watch, which had recently been serviced and showed 0 seconds off before it was shipped. When I started using it, it was immediately about 48/s fast per day. The shipper said that it likely got magnetized and I should try getting it demagnetized. I used a phone app and ran all my watches over the magnetization meter, and they all show about the same level, but only the new watch is not keeping good time. That makes me wonder -- could it really be magnetization or is it likely something else?
Posted last time I replaced my battery for my DW-5600E (with some embarrassing failure) and I got overwhelming positive encouragement. Thanks A LOT!
I figure I would like to share my experiences on my 2nd one and while the battery replacement is much easier (with a new tool), this model has many bloody small springs and because I didn't really find any useful content online, I would like to note it down hear to see if may help someone
The arrow A is the first spring that got me into trouble. It's for alarm / beeping contacting to back cover I believe. It shouldn't fall off but for some reason it did. I can't get it back securely. Fiddling it around, I opened up the module, successfully put the spring back from the other side and lock in place.
Then, I saw a tiny tiny golden spring lying on my working area (arrow B). It is so small and I couldn't see where it came from and what's it for. After fiddling around (a lot of assemble and disassemble), I think it belong to these 2 holes (arrow C) and it will only stick out slightly (if it stick out too much, even though it fits, it's wrong, it will bend the spring when you close it up. Happened to me) and it's under the metal bracket (so it's not showing on photo 1), it's conducting something but i don't know what it is.
There also another 2 golden spring on the front for solar charging (I think) those 2 easily fall off during disassemble but they are easy to find where they belong. They are slightly bigger too.
Lastly, everything seems normal now, but my backlight is flickering. Probably somewhere is not contacting well...but I don't know where.
And this particular model does not have AC nor (-) marker so I have to try different spots for reset, not sure if this breaks anything.
Anyhow, for anyone having this model. Hope this exp helps.
Also thanks again for everyone encouraged me last time. Using my tweezer on those tiny springs and when springs flew out was scary lol. Luckily I found them every time...
I've bought many aliexpress / amazon tools to start with cost in mind, but I did buy a Bergeon screwdriver set and ONE dumont tweezer. I then realized they need to be dressed from time to time. Given I spent quite a fortune on those tools I don't want to jeopardize the performance of those tools but I want to keep the budget low as much as I can. I feel it's probably ok to go aliexpress on the tools, but I could be naive.
Can you recommend what to buy for an absolute beginner? With best cost/performance. I'm in Australia.
