Watch Repair

I developed a love for certain kinds of watches many years ago, before I come to America. I have many watches, most of them quite expensive

With all of these watches comes maintenance expense. I have some watches that use batteries and I have to send them to a repair shop to just change the batteries. The reason is that the watches have perpetual calendars and know what month and date it is regardless of the month and even a leap year. Sending my watches to these places always meant at least $150. With as many watches as I have that is quite the expense.

So I go to Youtube. You can find Everything on Youtube, even watch repair and programming perpetual calendar watches.

Now there are also videos for disassembly, cleaning and repair of Rolex watches. Rolex watches need to be serviced every couple of years so that is something some of you may want to try to tackle yourselves. I haven't the nerve to do it yet, but I am getting close. I have watched the video several times and believe it is not too bad. The risk is if you mess something up you have to send it in for repair and replacement parts. The expense goes up as well as the wait time for it's return.

So if you have good eyes, a steady hand, and are seriously technical you may want to try this. I use to take cameras apart and clean them as well, when cameras still used film. I have had very high-end Nikon and Canon film cameras apart and put them back together with good results.

Maybe I am the only one, but here goes nothing.

1st thought - make sure you have a clean, well lit repair area. Don't want to lose any one of them tiny parts!

Youtube is great.

I've actually become very interested in I believe its called chronography.been thinking of asking a local jeweler to take me on as an apprentice. the people here are dicks though.I have a decent swiss army watch that is decent.supposedly it might have Omega gears cause the factories are close by but I don't know.I would love to have a 15,000 dollar watch though

You can study a bunch of youtube videos to see if it really interest you and if so take some classes. Once you have done that you have to convince people you are not going to destroy someone else's property at a repair shop

you really only need one watch...and changing the battery aint hard....yeehaw...I can always buy a FOLEX in Tijuana and toss it when it goes bad

I have a cheaper Rolex, not gold, but SS. It was about $4000, but I was not the one to buy it. My wife actually did... Well it was my money but she is the one that decided to get me one. I actually don't know the price so that is just a guess It is two years old and needed to be sent in for cleaning tune up.

I have three or four Seiko Titanium Perpetual Calendar watches that I truly love. The color of Titanium in this form beautiful, strong and hard so it resist scratching, and the calendar is always right, when programmed correctly. Although the movements are analog in nature, the hands and calendar are being driven by a micro processor. So when you take the battery out, it loses it's program. It has to be programmed to know what month and day it is, and if it is a leap year. I get about 5 years to those batteries, but hate to send it off to Seiko for another $150 USD plus battery change. Youtube videos are very detailed, with large clear images and show you how to properly program the month, day, year and leap year. These are some of my favorite watches because they are so light, yet scratch resistant.

I read a few years ago that the Dali Lama love watches and he loves to repair and upkeep of his collection. He got his first watch in 1945 from Franklin Roosevelt, an expensive gold Rolex when he was 7. That watch is start part of his collection. The Dali Lama loves to repair watches for the fun of it. He is the one that got me interested in collecting and repairing them since I was about 10.

It is a fun hobby for some and others not so much. I just made this thread to see if anyone here shares my interest.

hey huligun,,,,
like you i have a weakness for automatic watches,,,,,
i think you are a very,very,brave man if you are thinking of servicing your Rolex,,,,,
if you send your watch into Rolex then its comes back looking "brand new" but will be much cheaper in the usa then the uk,,,,
service at Rolex in the uk is between £400-£600 pound but if you have a lovely datejust thats a service only every 3-4 years,,,
watchmakers have decades of experience and much respect for you to even consider servicing such an expensive and intricate watch,,,,

try to make sure our watches are serviced by the makers,,,,,always help to have the paperwork in case you ever wish to trade or sell,,,,,


much respect to you for having a "go" but mistakes will be unforgiving,,,,
very best of luck my old friend,,,,,,s2

Very interesting, I'll follow. YT is a great resource. I am finding the same with Instagram (though more marketing, advertising, research).

Really appreciated that rep comment as well.

I don't know shit about watches or even own one, but I respect the culture around them. Anything well made is admirable. Learning new skills is also one of the first things people unlearn.

YT taught me minor circuit board repair two weeks ago, what next O Great Teacher of Things.

I am under the belief that time is just a man-made illusion. We set an alarm, get up to go to work, meet people at specific time, eat at a specific time, go to bed at specific time. All through the day a million decisions are made, based on time.

But without mankind, would there be time? Do the deer or the rabbit need a watch to mate, to eat, to sleep?

So I say that time is an illusion made by man, used by man and no other.

Do not make the mistake that a day in the month, a season of the year, or the presence of the sun to be time. Those are events that happen within the framework of the illusion of time. Without a watch or a calendar those things would still happen.

So why do I collect watches? Perhaps a balance of sanity and insanity, who knows. One tugs the other back and forth until you die. As if one could stop or advance time?

I have a Rolex that ran for 10+ years without a problem. It stopped finally so I took it to a reputable repair shop here. Ran for years. took it to another reputable shop same damn thing. 2 years if that. Wish I could find someone that knows what they are doing to fix it right.

My Rolex runs fine, I was just going by a maintenance schedule that a dealer prescribed. I was told if I didn't do regular maintenance that certain parts that need to be lubricated wil wear out and make it much more trouble to repair. And to be honest I don't like to wear it every day because it is kind of heavy and bump into stuff with it. I have a few Titanium Seiko watches that I wear most of the time because of the light weight and they are surprisingly scratch resistant.

For the price Seiko are hands down the best watches. if I do buy a watch it will be a Seiko.my swiss army is good enough for me right now.which Rolex do you have huligan?

Oh by the way huligan.your comment about time being an illusion. well time is manmade.its just a measurement.like inches or centimeters.they don't actually exist.its all measurement.also perpetual motion is what really drew me to superior whatches.this is a good thread.I hope it continues.it could become very philosophical

I have the Submariner. Classic dive watch, Stainless Steel and a black face with date. You know it is the shit when you pick up and look at it. I wish I had a dollar for every time a person wanted to look at it.

I was just reading a bit about the big bang theory. According to the people that study it, something the size of an atom exploded in a billionth of a second and become the galaxy and universe we all know. Now I would have bought tickets for that show indeed. The sun, the stars and the earth, in less time than you can even imagine it happening.

haha!now the show has begun!very good huligun! if memory serves me correct you are an art dealer as well? I just picked up a couple of Salvador Dali prints.what is your opinion on him?