I am composing this online guide to pass on the 20+ years of experience, repairing watches, to others who wish to discover the art of watch fixing. It is entirely complimentary for anybody to utilize although it is focused on the battery fitter, jeweller or amateur watch repairer who has a little quantity previous experience and would like to start mending watches. I am restricting my guide to Quartz views just as this is a topic that is not covered well somewhere else and yet they are the majority of watches you will be asked to fix. Repairing mechanical and automatic watches are covered in numerous places and books (i learnt from this book 'Practical Watch Fixing' by Donald de Carle which is an old book however excellent) however to repair and repair these takes a lot more experience. This is why when fixing mechanical watches you can charge more money for repairing one of these than you can charge for mending most of quartz watches.
In spite of this, there is decent cash to be made fixing quartz watches and it is simpler to learn too as there is less variation. The basic reason repairing a quartz watch is much easier is they have actually not changed much in the last 30 years while mechanical watches have been around for hundreds of years while the first Quartz Watch was produced in 1969.
To be a Good Watch Repairer you need experience so it is a life times finding out to become competent mechanical watch maker (horologist), while you can quickly broaden your service into fixing quartz watches with this online guide.
In this guide I presume you can open a watch back, adjust 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 novices guide too).
OBVIOUSLY you can't simply begin turning screws ... there are a number of things you will require to do (and get) in preparation. You will have better results, and a a lot more pleasurable experience if you take the time, effort, and expense to get the majority of the items listed below BEFORE starting. Keep in mind that these are just the bare basics ... a major repair individual has hundreds of other specialized tools ... but we'll conserve that for another conversation. The bottom line is that preparation and having the best equipment is important to success of any repair work task!.
Workspacerkspace with a clean, flat surface. For a beginner a cooking area table will do just great, however as you become more severe you might wish to think about a watchbench made specifically for fixing watches and a good fluorescent light which is simpler on the eyes. A watchbench has small integrated in drawers for all of the tools and parts you make sure to accumulate with time.
The style is tall, with a surface area that (when sitting) is close to the face so the repair person does not need to downturn over when working. Some repairmen will put cork or linoleum on the surface area. These soft materials stop parts from bouncing away, and aren't hard enough to harm anything dropped on them. Some benches even have a slide out "parts catcher" that presses versus the belly when sitting. Mine is a wood frame with a loose piece of canvas added to the bottom. When a part is dropped and goes "over the edge", this brilliant gizmo captures it!
Most newbies will (as mentioned above) begin at a kitchen area table. A good tip for operating at a table is to lay down a great piece of white material (like a plain white pillowcase or cheesecloth) to do your work on. The primary advantage for doing Website link this is if you drop among the parts, it won't bounce away and become lost. I suggest white due to the fact that tiny screws (and so on) are easy to find. This practice will also save your table from scratches, and safeguard your watch from the tables hard surface area. To keep it from moving, you might wish to consider taping it down with masking tape too.
Screw-driver set
You WILL need a good set of watchmakers screwdrivers. This is a MUST. The sets found at the outlet store for dealing with glasses and so on will cause more problem than they are worth. They are not precision made and you will quickly harm or strip the extremely polished screws discovered in most watches. The eager eye of a serious watch collector will choose this up immediately; it diminishes the look of the watch therefore decreasing worth of your watch. Track down 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 in between the thumb and middle finger, with the forefinger on the cupped end (which rotates). Press down on the top of the screwdriver and rotate it in between your thumb and middle finger; turning the screw.