I actually did that last year for Christmas for my parents with my daughter. She painted the dials and I assembled them. Best of luck with your project!
Good vid. Enjoyed the blueing part. I don’t agree with a couple points on the tools. The premium tool kit (black case) had my GMT diver watch parts in the case so adding tools is really a question of getting a foam insert and cutting cavities for the tools you want to add, to replace the diver watch parts, that were in their one insert. And a reality check, yes Amazon tools are cheap. I have a million “jewellers” screwdrivers that are bent at the tips. They are made from mild steel and generally seem to not be heat treated. They were cheap too. If you are making one watch then maybe it makes sense to make the saving, but the tools in those kits are generally not hardened steel. I think the premium kit is worthwhile, if you plan on more exploration in the hobby. Ultimately if you really want to do a lot of this then Bergeon tools are the standard. But their watch holder alone is the price of the cheaper DWC kit. Their tweezers are a lot heavier but that also gives more control. Horses for courses. One other thing I’d point out is that the Aliexpress route is infinitely variable. It takes you a step further into skills - you’ll need to cut stems to length (So buy spares) and occasionally the fit of parts is less than exact between vendors. Watch modding is a blast, and learning to repair watches is a useful skill. Good video thanks for making it!
Yeah. The cup of tea is the key here. Work on it when you have time, stop when it gets annoying. Come back later. I had three attempts on my first second hand taking a couple hours but it really does get easier. Lots of vids out there may help and the DWC instructions are good, you might want to watch the DWC video a few times. A stronger loupe than the one in the kit may also help - the pinion the second hand fits onto is tiny - the aperture in the minute hand is about the diameter of a pin, and the pinion you are trying to press fit the hand to is about 1/10th that so patience is needed there, the rest is straightforward.
My hands are way to shaky to "build" movements. Even taking steps to not have my hands shaking so much is a futile effort. Just installing the second hand is a pain in the butt for me. My first build; after 3 hours and one bent second hand, I gave up on it. For about 2 weeks I wore the watch as a 2 hander. I did go back and was able to finally install the seconds hand. It took 2 hours. The hand is scratched up pretty bad, but its on there. I tried so many different ways to install the hand, that I think it was by sheer luck that I was able to get it on finally. 😂 I realized, I needed a better technique, plastic tweezers and a loupe. For my next build, perhaps it won't take so long. We will see. Great vid! 👍🏻
The second hand is definitely the most difficult. I've build several more and I can only do it with tweezers and a loupe. The latest one I made I used rodico to hold the hand and it worked great.
@@DoItYourselfDad of course, a lot of the people I subscribe to are smaller channels, typically the ones that need affiliate income and so I just like checking their pages and I often check out my cart after using the link lol
it does, you order an additional watch dial and can put whatever you want on it, they also have custom rotors, I have the custom rotor on that same watch with my signature on it.
I had the same issue. In the early part of the video you have 2 overlapping audio tracks happening at the same time. You were giving the narration as you were building at at the same time you were giving a voice over. It was at the point where you were saying that you weren't going to show the whole build as they had their own videos@@DoItYourselfDad
I was thinking of making 2 watches from scratch for my mom and dad for Christmas. Wish me luck!
I actually did that last year for Christmas for my parents with my daughter. She painted the dials and I assembled them. Best of luck with your project!
@@DoItYourselfDad Oh wow thats nice!! thank you so much for the video btw!
Love the car analogy as a car guy as I was thinking about how you don't build the movement. Great video!
Very cool, I've been thinking about getting one of these kits for a while now
Thank you very much! Very helpful video since I was on the fence about it.
Thank you!
Good vid. Enjoyed the blueing part.
I don’t agree with a couple points on the tools. The premium tool kit (black case) had my GMT diver watch parts in the case so adding tools is really a question of getting a foam insert and cutting cavities for the tools you want to add, to replace the diver watch parts, that were in their one insert.
And a reality check, yes Amazon tools are cheap. I have a million “jewellers” screwdrivers that are bent at the tips. They are made from mild steel and generally seem to not be heat treated. They were cheap too. If you are making one watch then maybe it makes sense to make the saving, but the tools in those kits are generally not hardened steel. I think the premium kit is worthwhile, if you plan on more exploration in the hobby.
Ultimately if you really want to do a lot of this then Bergeon tools are the standard. But their watch holder alone is the price of the cheaper DWC kit. Their tweezers are a lot heavier but that also gives more control. Horses for courses.
One other thing I’d point out is that the Aliexpress route is infinitely variable. It takes you a step further into skills - you’ll need to cut stems to length (So buy spares) and occasionally the fit of parts is less than exact between vendors. Watch modding is a blast, and learning to repair watches is a useful skill.
Good video thanks for making it!
Good vid thanks for the insight.
Would you recommend this for someone deficient in patience?
I would, the only really difficult part is the second hand which may take you a few tries to get lined up.
Yeah. The cup of tea is the key here. Work on it when you have time, stop when it gets annoying. Come back later. I had three attempts on my first second hand taking a couple hours but it really does get easier. Lots of vids out there may help and the DWC instructions are good, you might want to watch the DWC video a few times. A stronger loupe than the one in the kit may also help - the pinion the second hand fits onto is tiny - the aperture in the minute hand is about the diameter of a pin, and the pinion you are trying to press fit the hand to is about 1/10th that so patience is needed there, the rest is straightforward.
Are they water rated?
The dive watches are, yes.
Will they send watches fully assembled and ready to use
They don’t, only kits.
My hands are way to shaky to "build" movements. Even taking steps to not have my hands shaking so much is a futile effort. Just installing the second hand is a pain in the butt for me. My first build; after 3 hours and one bent second hand, I gave up on it. For about 2 weeks I wore the watch as a 2 hander. I did go back and was able to finally install the seconds hand. It took 2 hours. The hand is scratched up pretty bad, but its on there. I tried so many different ways to install the hand, that I think it was by sheer luck that I was able to get it on finally. 😂
I realized, I needed a better technique, plastic tweezers and a loupe. For my next build, perhaps it won't take so long. We will see.
Great vid! 👍🏻
The second hand is definitely the most difficult. I've build several more and I can only do it with tweezers and a loupe. The latest one I made I used rodico to hold the hand and it worked great.
Your watch movement link just brings you to the hand press. Just wanted to let you know.
Shoot! Just fixed it, thanks for the heads up!
@@DoItYourselfDad of course, a lot of the people I subscribe to are smaller channels, typically the ones that need affiliate income and so I just like checking their pages and I often check out my cart after using the link lol
Does the customization with your signature on the watch face cost extra? How does that work?
it does, you order an additional watch dial and can put whatever you want on it, they also have custom rotors, I have the custom rotor on that same watch with my signature on it.
I enjoyed the video! Plz during editing tone down 1 sound track, hearing both is very difficult if your not English
What? I literally don't have any soundtrack, anywhere in this video?
I had the same issue. In the early part of the video you have 2 overlapping audio tracks happening at the same time. You were giving the narration as you were building at at the same time you were giving a voice over. It was at the point where you were saying that you weren't going to show the whole build as they had their own videos@@DoItYourselfDad
Very helpful video thanks
Glad it was helpful!
So your not building the watch gear by gear but rather just assembling it.
reference car-guy analogy