Thanks for the comment and I hope these kinds of videos are useful for you and others. I do like the book. I often refer to it when I’ve got to do specific jobs, although there are a few people that don’t like some of the sections in the book and feel they might be in error. These are sections that include why one would poise a balance.
Watching you speak on tools and their use, i realize one can spend 500 years detailing the tools and their use considering the varied processes when servicing/ repairing a watch. Thanx JD for taking the time for all you show and teach us 🙏🍻
Thank you for the big thank you. I’m sure as I said in the video that in 500 years if I managed to live that long, I’ll have 500 years more of tools. This is a never-ending learning process.
Fantastic information. You mentioned a few items that I've yet to acquire. I'm new to watchmaking as a hobby. Loving it, I've been enamored with clocks and watches since I was a child. What women need to understand is that we don't retire so we can do more housework. More chores. I don't mind doing some housework, but I'm not on a schedule and if I'm busy tinkering with clocks and watches, or making something in my little machine shop, or doing wood work, or working on some machine I ain't stoppin' cuz honeybun decides it's time for me to do housework. 2 hours a day? Not happening with me. If she wants to move out because I limit giving my time to housekeeping, she knows where the door is, and no, I'm not helping with that. I can shop for groceries and cook my own meals without a problem. It's great having her around but I'm not an indentured servant and I've learned that no matter how much you clean, it just gets dirty again pretty soon.
Excellent advice regarding tools. The one item where place I beg to differ are the tweezers. I have the set of tweezers you showed, they came amongst a large lot of used tools I bought and they are good. As a result I recommended them to a few people. They are still on the market but the quality has dropped dramatically. Almost all Anchor branded watchmaking tools have become worse than useless. Their ‘watch oil’ sets like jelly after a few days! Good tweezers are extremely important and a good set makes learning to handle small parts far easier. Parts are far less likely to fly off and get lost if using well dressed quality tweezers. Horotec, Bergeon and Dumont tweezers are good. Antimagnetic steel is good, but I find bronze to be worth the extra money. They’re far less likely to leave scratches, and don’t get out of shape as fast as brass tweezers. Whilst 9010 is ok for pocket watches, the oil of choice for movements above 13lignes (about 30mm) is 9020. A more viscous oil performs better under the higher pressures at the bearing surfaces caused by heavier balance wheels. There are nearly as many positions regarding watch oiling as there are watchmakers but the BHI guide to watch lubrication, available for free in PDF form is excellent and can be relied upon. That cannon pinion remover is excellent, but not cheap. For beginners I would suggest a Presto style cannon pinion tool is enough. The GS cement is great, but another good option is UV glue like Dave sells. It stays workable for as long as you need, making it easy to clean up any excess. Once you’re satisfied a brief exposure to a UV light or 15 minutes in the sun will set it completely. There are solvents to remove it gently if required. The few tools/supplies for beginners I’d are an extra fine Arkansas stone or equivalent for dressing tweezers and screwdrivers, a screwdriver sharpening guide and some pithwood or eveflex sticks for precleaning pivots. Some jewel pushers would be handy, too, but carefully shaped pegwood or dowel will suffice. You mentioned all the useless tools you’ve bought over the years and there are countless available, new and vintage. I know of a watchmaking teacher in the US who kept a library of useless tools marketed to watchmakers. Some of them look great at a glance, so perhaps a video to share which tools you’ve found to be useless would be useful. Regarding the Frankenwatch - adjusting the beat error such that the roller jewel ends up on the line of centres between balance pivot and escape wheel pivot will help mitigate it going out of action when the mainspring is fully unwound. It doesn’t address the underlying problem. If the underlying cause of the rebanking (lack of safety action) isn’t corrected, the watch will go out of action eventually. If you give the watch a quick twist to get the balance swinging when it’s unwound it could occur. Unwound mainsprings just make a watch more vulnerable to rebanking because the pallet fork becomes slack and isn’t held to the banking pins. External forces are what trigger rebanking. A watch will run just fine with no guard finger if it is left undisturbed. The safety action only comes into play when an external force is applied at the wrong time in the wrong direction. Adjusting the beat error will not stop the Frankenwatch from rebanking under those conditions.
Again, thanks for the detail comment. I should make a video and all the useless tools and visual aids. I have purchased over the years in search for the best. Regarding the Franken, watch, or the daughter of Franken watch, I’ve tried pretty much everything on this watch to get it running perfectly, and decided that the adventure of getting a perfect beat error, cause me more problems as getting the proper balance staff, for this old beast was the biggest problem. I think this watch went through a number of repairs over the years which caused the inner guts to be out of respect to the original watch, causing me all kinds of problems. It’s seems to be running well now and keeping time so if I spend more time working on this watch, it’s a diminishing rate of return.
That watch timer is similar to piano tuning software. Expensive, but pays for itself in less than a week if you keep your self busy. Thanks for this video.
You are correct in buying E-time or years ago was a lifesaver when I was trying to figure out what was going on with the escapement. I do need to crack open my escapement books again so I can relearn the watch signal and solder that into my brain.
Dont talk about microscopes! When I started I watched some UA-cam videos, and was led to believe I needed micrscopes (plural!). About £1K later I realised I didn't need to spend that, at least not when starting out. I wish I had seen this video instead. Anyway at least I still have the bug, even though I dont use one microscope from one week to the next. Keep up the good work.
I decided not to bring stereo Microscopes into the discussion as I probably would also have to bring a lot of other tools in there, but most people won’t need or use when they first start repairing watches. Thank you very much for your comment, and maybe my next video will be on advanced watchmaking tools.
Hey JD, greetings from Montreal! Were you kidding at 17:05 about the lighter fluid making you dizzy? Thats my current plan to clean some manual and auto date movements I've been overhauling for practice. I plan to have a small desktop air purifier on my table as well because I know there's a health risk but I have no first-hand experience yet in cleaning (not for another couple weeks). Thanks for your videos, it's nice to have some Canadian representation in the watch repair world
Thank you for making this video! I took two pages of notes and I really appreciate you sharing your experience. It can be a bit daunting starting out so this was very helpful. I love how personable your videos are!
Thank you, Darren for your very nice comment. I’m amazed that you took two pages in notes from this video, but what the heck, it’s a good way to track knowledge.
@@JDRichard I was especially happy to hear your comments on buying a loupe. I can see where it would be very easy for someone inexperienced like me to end up in the same situation and have a drawer full of them like you did originally. I’m still a bit unclear about what you meant by obtaining the larger size? I did a bit of searching and was not able to figure out the differences in the ones I looked at. Also, I wear regular glasses because my eyesight is not that great so does that mean I should purchase one with higher than five X magnification?
@@JDRichard Yeah, not baaaaad. Many YT videos on watch repair don’t state their precautions, such as positioning the watch and tool so *when* the tool slips, the inevitable scratches or damage can be minimized. Use the best tools you can afford, or nothing at all but the best. You mentioned some stuff in your videos that might seem obvious to the experienced and makes sense on hindsight, but might be tough to predict, like pings. A few basic principles can help: Sharpen tools to mitigate pings and scratches. Practice each technique at least 10 times, clear and clean the workspace, use a soft mat, be judicious with ultrasonic cleaning and don’t use it on gold, never use force, etc. Could you do a video or two on your precautions and rationales?
Thank you. So interesting. 2 1/2 years into the hobby and I understand an acknowledge possession variation of all the tools used. As a beginner I would have been lost and over awed. Now? How can you be so right?
Hi JD, As a newbee, I'm in the process of buying various books and tools..., and I just purchased two Elgin pocket watches, grade 210 and a 3-finger grade 247 from Ebay. Both are 16s. I know I'll need a stem and crown winder, but I am unsure of the size in mm and a source. Can you point me in the right direction? Thanks a bunch !
I found you video very informative, my question I have an omega 1970 seamaster with a 750 movement, it has a quick set where u pull the stem out and put it back in and the date flips, it’s a pain u gotta set the day then pull the stem till it lands on the date u want, back to the issue, the quick set isn’t working , I was thinking of opening it up and check the dial side and see if something came off and try to re set , what do you think, awesome video again
The only way you will know is to take it apart and diagnose the problem. I would help you if I was familiar with the movement. Sorry for the late reply
Please put away that awful book. Far too many watches already bear the scars of Henry “poise ‘em all” Fried’s writings. There IS decent stuff in the book, but it also contains bad techniques, bad habits and outright incorrect information. Stick to DeCarle(bit outdated but solid) Jendritzki, Daniels, Perkins, Gazeley, Simonin. If you learn from Fried you will need to unlearn bad habits and you’ll needlessly damage watches in the process. I could go on and on about this distasteful individual, but suffice to say that all of the best watchmakers I know frown on Fried’s writings. When question about some techniques he published that simply don’t work, he laughed and replied he was paid by the word and the technique described was a ‘thought experiment’. He presented it as tested fact. Fried’s books are the cheapest, and sell well but stay away from them.
@@Mars-zgblbl The advice to statically poise a balance after restaffing is probably the worst advice in the book. How has a balance gained or lost weight around the balance rim since it left the factory? Dynamically poising to keep time across positions takes a watch out of static poise. So high grade positionally adjusted watches left the factory out of static poise. Statically poising after restaffing undoes all of that precision adjustment. If weight is cut from the balance screws or rim, that watch is ruined as a precision timekeeper without a new balance complete. I’m not familiar with the book to make you a good list. I have been intending to buy a copy to make such a list and will share it when I do. I’ve read it cover to cover but that wasn’t recently. Watchmakers I trust say the chapter on verge watches is good and worth reading, but suggest beginners ignore the rest. The rest does contain good techniques and Fried explains those well. The issue is the other garbage he combines with the solid information. If you want reliable information, try “The Swiss Watch Repairer’s Manual” by Hans Jendritzki. Archie Perkins lathe book is excellent and well known. He also wrote three outstanding volumes on watch repair that are gold. Gazeley is excellent for understanding escapements. If you want to learn precision timing and adjustment, “Watch Adjustment” by Jendritzki is indispensable.
@@mercuriall2810 Agree about restaffing. Moment of inertia varies with the square of the radius, so gouging out the underside of a screw head on the balance rim will have a much greater effect than a minor difference between new or old staffs. Now if JD could write a book… :D
@@Mars-zgblbl Precisely. As Hans Jendritzki points out, static poising is only useful when building a new movement or balance. A statically poised balance is a good starting point from which dynamic poising can be performed. Given the popularity of Fried’s books, it would be worthwhile to compile a pdf file that addresses the errors and bad practices contained therein. Fried’s regular columns in some watch repair and horology journals and magazines are even more dubious overall than his books.
![АЛАУДИНОВ у Скабеевой: эти их ВСУ нас НЕ ДОГОНЯТ 😁 [Пародия]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/an0anqU4WGQ/mqdefault.jpg)
I'l recently turned 26, an accountant by profession. Got my first Seiko 5 sports. Now i want to do watch repairs as an hobby. Thanks
@@greendagger47 you will get addicted pretty fast, my friend
Great recommendations for the tools. Also, the book is fantastic!
Thanks for the comment and I hope these kinds of videos are useful for you and others. I do like the book. I often refer to it when I’ve got to do specific jobs, although there are a few people that don’t like some of the sections in the book and feel they might be in error. These are sections that include why one would poise a balance.
Watching you speak on tools and their use, i realize one can spend 500 years detailing the tools and their use considering the varied processes when servicing/ repairing a watch.
Thanx JD for taking the time for all you show and teach us 🙏🍻
Thank you for the big thank you. I’m sure as I said in the video that in 500 years if I managed to live that long, I’ll have 500 years more of tools. This is a never-ending learning process.
Fantastic information. You mentioned a few items that I've yet to acquire. I'm new to watchmaking as a hobby. Loving it, I've been enamored with clocks and watches since I was a child.
What women need to understand is that we don't retire so we can do more housework. More chores.
I don't mind doing some housework, but I'm not on a schedule and if I'm busy tinkering with clocks and watches, or making something in my little machine shop, or doing wood work, or working on some machine I ain't stoppin' cuz honeybun decides it's time for me to do housework.
2 hours a day? Not happening with me. If she wants to move out because I limit giving my time to housekeeping, she knows where the door is, and no, I'm not helping with that.
I can shop for groceries and cook my own meals without a problem. It's great having her around but I'm not an indentured servant and I've learned that no matter how much you clean, it just gets dirty again pretty soon.
Yabba dabba doo. You put your foot down so hard you put a hole in the floor. I think all guys feel exactly the same.
Excellent advice regarding tools.
The one item where place I beg to differ are the tweezers. I have the set of tweezers you showed, they came amongst a large lot of used tools I bought and they are good.
As a result I recommended them to a few people. They are still on the market but the quality has dropped dramatically. Almost all Anchor branded watchmaking tools have become worse than useless. Their ‘watch oil’ sets like jelly after a few days!
Good tweezers are extremely important and a good set makes learning to handle small parts far easier. Parts are far less likely to fly off and get lost if using well dressed quality tweezers.
Horotec, Bergeon and Dumont tweezers are good. Antimagnetic steel is good, but I find bronze to be worth the extra money. They’re far less likely to leave scratches, and don’t get out of shape as fast as brass tweezers.
Whilst 9010 is ok for pocket watches, the oil of choice for movements above 13lignes (about 30mm) is 9020.
A more viscous oil performs better under the higher pressures at the bearing surfaces caused by heavier balance wheels.
There are nearly as many positions regarding watch oiling as there are watchmakers but the BHI guide to watch lubrication, available for free in PDF form is excellent and can be relied upon.
That cannon pinion remover is excellent, but not cheap. For beginners I would suggest a Presto style cannon pinion tool is enough.
The GS cement is great, but another good option is UV glue like Dave sells. It stays workable for as long as you need, making it easy to clean up any excess. Once you’re satisfied a brief exposure to a UV light or 15 minutes in the sun will set it completely. There are solvents to remove it gently if required.
The few tools/supplies for beginners I’d are an extra fine Arkansas stone or equivalent for dressing tweezers and screwdrivers, a screwdriver sharpening guide and some pithwood or eveflex sticks for precleaning pivots. Some jewel pushers would be handy, too, but carefully shaped pegwood or dowel will suffice.
You mentioned all the useless tools you’ve bought over the years and there are countless available, new and vintage.
I know of a watchmaking teacher in the US who kept a library of useless tools marketed to watchmakers. Some of them look great at a glance, so perhaps a video to share which tools you’ve found to be useless would be useful.
Regarding the Frankenwatch - adjusting the beat error such that the roller jewel ends up on the line of centres between balance pivot and escape wheel pivot will help mitigate it going out of action when the mainspring is fully unwound. It doesn’t address the underlying problem.
If the underlying cause of the rebanking (lack of safety action) isn’t corrected, the watch will go out of action eventually. If you give the watch a quick twist to get the balance swinging when it’s unwound it could occur.
Unwound mainsprings just make a watch more vulnerable to rebanking because the pallet fork becomes slack and isn’t held to the banking pins. External forces are what trigger rebanking. A watch will run just fine with no guard finger if it is left undisturbed. The safety action only comes into play when an external force is applied at the wrong time in the wrong direction.
Adjusting the beat error will not stop the Frankenwatch from rebanking under those conditions.
Again, thanks for the detail comment. I should make a video and all the useless tools and visual aids. I have purchased over the years in search for the best. Regarding the Franken, watch, or the daughter of Franken watch, I’ve tried pretty much everything on this watch to get it running perfectly, and decided that the adventure of getting a perfect beat error, cause me more problems as getting the proper balance staff, for this old beast was the biggest problem. I think this watch went through a number of repairs over the years which caused the inner guts to be out of respect to the original watch, causing me all kinds of problems. It’s seems to be running well now and keeping time so if I spend more time working on this watch, it’s a diminishing rate of return.
That watch timer is similar to piano tuning software. Expensive, but pays for itself in less than a week if you keep your self busy. Thanks for this video.
You are correct in buying E-time or years ago was a lifesaver when I was trying to figure out what was going on with the escapement. I do need to crack open my escapement books again so I can relearn the watch signal and solder that into my brain.
Excellent video. Just found myself adding searching for everything you recommended and adding to cart.
May cost you a small fortune
Great Video !!!!!
Thanks Sonny
Some very good advice
Thank you very much, Fergus.
Very informative video don’t forget a Horia tool fixing jewels
Correct
Dont talk about microscopes! When I started I watched some UA-cam videos, and was led to believe I needed micrscopes (plural!). About £1K later I realised I didn't need to spend that, at least not when starting out. I wish I had seen this video instead. Anyway at least I still have the bug, even though I dont use one microscope from one week to the next. Keep up the good work.
I decided not to bring stereo Microscopes into the discussion as I probably would also have to bring a lot of other tools in there, but most people won’t need or use when they first start repairing watches. Thank you very much for your comment, and maybe my next video will be on advanced watchmaking tools.
Hey JD, greetings from Montreal!
Were you kidding at 17:05 about the lighter fluid making you dizzy? Thats my current plan to clean some manual and auto date movements I've been overhauling for practice. I plan to have a small desktop air purifier on my table as well because I know there's a health risk but I have no first-hand experience yet in cleaning (not for another couple weeks).
Thanks for your videos, it's nice to have some Canadian representation in the watch repair world
Thank you for making this video! I took two pages of notes and I really appreciate you sharing your experience. It can be a bit daunting starting out so this was very helpful. I love how personable your videos are!
Thank you, Darren for your very nice comment. I’m amazed that you took two pages in notes from this video, but what the heck, it’s a good way to track knowledge.
@@JDRichard I was especially happy to hear your comments on buying a loupe. I can see where it would be very easy for someone inexperienced like me to end up in the same situation and have a drawer full of them like you did originally. I’m still a bit unclear about what you meant by obtaining the larger size? I did a bit of searching and was not able to figure out the differences in the ones I looked at. Also, I wear regular glasses because my eyesight is not that great so does that mean I should purchase one with higher than five X magnification?
@@darinb6818 the ARY loupe comes is large and XLarge. Buy XL
JD you have taught me so much thank u your such a hoot to watch
Thanks a lot Eugene for the comment and I will keep going and hopefully someday I’ll be learning from you
The best purchase is the watch!
Very deep comment. For that the watch the rest of the tools mean nothing.
Thanks JD! You are the goat!
Very glad I can be the goat
@@JDRichard Yeah, not baaaaad. Many YT videos on watch repair don’t state their precautions, such as positioning the watch and tool so *when* the tool slips, the inevitable scratches or damage can be minimized. Use the best tools you can afford, or nothing at all but the best. You mentioned some stuff in your videos that might seem obvious to the experienced and makes sense on hindsight, but might be tough to predict, like pings. A few basic principles can help: Sharpen tools to mitigate pings and scratches. Practice each technique at least 10 times, clear and clean the workspace, use a soft mat, be judicious with ultrasonic cleaning and don’t use it on gold, never use force, etc. Could you do a video or two on your precautions and rationales?
@@Mars-zgblbl All good stuff
really interesting video, and really cool vostok on your wrist 👍
Hey thanks. It is a great watch
Thank you. So interesting. 2 1/2 years into the hobby and I understand an acknowledge possession variation of all the tools used. As a beginner I would have been lost and over awed. Now? How can you be so right?
Thanks and keep on learning
The Meyers 58 movement holders are quite nice, but expensive. Maybe if someone wasn't hoarding them, they'd be cheaper. ;-) lol
I do have a few of these movement holders, but they’re always being used watches in them. Sorry, man.
@@JDRichard Just ribbing you. I'd likely do the same thing if I was servicing as many watches as you do. For now, I am content with my one Meyers 58.
Hi JD,
As a newbee, I'm in the process of buying various books and tools..., and I just purchased two Elgin pocket watches, grade 210 and a 3-finger grade 247 from Ebay. Both are 16s. I know I'll need a stem and crown winder, but I am unsure of the size in mm and a source. Can you point me in the right direction? Thanks a bunch !
I go to cousinsuk.com but if you are in the US, there are plenty of Watch parts suppliers
I found you video very informative, my question I have an omega 1970 seamaster with a 750 movement, it has a quick set where u pull the stem out and put it back in and the date flips, it’s a pain u gotta set the day then pull the stem till it lands on the date u want, back to the issue, the quick set isn’t working , I was thinking of opening it up and check the dial side and see if something came off and try to re set , what do you think, awesome video again
The only way you will know is to take it apart and diagnose the problem. I would help you if I was familiar with the movement. Sorry for the late reply
you didnt talk about pegwood and pegging jewel holes out
I did talk about peg wood but not specifically pegging jewels
liquefy
Liquefy
I see ur wearing a nypd hat are u retired from the job my company was 90-16 , just saying
Not quite. Was Canadian Armoured Corps. Have very good Canadian Detective friend Ottawa Police and he is my hat Guy:)
But thanks for what you do
Cool
@@coxn1981 I have also repaired numerous police officers watches over the years for free.
Awesome I’m working on a 1955 tank watch just got a new main spring which will need to install
Please put away that awful book. Far too many watches already bear the scars of Henry “poise ‘em all” Fried’s writings.
There IS decent stuff in the book, but it also contains bad techniques, bad habits and outright incorrect information.
Stick to DeCarle(bit outdated but solid) Jendritzki, Daniels, Perkins, Gazeley, Simonin.
If you learn from Fried you will need to unlearn bad habits and you’ll needlessly damage watches in the process.
I could go on and on about this distasteful individual, but suffice to say that all of the best watchmakers I know frown on Fried’s writings.
When question about some techniques he published that simply don’t work, he laughed and replied he was paid by the word and the technique described was a ‘thought experiment’. He presented it as tested fact.
Fried’s books are the cheapest, and sell well but stay away from them.
Are there specific parts of my copy of Fried that I should cross out? I’m a watch repair hobbyist
@@Mars-zgblbl The advice to statically poise a balance after restaffing is probably the worst advice in the book.
How has a balance gained or lost weight around the balance rim since it left the factory?
Dynamically poising to keep time across positions takes a watch out of static poise. So high grade positionally adjusted watches left the factory out of static poise. Statically poising after restaffing undoes all of that precision adjustment. If weight is cut from the balance screws or rim, that watch is ruined as a precision timekeeper without a new balance complete.
I’m not familiar with the book to make you a good list. I have been intending to buy a copy to make such a list and will share it when I do. I’ve read it cover to cover but that wasn’t recently.
Watchmakers I trust say the chapter on verge watches is good and worth reading, but suggest beginners ignore the rest. The rest does contain good techniques and Fried explains those well. The issue is the other garbage he combines with the solid information.
If you want reliable information, try “The Swiss Watch Repairer’s Manual” by Hans Jendritzki.
Archie Perkins lathe book is excellent and well known. He also wrote three outstanding volumes on watch repair that are gold.
Gazeley is excellent for understanding escapements.
If you want to learn precision timing and adjustment, “Watch Adjustment” by Jendritzki is indispensable.
@@mercuriall2810 Agree about restaffing. Moment of inertia varies with the square of the radius, so gouging out the underside of a screw head on the balance rim will have a much greater effect than a minor difference between new or old staffs. Now if JD could write a book… :D
@@mercuriall2810 Forgot my manners - thanks for the recommendations
@@Mars-zgblbl Precisely. As Hans Jendritzki points out, static poising is only useful when building a new movement or balance. A statically poised balance is a good starting point from which dynamic poising can be performed.
Given the popularity of Fried’s books, it would be worthwhile to compile a pdf file that addresses the errors and bad practices contained therein.
Fried’s regular columns in some watch repair and horology journals and magazines are even more dubious overall than his books.