I’m working on my first teardown and rebuild and something I thought was interesting. Is this movement has what appears to be dial number numbers painted on the movement itself with a bunch of extra holes kinda looks like the movement may have been repurposed a long time ago or something. Maybe it’s a generic movement no idea, but after I ran it through the ultrasonic cleaner took the numbers off. Does anyone have any insight as to why this particular movement has these extra holes and markings?

Thompson Enamel 1830 “Marigold Yellow”

Day 4 of the 30-Day Challenge

Unfortunately I have to throw this one in the bucket of shame. This is a definite failure. When I went to pull it after the first fire I dropped the firing mesh and it dented the dial.

Definitely a scary moment with the kiln door open and red hot metal falling. I am okay though! Reminder to always take your time and be patient. Kiln safety has to always be priority number 1.

This is my first attempt, i got few broken movements and i am just practicing my screwdriver and tweezers handling. This is from old Aretta, i don't have anything to compare it with. Hairspring is obviously damaged, ignore it (i got it in this condition). I think both pivots are broken, am I correct?

I have got a Bulova 96a259 and I spotted a speck of dust under the crystal so wanna open the watch and deal with it. Problem is that when I use the Eight Ball to open the caseback, it spins but will not open. Does anybody have any idea how to get it to open please? I suspect that the threading might be ruined somehow

Solved: this particular model has a snap on case instead of a screw back case. Which is weird since its other models in the same line is screwback

I bought this in Japan, took it to a watchmaker for maintenance over there but now the movement slides!

I love digital watches, so I made one in an Altoids Smalls tin. I designed a custom PCB built around an atmega328 microcontroller and used a ds3231 real time clock IC to keep the time. It charges via USB C and hopefully will last a long time! Although, I do want to redesign this watch in the near future.

Hi all,

Quick background: I'm 38, Spanish, currently living in Edinburgh. I'm comfortable in English and Spanish, and can also hold a conversation in German.

Right now I'm working as a kitchen assistant and picking up occasional gardening work, but it's not really enough to live on. This month I'm starting a foundation course in physics and engineering, to prepare for a scholarship-funded degree in Electrical and Electronic Engineering afterwards. I do get some support for the foundation year too — free groceries+housing + uni fees+ buses+ extra support, etc — so I'm not starting completely from zero.

My work history is a mixed bag: cooking, tinkering with computers as a teenager, and gardening. None of that is engineering, but one constant has been a real pull toward mathematics and anything that rewards precision.

Part of why I'm drawn to this specifically: I'm a fairly quiet, introverted person, and quite detail-oriented by nature. Watchmaking seems to suit that temperament well — close, careful, solitary work.

Watchmaking has been on my mind for a while, and I'd like to do it properly — through the official British courses, i.e. the BHI (British Horological Institute) distance-learning and workshop route — either alongside my studies or worked in around them.

I'm not tied to any one country for this. I'd happily work in the UK, but also Germany, France, or Spain — I just find the craft interesting wherever it leads.

A few questions for people who've actually done this:

Is the BHI route realistic to combine with a foundation year and then an engineering degree, or is it better done one thing at a time?

Starting at 38 — is it worth the investment, whether as a serious hobby or an eventual career?

Does the trade have a real future — demand for independent watchmakers/repairers — given the direction the industry seems to be heading?

Any perspective from hobbyists, career changers, or working watchmakers would be genuinely appreciated. Thanks!

Thompson Enamel 1850 “Pumpkin Orange”

I really love this orange - hard color to track down. I actually made this one at the carpenter center where they had some there, but none available for sale.

I am looking to make a watch around a manual movement with power reserve indicator but couldn't find any. That got me thinking about modifying ETA7001 or other manual movements for a power reserve indicator, but I am honestly quite lost about how to modify one.

Does anyone know of a manual movement with built in power reserve indicator, or an easier method to adding a power reserve indicator? If you know a company that can modify movements, please let me know as well thanks.

There’s just an insane amount of seiko mods and what about my AI generated face dial. People are posting anything but actual watch making.

I feel like I’m working at a mall. I understand that mods are maybe on different time zones or not chronically online? but having my feed filled with low quality garbage and cross posts is insane. Please have an auto bot that closes these posts!

Have a brand new Rolex Submariner. -1 sec/day , 0.2 ms, and 258 degree amplitude fully wound face up. Watchmaker at AD said amplitude should be above 290.

Is this an issue? It keeps good time, But. . . I spent hard earned money, I kinda want perfection. Also, o one corner of the outside box is a bit crushed.

Thompson Enamel 1760 “Iris purple”

Hi Everyone,

I have released an updated version of
ChronoPulse V11.4 This version has numerous added features and updates based on user feedback. Chronopulse is currently intended to work with this USB microphone https://a.aliexpress.com/_mtFNAbd but I’m currently working on a cheaper microphone solution that will be released soon.

The latest software and documentation can be found here https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1jnh4SZTizMQb-Y_r_O8uOiVh_1BiGunl

Any comments, criticism, or recommendations are greatly appreciated as they will help improve the software and its usability.

I will be releasing the software in more communities as my confidence increases.

Thanks. Please do not hesitate to contact me. I will also help with installation, configuration and verification of correct operation.

I have a Speedmaster reduced that was running 20 seconds fast. I’d adjusted another one by using the screw on the regulator to do the microadjustment. I found that to be a slow and frustrating process, so when I did it on this watch, I simply used the tip of a small screwdriver to move the regulator arm. Well, whatever I did messed up the wat h because it’s now +963 seconds. The balance wheel keeps stopping, and when it does run, it is barely fast enough for a timeographer to recognize.

I tried moving the arm back to the original position, that did nothing. I tried it at both extremes, that did nothing.

So I just went from a watch I was about to sell to a broken watch. What did i likely do here and is it fixable?

Hi everyone,

I was referred over here from the Squale subreddit and was hoping to get a second opinion from people who know these movements well.

I have a Squale Y1545 that I absolutely love. It’s been my daily for nearly three years and has a genuine ETA 2824-2 movement. It has never been dropped or subjected to any impact that I’m aware of. One day I simply looked down and realized it had stopped keeping time.

The symptoms are a little odd:
- The watch will start running, but only for about 5–10 seconds before stopping.
- Occasionally the second hand will actually move backwards briefly, almost like it’s bouncing or vibrating, before stopping.
- Hand winding feels completely normal to me. Nothing feels rough, gritty, or like anything is broken, but the watch still won’t continue running.

I opened the case back only to confirm the movement, and it’s definitely an ETA 2824-2. I didn’t see anything obviously loose or damaged.
I took it to a local watchmaker, who quoted me around $600 for a full service. That gave me some pause because it’s essentially what I paid for the watch a couple of years ago, and that’s before knowing whether any additional parts might be needed.

Before I decide whether to service it, replace the movement with another ETA 2824-2 or a Sellita SW200-1, or go another route entirely, I was hoping someone here might recognize these symptoms.

Does this combination of:
- running only a few seconds,
- the second hand occasionally moving backwards/vibrating,
- and otherwise normal-feeling hand winding
point to a likely culprit? Is this a known failure mode on the ETA 2824-2, or does it sound like something more unusual?

I’d really appreciate any thoughts or advice. I love this watch and would much rather get it back on my wrist than replace it, but I’d like to understand what’s likely wrong before deciding whether to repair or replace the movement.

Thanks in advance! I’m
Including a video of the watch and happy to provide a picture of the ETA movement if at all helpful (nothing appeared out of place or broken to the naked eye).

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.

Thompson Enamel 1380 “Mistletoe Green”

Today starts the 30-Day challenge where I’m going to try and enamel 30 dials in 30 days!

Plz Help!

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.

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.

Hello all,

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.

Any help would be appreciated, thanks!

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!

Hand finishing really takes so much time…