HOW TO USE SOME BASIC WATCH TOOLS

BASIC WATCH REPAIR COURSE

HOW TO SERVICE A WINDUP OR MECHANICAL WATCH

HOW TO BEGIN WATCHMAKING

THE ENTREPRENEUR

Watch_Amish Is Hilarious, Honest Commentary On All Luxury Watch Social Media

 FEATURE ARTICLES 22  COMMENTS FEBRUARY 19, 2015 

BY ARIEL ADAMS

It takes a certain degree of familiarity with what happens on a daily basis in the watch lover world on (mostly) Instagram to understand the various levels of humor found in the remarkably on-point satirical Instagram account "Watch_Amish." On the surface, you have a pretty darn funny place that ironically combines Amish lifestyle with luxury timepieces, as well as a deeper element of social commentary on the arguably absurd and socially irresponsible environment that now exists in many luxury watch social media channel accounts.

The "Watch Amish" name is first and foremost a humorous retort to "Watch Anish," a luxury watch lifestyle and fashion channel on Instagram started by Mr. Anish Bhatt as a way of combining his clever visual talents and appreciation of timepieces. Despite rather legitimate questions that have been raised about follower and engagement authenticity, Bhatt's skilled sense of putting together a theme has nevertheless inspired many would-be social media fame-followers to replicate the type of luxury lifestyle sharing (mostly about watches, cars, and fashion) that Watch Anish has become known for. Over the last couple of years, people from all around the world have flocked to immediate and visually-oriented social media platforms such as Instagram as a way of attempting to enter the luxury world. A basic, but perhaps not easy to answer question is, why? Read on...

Memoirs Of A Watchmaker: Coming Of Age With Horology

Article by: Richard Paige.

I Came of age in the 1960’s and 1970’s in New England. If you asked most of my schoolmates back then what they wanted to be when they grew up, most would have said a fireman, policeman, cowboy, politician, lawyer, doctor, teacher, sailor…. just about anything but a watchmaker. The average age of watchmakers in the 1960’s and 1970’s was around 50 years old, and it seemed, at least in the United States, to be a dying breed, perhaps even an endangered species. Americans didn’t value watchmakers as highly skilled technicians, as they did in Switzerland and other European communities, they more or less saw them as the equivalent of a plumber, electrician, house painter or refrigerator repair man. Not something to strive for when you’re young …didn’t seem glamorous like a secret agent, lawyer, or computer punch card operator…. or something to get girls with like the lead singer of a rock band. Read on...

Memoirs of a Watchmaker.

I have just replaced my wife’s watch battery using purpose-made instruments from my old watchmaker tool set. As I lovingly stroked the rough surface of the priceless tiny Swiss made screwdriver. I remember just like it was yesterday, when I was given this particular tool, these words:

”Never sell this little screwdriver, because, as you look at it, it is just a jeweler's screwdriver, but look closer and you will see the letters Switzerland stamped on it, made long before they replaced it with, Swiss made stamped on their precision tools. This little driver has made me $1000’s of dollars in my years as custodian of it. Before me, another watchmaker, long gone, had given me stewardship of it because with it came the training and knowledge of a watchmaker.”

Thrust upon me at a time in my life when the skill was more of a means to an end than a rare opportunity to becoming privy to a lost art taught to me by a dubious master. This mentor, a scallywag, if ever I saw one, Ernest du Prey, double dealer and scamp extraordinaire, would more than adequately describe him.

It was not until later on in my life, I was to discover the true value of his cost saving, watch-making hints and tips of how to keep precious timepieces running, for long after their tiny springs, levers and gears had lost their remarkable resilience and functionality through fair ware and tear.

Those little modifications and ideas of what we can do when parts cannot be bought or salvaged from other models. This is where the real magic happens, when for the sake of nurturing sentimental memories of perhaps a departed loved one, you have to delve deeply into the wellspring of your imagination to once more produce the unmistakable chime of a coach clock.

For anyone interested in this noble trade, I have come across this remarkable free full course Hi guys, I have come across a wonderful find while searching for some cool watchmaking tutorials.

It is a series of old school (50's-70's)watchmaking tutorials converted into Pdf. and covers most of the issues you will really need to know as a base to a watchmaking hobby. This is a collection of 35 original, scanned tutorials from the "Chicago School of Watchmaking". This school has been closed for many years and you can no longer obtain the hard-copies.