May Update #1: My Process up to date

As part of my aim to stay active with this blog, I’ve decided to do a weekly update every Sunday to write about my progress in watch repair—where I’m up to and what I’ve achieved.

Since this is the first update, I’ll make it a little longer and explain where I’m currently at in my watch repair journey.

One of the biggest successes for me at the moment is finally feeling confident that I have every tool I need to repair a watch from start to finish. One of my major gripes with this hobby is the cost associated with simply getting started—it’s not cheap. It was 8 months and my 3rd Cousins order that i was finally have with all my tools.

After that, I became comfortable disassembling and reassembling a basic watch movement. In this case, I bought two Seagull ST36 movements to practise on. Before I even considered the cleaning or lubrication process, I would just spend an hour or two each night taking the movements apart and putting them back together.

I’m glad I bought two movements, as I’ve already broken a few parts—including bent or snapped pivots (on the pallet fork) and a slightly bent hairspring and balance. It was nice to be able to mix and match parts between the two movements. That being said, buying individual parts for a movement like the ST36 is a breeze, with aftermarket parts being readily available and cheap.

The next step was better understanding a cleaning routine. One item I don’t own yet is a watch cleaning machine—as even the cheapest options are an expense I’d rather commit to later on in my journey.

Thanks to Reddit, I got a lot of inspiration from some handmade tools that create the kind of rotary/spinning action that professional watch cleaning machines achieve. I’m going to create a post on this at some point.

At the moment, I’ve resigned myself to hand-cleaning the watch parts using IPA. There seems to be some debate online about the use of IPA in watchmaking, but the general consensus is that it’s fine for the majority of parts—though I wouldn’t risk it on any components that use shellac, mainly the pallet fork (but also the balance). After the IPA rinses, I then use a food dehydrator to quickly dry the parts.

I have bought some L&R Ultrafine (a professional-grade watch cleaning solution), but I’m hesitant to use it at the moment, mainly due to the potential fumes and toxicity. I live in a flat and don’t currently have the ventilation, so I’d rather not take the risk.

Finally, onto where I’m currently at in my journey. Right now, I’m going through the lubrication process, following along with a video from Watch Repair Tutorials—whose free videos are invaluable to aspiring watchmakers and the wider community.

Lubrication is quite the art, and up to this point, I’ve been able to get by without using a loupe or any major magnification in this hobby. Yeah, that’s definitely changing with lubrication.

I’ll also admit that I somehow managed to stab myself in the eye with one of the oiling probes—or whatever they’re called. I was holding the movement in my left hand and had both the loupe and the oiling tool in my right. As I lifted the loupe to my face… well, you can imagine what happened. Don’t do that. It hurts.

So that’s where I’m at. I’ve just fully lubricated the keyless works using 9504 and am just about to lube the escape wheel.

Until next week. Peace.