Posts by ricardo

Speaking of leaking, let’s talk gaskets. I see people slathering silicone grease all over caseback O-rings. Is more better?

Do I just smash it in?

Good tips. Now, what about the crystal? I need to press a new sapphire crystal into this case. I have a hand-lever crystal press, but I’m scared I’m going to crack the glass.

And if it’s screwed down by a gorilla?

Just getting the case open without scratching it! I have a screw-down caseback on this dive watch, and my three-pronged wrench keeps slipping. I’m terrified I’m going to gouge the steel.

Alright @quality if your still online I wanted to ask you this, I need some help. I finally got my movement serviced and running perfectly. But honestly? Putting it back in the case and making sure it's actually waterproof terrifies me more than the gear train. Where do I even start?

Why can't a mechanical watch just run forever without being touched?

Working on vintage pocket watch movements is a highly technical discipline that blends micro-engineering with historical preservation. Unlike modern watches with standardized parts, antique pocket watches present unique challenges because they were often hand-finished or built using obsolete sizing systems.

Here is a breakdown of the common problems watchmakers encounter and how they navigate identification, sourcing, and repairs.

Now this is always important question does reluming a watch affect its market value?

Definitely. A Unitas is a great movement to practise on before tackling smaller automatics.

Learn the basics on the big movements, then move onto the 2824 or SW200. Much less frustrating!

That’s pretty much where I’m landing.

I think ETA still carries a certain reputation because of its history and the sheer number of watches that used those calibres, but for somebody actually assembling or repairing watches today, **parts availability and future serviceability** matter enormously.

The Unitas family is what really interests me for learning, though.

With something like a **6497 or 6498**, everything feels less cramped. You can actually follow the gear train visually and understand what each component is doing. I can see why those movements became popular for teaching, projects and custom builds.

Would you recommend starting with one of those before moving onto an SW200?

I’m happy with Sellita. The SW200 is a solid movement and straightforward to service.

ETA has the history, but I wouldn’t pay considerably more just for the ETA name.

I’ve been looking more closely at Swiss movements lately, particularly the ETA 2824, ETA 2892, Sellita SW200 and SW300, along with the larger Unitas-style movements.

The 2824 and SW200 seem to be the obvious workhorses. They’re widely used, relatively straightforward to service, and there seems to be a healthy supply of compatible parts. Then you have the 2892 and SW300, which are slimmer and often found in watches where case thickness and a more refined movement architecture matter.

Then there’s Unitas — particularly the 6497/6498 family — which is almost a different experience entirely. Big movement, simple layout and plenty of room to actually see what you’re doing at the bench.

For those who have worked on several of these, which do you prefer from a watchmaker’s perspective rather than simply looking at the specification sheet?

Are ETA movements still worth seeking out, or has Sellita reached the point where you’re perfectly happy choosing an SW200/SW300 instead?

I know, I know I should of added images would the make the top 10 of this brand a really good post.

I added the first the one with a image and some details with a high quality picture I will get more lately.

If you can quality can you find out for me the prices and I will too but I want to see what you find and if you can too @gizmo

gizmo wrote:

…

Someone who is taking their business serious will not give you information on this without fully knowing you or have not help them in some way,

Because if they said they will basically give another person their business.

Don't get me wrong some people out their will tell you but its really hard to find that person without giving them something return even its a solid piece of advice that benefit them in some way shape of form.

A lot of planning on a actual white board and many linking brainstorms going to each other and expanding everyday and learning new things as you gone along I am still a rookie but I have taken apart and restored about 10 watches so far three was a complete failure another 2 was broken on inside, 4 had broken jewels sp a easy replace and the last one was the fix I enjoyed to work on it went so smoothly and effortless it was also most like love!

Now your wondering how I learnt all this? Wrist Watchrevival on youtube got right into it i lost interest but what i DID WAS VERY HELPFUL IS RECORD YOUR SELF TAKING IT APART THEN PLAY IT BACKWARDS TO YOU SO YOU KNOW WHERE THE PARTS GO.

And knowing all type of watches what actually looks nice and reliable also keeps it value.

A lot of planning on a actual white board and many linking brainstorms going to each other and expanding everyday and learning new things as you gone along I am still a rookie but I have taken apart and restored about 10 watches so far three was a complete failure another 2 was broken on inside, 4 had broken jewels sp a easy replace and the last one was the fix I enjoyed to work on it went so smoothly and effortless it was also most like love!

Now your wondering how I learnt all this? Wrist Watchrevival on youtube got right into it i lost interest but what i DID WAS VERY HELPFUL IS RECORD YOUR SELF TAKING IT APART THEN PLAY IT BACKWARDS TO YOU SO YOU KNOW WHERE THE PARTS GO.

A watchmaker's progression involves mastering increasingly complex mechanisms, moving from the basic dexterity required for moonphase springs to the organizational discipline of the Valjoux 7750 chronograph. At the master level, artisans achieve precision through the manual tuning of column-wheel mechanisms and high complications like perpetual calendars. You can read more about watchmaking mechanics.

Check your spam folder for any emails from watchmakingforums

it should be from:

[email protected]

It started as a name and a gap in the market: a proper home for watch parts, movements and the tools to work on them — built by people who actually know what a ligne is, not another generic dropshipping storefront. The domain, watchmakingwebsite.com, is going to be a company named either LTD/LLC/Co (when I find out more information about created a registered company that is why you see no stock right now. I have stock but not a register company) "The Balance Wheel" — named for the tiny oscillating heart of every mechanical watch, which felt right for a site meant to be the steady, reliable centre of a watchmaker's supply chain.

The build went department by department, the way you'd actually stock a bench. Ten departments — Movements, Cases & Crystals, Dials & Hands, Straps & Bracelets, Watchmaker's Tools, Parts & Consumables, Complete Watches, Storage & Display, the Bench Academy, and a Clearance Drawer — each broken down into real, specific categories instead of vague "accessories" buckets. On top of the shop, a full community grew in: forums with Q&A threads, reputation, member ranks, a leaderboard, verified-watchmaker badges, private messaging, and moderation tools to keep it civil. Then came the business layers — checkout, membership subscriptions, an advertising system for other trade businesses to buy banner space, a blog, and hands-on courses through the Bench Academy. Every feature was built, tested, and pressure-checked before it shipped — nothing went live without its own test coverage proving it actually worked, including deliberately breaking fixes to confirm the tests would catch it.

The security is the part nobody sees but everybody benefits from. Every page is served behind a strict nonce-based Content-Security-Policy that blocks inline scripts outright — no third-party trackers, no ad-network JavaScript, nothing that could be hijacked. HTTPS is forced everywhere with HSTS preloading. Sessions are encrypted and locked to secure, same-site cookies. Every form carries CSRF protection; the contact form and newsletter have honeypots and timing traps against bots; login, checkout, and posting are all rate-limited. Deploys are engineered to fail safe — every release backs up the database and .env first, drops into maintenance mode, and rolls back automatically if anything goes wrong, so a bad deploy can never quietly corrupt live data. And this wasn't just theory: a full live-server audit was run against the actual production box — checked for webshells, injected code, unauthorized cron jobs, and rogue SSH keys — and it came back clean.

What it offers today is a genuinely complete little ecosystem: a real catalogue to shop from, a community to ask questions in, courses to learn the trade, and — as of today — a free "Watchmaking Tools" hub built to give people a reason to come back even between purchases: a parts-and-prices glossary with live pricing pulled straight from current stock, a ligne-to-millimetre movement converter, a watch battery cross-reference finder, and a plain-English watchmaking glossary.

What it can earn comes from four levers built right into the architecture: direct sales of parts and movements, recurring membership subscriptions with member-only perks, paid advertising slots sold to other businesses in the watch trade, and the Bench Academy's hands-on courses. None of it is hypothetical plumbing — the checkout, the subscription billing, the ad-serving, and the course listings are all live, tested code, ready to actually take money the moment there's stock and students to fill them.

It's still growing — today alone it gained a hardened deploy pipeline and a whole new tools suite — but the bones underneath have been solid from the start.