View attachment 163547
Got all tooled up and ready to go ☺. Mate brought me this old Smiths stopwatch which has the pointer literally off. Not exactly a Full watch strip down but I was Buzzing to open my tool pouch and Butcher it to bits 🤣.
He uses it in the foundry at work !!!, probably to tell the Podgy Git when it's tea break 🤣.
Anyway, figured it out how to dislodge the Crown, set the timer back to zero, then used tweezers to set and press pointer back into place 😊. Ordered some pointer lifters with Manual pressers to. Working a treat 😉
View attachment 163546

Can you do a service on my Patek ?

 

Yes, for a miniscule charge I'll change the battery for you, I'm sure I've got one that fits !! 🤣

 

Haha! The tiny Zero I was wearing the other day gained four minutes over the course of the day. Usually with autos running fast means magnetised (although there can be many other reasons) but who knew (well not me) that free iPhone map would measure it accurately for me? Quick download and yup, could probably use is as a fridge magnet :-D so, not a service then but rather an £11 demagnetiser on Prime arriving tomorrow.

just goes to show how far tech has come on!

 

Blue box one? Make sure you read the instructions. Else there is an easy mod which makes them infinitely more predictable to use and less risk of combusting.

Tail end of this post will help https://www.thewatchforum.co.uk/threads/tinkering.173935/page-3

 

Good on you ! we all have to start somewhere and normally the journey involves a lot of mistakes and a lot of dead watches.

Tools are important, not because they don't work ...but decent tools do work better, I spotted a few you have that I have that I have in very dusty boxes after one use.
That crystal press is a great example:
Woman at my work said can you have a look at my Gucci..... thought to myself "best offer I've had all day" but it was a watch repair.... simple battery change and the dial had come loose so was offset.
Thought to myself, yeah I can do that, simple battery change and a sticky or two to set the dial ............. popped the back off, installed a new battery, didn't work and I thought to myself, I'll put the back on and have another look tommorow.
Wouldn't hand press on ....... out came the press.... crack ! crytal now shattered, thought to myself cant get any worse, back in the press and dented the case back to boot ..... never did get it back on.
Two months later and a lot of ebay searching for a doner watch she did get it back on her wrist .... fully working and with a shinier (newer) braclet.
the case back press/ crystal press I use now is still an ali express one but works so much better and has alu cups rather than brass in plastic, I can use a sheet of plastic bag to protect it from the alu but it works so much better.
You don't have to buy swiss, and to be honest you can get tools cheap but expect a fewdisasters before you find a perfect tool for you.

 

I believe that the one thing I have never regretted is the purchase of a good tool. Nobody but yourself to blame at that point (and they don’t eat or drink, once in the cabinets they are there for life).

 

One lesson I've learnt in life is we're all creatures of habit 😉. Soooo many hobbies started only to last 5mins at a price, I started metal detecting with a £10 carboot Buy detector and now I own 2 very high end detectors after saving for years to purchase them and love the hobby. I have a small collection of watches which I cherish and wanted to maintain myself, so for now my budget toolkit will suffice the minimal knowledge I have about watches and allow me to save the pennies that I would have had to pay someone else to fix/service to buy better tools , but only if I crave the hobby, which at this time I'm feeling the passion ☺.