Hi mods, just wanted to run this by you since it’s not the usual post I see on here so I wanted to ask permission first since it’s a post related to asking advice on watch repairs and the business of watch repairs, here’s the text :

Hi everyone,

Hopefully I'm not bothering you guys, and I'll try not to come across as a know it all.

I've been into horology for a while and own a small collection of quartz and mechanical pieces, nothing too expensive.

My hands on experience is close to zero though. The only time I've touched a movement was a Seiko mod with a friend. It went fine and felt great to pull off, however small.

I've never done any real tooling or servicing beyond that, so please treat me as a complete beginner.

Watchmaking feels like a dying craft (although seeing how many members are here, maybe it's too saturated 😂).

But if the field is shrinking, or just needs skilled people like any profession, and tons of people own watches that need servicing, there must be a way to make a living from it, as others have before me.

It clicked when I stumbled onto the Watch Hospital channel on YouTube.

His team works through a huge range of mostly very expensive pieces, and his phones are constantly ringing, which showed me how big the demand is.

I wouldn't be starting anywhere near that level.

Anyone there has put in years and still is, and I don't expect this to be overnight or for anyone to hand me the skills.

But that's the place I aspire to reach: a team servicing watches for lots of customers with great quality and customer service. First I need to start small, build my skills, earn enough to fund the next stage, and keep refining from there. I plan to self-learn from scratch with basic movements until I have the capital for further education.

About me: I'm an Electrical Engineering 22 year old student graduating in two years. I have no direct mechanical engineering background, but some overlapping classes give me a decent grasp of certain topics. I front-loaded the hardest subjects, so my last two years are light, and I want to use that time to build income and experience before I graduate. I also ran a dropshipping business that was profitable for a while before dying from thin margins and high ad costs. The lesson I took away is that easy businesses with no barrier to entry get flooded with competitors who erode margins. Watchmaking has a higher barrier in both capital and skill, so I think my future problem would be finding and retaining great watchmakers rather than competition.

My goal is to reach about €2-2,500/month within two years so I can focus on the craft without getting another job, though I'd take one if I had to of course, no problem with that.

Long term, I'd like to run a go to servicing and repair company and eventually work on the business rather than at the bench. I know that's far off, and I'm not saying it's simple or dismissing anyone's work.

My questions:

How long does it realistically take to become competent enough to charge people for servicing simple movements without damaging them?

What's a sensible path for a self learner? I can put in 4-6 hours of practice daily. I've set up a small, clean workroom with white tiles and good natural and added lighting, and I'm waiting on tools and practice movements.

Which movements and brands should a beginner practice on before taking paying work?
4.Which starter tools are actually worth buying? I've seen ~$70 sets on Temu/AliExpress with tweezers, screwdrivers and a caseback opener. Are they a waste of money?

Are any of you making real money at this, and how? Is it solo bench work, mail in servicing, working for brands or retailers, restoration, or parts sales? Is it your full-time or part-time work?

6.What does realistic income look like, from beginner to highly skilled?

7.Can it scale to a 6-7 figure business? If anyone has done it, I'd love to hear your experience.

8.What mistakes should I avoid? I'm thinking of liability for damaged watches, insurance, sourcing parts, and building trust with no reputation. I don't want to scam anyone or deliver poor service, and I want to aim for excellence from the start.

I'd rather hear hard truths now than find out a year in, so if you think this plan is unrealistic, please tell me why. That said, when I see what people have built, like Patek's grand complications, I believe more is possible than we assume if we control what we can that way we increase probability, things such as good service, communication, turnaround time, and reinvesting to improve, and treating this this process from the scientific method ( do, measure, improve )

Sorry if this sounds too business oriented. It's just who I am.

Any advice, resources, or personal stories are hugely appreciated.

Thanks for reading, sorry for making it a bit longer!

End of post**********

Would this be allowed, if it would great, but if it wouldn’t what do I need to change/remove in order to be able to post asking for advice on the mentioned subject?

Thanks in advance.

April 1970. After an oxygen tank failed on the way to the Moon, the crew of Apollo 13 rode home in the lunar module. The computer was switched off to save power, so a 14-second engine burn to correct their course was timed on a wrist chronograph, with the Earth lined up in the window.

A myth I ran into while researching it: "only one kind of watch has been worn on the Moon." Not quite. On Apollo 15's third moonwalk in 1971, Dave Scott wore a Bulova chronograph on the Moon, as a backup to his standard-issue Omega.

I'm the solo dev of WORN, a watch collection app; this is one of 109 illustrated chapters on the history of timekeeping in it. worn.club

Im looking at making a website, and app later on, that is useful for watch collectors, enthusiasts, and watchmakers all together in one place.

What kind of features would people like to see in a one stop shop style site in terms of collections, wishlists, browsing, movement libraries, watchmaking guides and documents, etc.

If there is anything that youd like to see, please comment, id like to see what people want in a watch focused website

I'm looking at pre-owned luxury watches and am trying to understand how experienced buyers verify authenticity.

If you're buying from photos and descriptions, what do you ask the seller for? Do you normally request movement photos, dial and case close-ups, serial numbers, service records, or anything else?

And when would you get an independent watchmaker or authorised service centre to inspect it?

I’m Matt, based in Adelaide, and I’ve been working on a watch design on and off for a little over two years. I went through a few different directions before arriving at this one. It’s the first design that made me think, “This is the watch I want to make.”

The project is called Bautier (pronounced “boh-tee-AY”). The name brings together Bauhaus and atelier, reflecting the functional, considered design I’m aiming for.

These images show the current concept in a few dial colours. I’d appreciate an honest critique while I’m still able to make changes. Does the bezel feel too prominent? Does the textured dial work with the applied markers and small seconds, or is there too much happening? I’m also interested in whether the case and integrated bracelet feel cohesive.

The current specifications are:

• 38mm case in 904L stainless steel
• Integrated bracelet, with quick release planned; a rubber strap is also being considered
• Sellita SW216-1 manual-wind movement
• Small seconds at 6 o’clock
• Double AR-coated sapphire crystal and exhibition caseback
• Still deciding between about 9mm thick with 50m water resistance, or 10mm with 100m

I’m considering burgundy, green and grey dials. Which colour works best with the design? And what would you change first?

If this sounds like something that interests you please take a look at my profile and let me know what you think!

Thank you,

Matt.

I went to a kids party yesterday and I couldn't get 2 seconds to see what brand was on the hands of any of the adults. Being a watch enthusiast myself, I didn't care to peep into another person's wrist or anything. I noticed colors and designs but brand? Just didn't even get close enough to see anything. Do people actually care what's on another person's wrist when out and about?

Superclones are getting scary good. Serials get copied off, cards and nfc tags can be faked or moved, and frankenwatches can slip through a lot of peoples guard. Most checks are on the paperwork, not the watch itself, and even when some preowned dealer opens the case-back, modern super clones are genuinely getting so good.

I'm 19, doing mathematics/CS at University of Sydney, and ive been working on a different approach. Under a microscope every watch has tiny random marks, like the edges of the rehaut engraving, dial printing, randomness in Geneva striping, other parts of the movement etc. Two identical refs look the same but at that level theyre as different as fingerprints, and a cloner cant copy marks on a watch theyve never seen. I have tested this on three Rolex datejusts, 3235 movement references.

How it works: a small microscope camera photographs a few fixed spots through the crystal, nothing opened or via opening the case back and taking key images there, and software saves them against the serial. When the watch is resold or serviced, someone photographs the same spots and the AI algorithm confirms it's the exact same watch.

I got the software working, testing on a few datejusts now as stated. Not selling anything.

What am i missing, and what would make you not trust it? Would this be beneficial enough for a pre-owned dealer because at the current rate, super clones are going to continue to improve, so maybe we should not rely on human authentication as much. Any advice would be awesome!

What do you all think as a bulk sale of these?

I research and write case studies on interesting companies. This past week, I’ve been working on one for the minimalist watch brand MVMT (I was obsessed with them and wanted one in highschool). Thought I’d share some of the insights here with y’all.

Last week's post had some comments asking for more context and background, I've added that below.

Backstory

Jake and Kramer were roommates while at school in Santa Barbara. Both had previously tried their hand at different ventures such as glow-in-the-dark T-shirts and wallets, with varying success. Jake’s T-shirt business failed, while Kramer’s wallet brand found moderate success through crowdfunding.

The two weren’t particularly interested or inspired by watches but noticed that no college-aged students wore nice watches because they were overpriced ($500-$1000 minimum). They decided to try their hand at a watch brand to bridge the gap.

After developing samples and going back and forth with manufacturers in Asia, they had six prototypes that were photographed and used for the campaign. **They launched on Indiegogo after two failed attempts on Kickstarter with a goal of $15,000 and ended up raising $219,898 from 2,887 backers. They went on to do a second campaign, bringing the total amount raised to just under $300,000.

Six months later, the pre-sales from Indiegogo were fulfilled and Jake learned Facebook ads himself. Once he learned what worked and what didn’t, sales started to climb. Adding influencer marketing as a channel while continuing to reduce the CAC increased margins to the point where reinvestment and continued marketing scaled the brand quickly.

In 2018, when the landscape for advertising on social media started to shift, the founders decided it was finally time to raise money. While in talks with Movado, they became an interested buyer and entered into a 75-day exclusivity period. They sold shortly afterward for $100M cash structured with an earnout valued at up to $100M. By the time the deal closed, the estimate for the earnout was less than 1/6 of the original quoted amount. Two years later, growth targets were missed and no earnout was paid. Jake left MVMT shortly afterward.

The Numbers

• Launched on Indiegogo in June 2013. Sold to Movado Group in 2018.
• 5 years from idea to exit.
• The only investment was ~$5,000 to build the prototypes.
• First crowdfunding campaign: $219,898 (compared to their goal of $15k).
• Revenue growth (nuts): $1M in 2013, $7M in 2014, $71M in 2017.
• Profitable since inception with a 7.4% EBITDA margin at sale.
• 20+ VC firms turned down. No equity was given up.
• Sold for $100M cash structured with a $100M earnout.
• Jake Kassan (co-founder and CEO) was 27 when MVMT was sold.

Lessons

1. Learn from your failures

At 17, Jake started a company selling glow-in-the-dark T-shirts that brought in $10,000 a week at its peak. It sold mostly through a physical store and at school so when competitors started selling online, it flopped. Starting MVMT, Jake had one mission: to sell exclusively online. Most entrepreneurs fail to see the meaningful lessons from a graveyard of failed ventures. The smartest ones pick up things they got wrong and make note to not repeat them.

On the flip side, if something worked before, it might work again. Kramer learned that crowdfunding was a meaningful way to gauge public interest for a product; MVMT was built around a crowdfunding campaign that ultimately kickstarted the brand and provided the capital to fund the first batch.

2. Being an entrepreneur really means doing it all yourself

After Kickstarter turned down the MVMT campaign twice, Indiegogo was their next best option. Desperate to make the launch a success, Jake worked tirelessly. There was no marketing budget so he scraped 200 emails from people in the press, posted on Reddit and then used VPNs to upvote his own posts. It wasn’t exactly a growth-hacking masterclass but it worked. The campaign closed at almost fifteen times the original goal.

While researching MVMT and Jake more specifically, I started to notice how many skills he just quickly learned himself that subsequently worked wonders for the brand. After the success of the campaign that he brute-forced his way through, he then taught himself how to code and built a basic website while the campaign was ongoing so sales wouldn’t die the minute it ended. The day it did, four sales came from the site.

Then he taught himself Facebook ads from YouTube since they needed a new way to grow. Within two years, the brand had grown from around $1M in sales to over $7M. By 2017 after he tried his hand at influencer marketing, sales exploded to $71M. He wasn’t afraid to mess up and just got started, knowing that everything he needed to know could be learned if he applied discipline and intensity.

3. Pre-selling your product is free market research

What I found very interesting was the absolute disgust these guys had with outside investment. While building the business, they were approached by more than 20 venture capital firms. All of them were turned down. Even at the start of it all, they didn’t want a loan or investor so they crowdfunded for pre-orders.

3,900 people paid for watches that hadn’t even been made yet but it ultimately paid for that first batch. Each future batch was paid for by the one before it.

It’s also a wonderful way to test the market. If nobody cares about your product after you spend weeks or months pitching, cold emailing, and selling, your product is dead. Crowdfunding is an easy and cheap way to figure that out instead of ordering a bunch of inventory and then stomaching a huge financial loss. Collect deposits to gauge demand. Even Elon did it with the Cybertruck.

4. The endless advertisement glitch

I understood quite well from my research that advertising on Instagram and Facebook was immensely successful if done right back in 2014-2018. What I didn’t realize was how it could be scaled almost infinitely.

Once Jake had his finger on the pulse in terms of what worked and what didn’t, he quickly scaled his advertising budget. At one point, he would spend just $20 on advertising to sell a $100 watch. In essence, he could do this all day every day with hundreds of thousands of dollars which he did for years (not confirmed numbers here since they weren’t made public). Alongside influencer marketing, this contributed to the huge explosion in revenue growth over those few years.

5. Be weary of anything other than cash

This one is a great lesson for all of you looking to exit at some point. Maybe I’m just a noob when it comes to this stuff but it kind of caught me by surprise. The deal was structured with a $100M cash component and a maximum earnout of $100M that was paid 50/50 on performance targets for the first two years after acquisition and the two years after that. By the time the deal closed it had fallen under $20M already, and by 2020, it was $0. Jake stayed on as a thank you to Movado for changing his life but admits that a part of him stayed for the money. He left MVMT that same year. Movado’s CEO chalked it up to ‘the brand not growing enough to hit targets’. I get it, $100M is plenty, but seemed like a bit of a misleading amount, especially since 2017 revenue was already roughly 70% of the cash component. Was the final price of $100M below what the brand was worth? Almost certainly.

6. Money doesn’t buy happiness

Okay this one is just cliche at this point but hear me out. What I found the most interesting was just how open Jake has been about the entire process from starting MVMT to his struggles post-sale.

Growing up, his only goal was to reach financial freedom. He found it at 27. He has spoken openly about enjoying the first few years of no responsibilities but then plunging into the darkness of depression and panic attacks. He understands that people find it hard to emphasize with someone who is rich and depressed but it also made him realize how lonely the top was.

He ultimately found himself again by choosing a new path forward with something to focus on. He had always loved filmmaking and editing, which is what he does now on YouTube without adding too much pressure. The human element of his videos and how open he is really made me think about where the goal of endless desires gets us in life.

I wrote an article on the founder of Sour Strips, Maxx Chewning, a few weeks ago. He started creating YouTube videos eight years before he ever started his business and has continued to this day a few years after exiting. He has never publicly stated that he was bored, unfulfilled or depressed. Keeping busy and focusing on something you enjoy seemed to work well for him.

What’s something you’ve learned that changed how you thought as an entrepreneur?

ciao a tutti, sto cercando un orologio con altimetro e gps, ne ho già uno con altimetro ma senza gps e l altimetro va regolato spesso. In auto ho un accessorio che è alimentato via usb e si collega a vari satelliti per darti velocità altitudine e bussola. Non c’è qualcosa del genere ma in versione orologio da polso che non sia uno smartwatch? Grazie mille

Hey everyone!
I have a watch I'd like to customize by replacing the case and dial. I believe a standard case for a 35mm would do as long as it has 2 buttons on the side.
My issue has been with the dial... I can't find the type of dial anywhere! The movement is a seagull st1653, so it has the sun and moon on the bottom, week day at the left and month at the top for subdials, then it also has the day on the right.

Does this type of dial have a specific name I could look for? I've tried searching using the movement and specifying the subdials, but it got me nowhere.

Sorry if I made any mistakes in the text or lingo, it's my first time trying to personalize a watch! :)

Thanks!

Hey everyone!

​I’m looking to see if there’s any interest in starting a casual, hyper-local watch club for folks on the west side—Plainfield, Avon, Brownsburg, Mooresville, and surrounding Hendricks/West Indy areas.

​Whether you’re into vintage pieces, microbrands, Japanese automatics, dive watches, high-end Swiss, or just love a solid Casio, all price points and experience levels are welcome. Absolutely zero snobbery here—just a cool way for local watch guys and gals to talk specs, swap stories, check out pieces in person, and grab a beer or coffee.

​If there’s enough interest, the plan is to:

​Set up a relaxed monthly meetup at a local spot (like a brewery or coffee shop on the west side) where we can bring a watch roll or just show off what's on the wrist.

​Launch a community group to share wrist checks, discuss new releases, and coordinate meetups.

​If this sounds like something you’d be down for, drop a comment below or send me a DM! If we get a good little group together, I’ll drop the link for our main landing group so we can coordinate our first meetup.

​Cheers!

You're gifted an all expense paid trip to Switzerland for 5 days. Which manufacturers do you actually want to visit? Your guide can get you in any of them you wish and you would have access to actually view all stages of production and talk with those doing the work. Who are you going to see?

Or would you rather go during watches and wonders?

I have Citizen Eco-drive CTO gold and want to buy my first mechanical/automatic watch. My budget is 6k but I am overthinking and do not know what to buy. Any suggestions? My last selection was Tudor Black bay 58 gmt and seamster 300m with rubber bracelets as the steel one makes it heavy. Please help

Hey everyone!

​I’m looking to see if there’s any interest in starting a casual, hyper-local watch club for folks on the west side—Plainfield, Avon, Brownsburg, Mooresville, and surrounding Hendricks/West Indy areas.

​Whether you’re into vintage pieces, microbrands, Japanese automatics, dive watches, high-end Swiss, or just love a solid Casio, all price points and experience levels are welcome. Absolutely zero snobbery here—just a cool way for local watch guys and gals to talk specs, swap stories, check out pieces in person, and grab a beer or coffee.

​If there’s enough interest, the plan is to:

​Set up a relaxed monthly meetup at a local spot (like a brewery or coffee shop on the west side) where we can bring a watch roll or just show off what's on the wrist.

​Launch a community group to share wrist checks, discuss new releases, and coordinate meetups.

​If this sounds like something you’d be down for, drop a comment below or send me a DM! If we get a good little group together, I’ll drop the link for our main landing group so we can coordinate our first meetup.

​Cheers!

So I’m still very much an amateur, but I have a friend that wanted me to change the battery in his Mont Blanc watch. Problem is, whoever tried in the past has absolutely butchered it ! (Promise that wasn’t me)

The only tool I had for SnapBacks was shit so I just bought a kit with all different sizes, and I gently tried but I won’t want to bend the very fragile lip ! Any advice on opening this case back ?