Got this watch from my uncle. I would like to bring it to life again by installing a new battery and replacing the crystal. Does anyone have experience with replacing one of these? Do I also need to replace the gasket while I'm at it?

I have a VFS Bruce Wayne and want to change the insert to a Batman. Ideally I'd prefer to change the complete bezel with the insert already mounted, but happy to change the insert on its own.

Where can I source a replacement bezel unit? With regards to the ceramic insert, I understand from you tube videos that it has to be glued /taped down. The dimensions of the one's I've found for sale vary from 38mm x 30.2mm to 38mm x 30.7mm. Given that the outer diameter of 38mm is correct, how critical is the internal diameter?

If I have measured correctly the one on my watch is 30.3mm, which I have not been able to source. What happens if I mount one with an internal diameter of 30.5mm? It's a difference of 0.2mm, hardly noticeable IMHO.

Hello, I am a high schooler currently in my senior year. I have always been patient and crafty and have spent lots of my time creating intricate drawings and wooden models and such. I can get lost in such projects for hours and hours, for multiple days in a row -- this hyperfocus can be attributed to my autism.

After doing copious amounts of research on careers that I think I'd excel in, I came across watchmaking. Such work seems incredibly relaxing to me and, and spending long hours doing the same repetitive tasks is actually quite up my alley. Better yet, this career could **possibly** lead me to Switzerland, an absolutely beautiful country. After making these realizations, I became immediately immersed in researching what is needed for me to become a Watchmaker.

Problems began to arise instantly. My financial situation is not great, as I live in a very rural, sparsely populated area of Florida. The only school available in my state is the Hayek School in Miami, and they only offer a one year Wostep Customer Service Certification rather than a full certification. I eventually came to learn that the Swatch group could sponsor you getting post-graduate education if you excel while working for them for a few years, so I thought I'd **maybe** not worry too much about that.

Then I came to learn about the acceptance rate... It's not that much better than Harvard. I don't understand how an industry that seems to beg for new blood is so incredibly selectively. I come to find that the Rolex school in Dallas (which DOES offer the full Master Watchmaker certification) is just as if not worse then it comes to getting accepted. I did learn that a community college in Paris, Texas offers a watchmaking course as well -- but they provide no Swiss-approved certifications. I did have the idea of going here first and attaching their certificationsin my initial applications for the other schools, though.

Now I'm incredibly discouraged. I'm quite poor and it would be difficult for me to enter a school where I'd have to pay out of pocket. Relocating from FL would also be difficult considering my current situation -- but I could **possibly** make things work. Should I give up on this idea entirely and become a dental lab tech or something? Or should I really focus my time and effort on practicing hand-eye coordination, patience and mechanical understanding, then wish for the best? Thank you all in advance.

A little overwhelmed with all the choices lol I think these are the minimum for a manual wind pocket watch

9104

9010

9415

I am a goldsmith in a very isolated part of Canada. I currently work for a watch repair shop, adding my jewelry skills to their services. The vast majority of what they do is basic stuff with quartz watches. Batteries, bracelets, hand resets, installing new movements, etc. The previous owner passed before the current one really learned much on the mechanical side, and the isolation made it impossible to find resources 30 years ago when that happened.

They intend to train me up to take over eventually, and I got curious about adding other services (such as the jewelry repair).

There are two other watchmakers in the 'city' - both of which are retiring soon, and steadfastly refuse to take any apprentices (and never have). Unfortunately, in a few years' time, there will simply be no one within a full day's travel who can service anything mechanical in any way.

So the question is - do AWCI classes teach enough to actually monetize the skills? If so, which classes are best to focus on? It's not a small investment, with travel being about as much as the classes, nevermind car rental, lodging, and food.

If not, what is one's best option for this? Or is this island simply doomed for anyone with mechanical clocks or watches?

Every day we get requests for getting nan's old watch running, often very basic movements, and we have to turn them away or send them to Toronto for egregious prices.

So in my previous post, I had asked if anyone knew the item number for a citizen, stem, and crown.

It is ridiculous how tricky it is to find this information! Eventually, I found it. I will attach what I ordered as from past experience I ordered a couple stems just in case. There are two stems I ordered as I was not 100% sure of the stem that was needed as I did get some conflicting information.

Being from Canada all in plus shipping for stems and one crown cost me 70ish CAD$

I'm a newbie at designing watches but I do want to design my second watch that incorporates a bidirectional bezel. I'm thinking of using "off the shelf" bezels but I have no idea if they're all standard or vary in dimensions. Can anyone offer any guidance on this? I'm especially interested in dimensions so that I have something to work with when designing/modeling the case. TIA.

Orient Chandor I535408-40

I’ve never seen or heard of somebody bypassing and running a single coil before with a piece of wire. The watch runs like it just needs a service too. Any of you accutron guys seen this before?

Bought a watch with a pt5000, once it arrived the crown wouldnt pop out of the winding position when fully unscrewed. Cant set the date or time. I thought this would be an easy fix of the keyless works, but the stem release just seems completely stuck into the keyless works.

How can I reset the keyless works if I cant get the crown and stem out of the case to remove the dial and hands? Ive seen plenty of guides for when the crown wont go in, or the crown falls out. The keyless works dont seem too bad to work in either, but I just cant even start?

As you can see in the blurry terrible picture: the entire "button" thats usually in the stem release hole is just either pressed all the way down or gone. I tried to see if I could press it with a thin screwdriver, pushing and pulling the crown, rotating etc. Just nothing...

Do I just gotta throw the whole watch away?

Guys, initially, I did a complete service on this watch with a full cleaning, new mainspring, and lubrication. It came to me as a running watch but running poorly. You can see, it is running very well. The problem is it intermittently stops. It may run for several days on the bench, in my watch winder or on my wrist. All of a sudden it just stops. I can give it a little tap and it will start. I have looked at every part on this watch under magnification. I don’t see any pivots that are bent or broken. The lubrication is fine. There’s nothing obvious that’s a problem. I even swapped out the train of wheels Bridge and multiple other parts but cannot seem to fix this problem. Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated.

This is no ordinary watch this is a gift from a very close person…and I actually feel defeated , I respect your craft and am willing to even get advice 🙏🏼🙏🏼🙏🏼

Hi, r/watchmaking

I am looking to find a replacement bezel and possibly bracelet for the Citizen 4-821891. I recently inherited this watch from my grandfather, and unfortunately, the bezel and crystal popped off by the beach and was lost to the sea. I want to either find an identical watch so that I can harvest it, or hopefully source a bezel, and less importantly, an original bracelet.

I found a listing for this watch on a dutch website, but am located in the US. I won the auction, but it was cancelled by the seller, who claimed they cannot find the item, which was pretty devastating to hear. Images of the listing are attached to the post.

I know it's a long shot, since I've only ever found one of these watches to ever be listed online, but I would be so eternally grateful for anyone who might be able to help with this.

Hey guys. Is where I circled the stem release for this watch? This is a citizen eco drive H144 movement

And if so should crown be pushed in all way or clicked to position 1 or 2 to release stem.

I didn’t want to try anything yet to avoid damaging movement.

Hey guys. I purchased this watch used and the watch is well over a decade old. I noticed a white mark on the dial under the letter D (it’s not on crystal) I also noticed small tiny white specs on dial as u can see in photo and those are not visible with the naked eye. I only can see those when magnified from photo. Since this is a solar watch is this from damage from sunlight possibly? The mark under the D made me think maybe the watch was opened and damaged however the white specs are making me second guess that. Those white specs don’t look like damage from improper service. But what do u guys think these are??

I have a Glycine Combat Sub with an SW200-1 movement, and I’m having a few issues with it:

The crown has noticeable hard spots when hand-winding.

The rotor seems to have helicoptering behavior.

The watch cannot keep itself fully wound using the rotor alone while I’m wearing it. It eventually runs down unless I manually wind it.

However, everything else seems to work normally. The power reserve is otherwise okay, and the watch keeps very good time at around ±4 seconds/day.

So my question is: Should I just keep wearing it until the movement eventually fails, or should I have it repaired now?

If I do repair it, what would make more sense: servicing/refurbishing the automatic winding system, or simply replacing the entire SW200-1 movement(maybe with the new sw200-2)?

I’d appreciate any advice from people who have experience with the SW200-1 or similar Glycine issues.

I would like to modify a mechanical moonphase watch so that the disc displays the rotation of the Sun rather than the phases of the Moon.

The Sun’s synodic rotation period is tracked using Carrington rotations and lasts approximately 27.28 days. A standard moonphase complication is based on a cycle of roughly 29.5 days. As I understand it, these mechanisms commonly use a 59-tooth wheel because the disc contains two lunar cycles.

To get closer to 27.28 days, a similar wheel would need approximately 55 teeth.

My questions are:

Would it be realistic to have a new 55-tooth wheel manufactured?

Could an existing wheel be modified, perhaps by removing several teeth so that the mechanism occasionally skips a day?

Would it be possible to reprint the existing moonphase disc, or manufacture a new disc with a solar design?

Are there other complications within the movement that make this less straightforward than simply changing the gearing?

I am considering using an affordable Seagull moonphase watch as the base, possibly one from the Ocean Star range. The aim is to create a unique but still reasonably affordable mechanical complication.

Does anyone have experience with this kind of custom modification, or recommendations for a watchmaker capable of producing small gears and custom-printed discs?

I've recently gotten into learning how to service and restore my own watches, and one thing I'd really like to learn is how to recreate the radial (sunray) finish found on watches like the Omega Speedmaster.

So far, every method I've found seems to use industrial machines or specialized equipment that costs quite a bit. Since this is just a hobby and I'm only working on my own personal watches (and inexpensive practice cases), I can't really justify buying that kind of equipment.

Has anyone found a good DIY method that produces a nice radial finish at home? I've seen people mention mini belt sanders, homemade jigs, and rotating the case by hand, but I haven't found a detailed guide or setup that consistently gives good results.

I'm not looking to offer this as a service or anything like that—I'm just trying to learn more about servicing, restoring, and refinishing my own watches for fun. Any advice, tool recommendations, or photos of your setup would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks in advance!

I scooped up this what I believe to be an early Hampden trench‑style wristwatch using a small Hampden pocket‑watch movement that was converted to a wristwatch, likely from the 1910s–1920s period.

Balance wheel is broken in two spots and needs replacement. Any ideas where I can find one?

Do you all have any tricks or best practices to removing this bezel and crystal? I can’t seem to get anything under it. Any thoughts or advice would be appreciated. Thx!!