I've been getting asked this a lot lately, so here it is....
In this 21st century world of instant gratification, tech hacks, life hacks, shortcuts and DIY, let me present:
Watchmaking.
A quaint old trade, you might think. Must be almost dead, like blacksmithing.
Absolutely not.
Millions and millions of mechanical watches are produced every year, and watchmakers service them. That's how it works, and it has been like this for a very long time. (Numbers have varied, obviously)
I do not share the view that phones and tech replace the watch. Or the clock, for that matter. Sure, I can set my phone to wake me up or look at it to see what time it is, but that means it's handy enough to just grab and look. (Which in my case, it isn't. I no longer carry my phone in my pocket after seeing what it did to a solid metal Rolex movement. See the cell phone blog post)
As long as it's charged up and all, and this goes for the Apple watch also.
Now I'm no Luddite, but I certainly do admire the craftsmanship of antiques and well made mechanical devices, like watches. My automatic chronometer on my wrist tells me what time it is, and I don't have to wind it. I take it off at night and put it on in the morning, pretty simple, pretty green tech.
Vintage watches, which we specialize in, require proper care and maintenance, more so usually because they almost always end up in front of me after decades of neglect. 
I need to stress this, there is no shortcut to this, no hack. The procedures in watchmaking are time consuming, and skill heavy. You can't 'just oil' or 'just clean' a watch. The full service for a mechanical watch is called a 'CTR' in the trade. I've seen watch movements that are 'dipped' or rinsed with various solvents and the result is either destruction of the watch or various other problems. 
The watch MUST be completely disassembled to properly clean it, and once you are at this point, you are deeply into a full CTR. Repair or replacement of parts, lubrication and regulation follow, and the case is cleaned also, usually polished. Bracelets are re-conditioned and leather bands replaced if necessary. 
I remember a Flea Market I used to go to every weekend, and there was a guy there selling vintage watches, claiming that they were serviced by 'his guy'. I asked him a few times what this service entailed, but he obviously did not know.
So one weekend I bought an Omega Seamaster from him, which he swore up and down was fully serviced and guaranteed. I took it home and looked inside.
Guess what?
It was filthy.
It was swimming in oil, and had rust issues under the dial. It had most certainly NOT been serviced in any way shape or form, in fact, only the balance side had been lubed at all, so half the watch was not lubed. There was oil everywhere it did not belong, and very little where it did. I did a CTR on the watch and took it back the following week to show the guy in the market.
He was not a bit impressed with my Smart- Assery, to say the least. He suspected I was trying to shake him down or something, but I insisted that I did not want my money back, I just wanted him to know that he was not getting value for his money. He told me the 'guy' knew what he was doing, and only charged him $40.
So you get what you pay for. We argued for a bit, and I agreed that to service every old watch would certainly cut into any profits he was making. 
Plus, it was quick.
Of that I have no doubt. Open the case, put some oil in the jewels that were visible and close the case, maybe regulate it a bit.
But what I am getting at here, is that quality takes time, and you can't hack watchmaking, you just can't. There are no shortcuts, especially in the learning part of the trade. If you don't fully understand what you are doing you are unlikely to do it well. There is school, and then apprenticing. The days of having a Master, where you just walked in and 'picked up' the trade with no schooling are long gone. 
I have a sign that I have been meaning to put back up in the shop, it is something I have kept since my gun smithing days:

FAST   CHEAP   GOOD

Pick two, invert* the third.

​R

*use the antonym, not turn the word upside down...Is there a verb meaning 'to antonym?' Antonymize?

Ah, the joys of owning a vintage timepiece, be it a watch or a clock. Maybe it belonged to your Grand Dad or your Great Great Grandmother. You remember it from your youth perhaps, you might even see it in old Black and White photographs, even tin- types. 
Just a word of caution in our hectic and hurly-burly world:
Vintage watches and clocks are elderly, and deserve some extra care and respect. In particular, because you might be carrying it on your wrist or in your pocket a lot, watches are the subject of today's missive. 
I've mentioned it before, but it bears mentioning often: Old watches, either wrist or pocket, are probably NOT water resistant in any way shape or form. Even if they were rated at some time in their past, or carry the wildly misleading imprint of "WaterProof", chances are they are no longer any such thing. Old wristwatches, in particular may not even be dust proof. Likewise they may not have any kind of shock protection. Now, take this with a bit of common sense, if your watch is a dive type and has some gaskets and a rating of some kind, these you might not worry as much about as say, a vintage Tank watch from the late thirties or forties. Military watches from the same period might be more robust, but not always. With this in mind, here's a few do's and don'ts for your vintage watch:

• Don't drop it! Always put your wristwatch on over your nice soft bed or over something soft in case you let go of it while you are fiddling with the clasp or band.
• Don't take it off in the washroom and set it on the counter while you wash your hands or even worse, run a shower. Your watch is all nice and warm from being worn, and is now cooling. Old cases will now begin to suck ambient air into themselves as they cool, and you are filling that ambient air with moisture. Keep them well away from the sink, especially the older types. Watches with screw down crowns should be ok, I'm talking the watches from the teens through the sixties unless they have some form of water resistance and it has been verified. 
• The same thing goes for being out in the rain, keep your wrist covered.
• Magnetism is everywhere these days, keep your watch away from magnetic fields and don't put them on the desk next to a cell phone. Cell phones kick out a field that will easily magnetize a vintage watch. 
• Don't work on your stripping your boat's hull or jackhammer your driveway while wearing your heirloom. We have actually had issues with this....
• Don't let the watch get overly hot, like on the dash of a hot car or in direct sunlight on a hot day while you catch some rays. Black dialled watches doubly so. (This also applies to modern Quartz watches big time)
• Even if your watch has a water resistant rating, and even if it HAS been pressure tested and passed, do NOT immerse it in hot water a la Hot Tub or hot shower. Heat shrinks gaskets, see where I'm going here? Hot water voids most (if not ALL) warranties. In order to maintain your watch's depth rating (If it has one) you must replace the gaskets every one or two years, if the watch is getting wet on a regular basis. Otherwise, the gaskets should be changed during your 4-6 year CTR.
• If your watch does get wet, and it shows signs of moisture in the case like fog on the crystal, it is a good idea to get it to a watchmaker STAT. Rust happens very quickly inside a watch. This also applies to quartz watches.

So that's it, really. Don't bang it into the door jamb if you can help it, watch out for magnetism and water, and be proud you are the caretaker of that time capsule from the past!

​R

 I thought we had touched on this before, but it seems we haven't, so some important information about quick set watches.
Quick set means you have a stem and crown that pulls out with more than two positions, and it is used to quickly correct the date or day, and in some watches, other functions as well. The reason this must be done correctly is that failure to observe the procedure will damage your watch.
Quickset began to be used in the Fifties, and various methods were patented to attempt to avoid the 'round and round' syndrome which used to be necessary to set a date on a watch that had stopped from disuse. This applied to both Automatic and Manual wind of course, so depending on the power reserve of the watch, you would pick it up after a couple days sitting on your desk or dresser, and in addition to setting the time, the date (if it had one) was also incorrect. 
The first thing you need to do is determine what time it really is on the watch. Rotate the hands forward to 12 O'Clock and see if the date flips over. If it does not, keep going to the next 12. If the date flips, that means midnight. If it still doesn't, the mechanism may be broken or there could be other issues. What is important is that you now know where midnight is. In the older watches with no quick set, you now have to advance to midnight to get the date to advance, then backup to around 8:30 or 9 and forward again to midnight, advancing the date each time until the correct number shows. This old system is the back-and-forth one and caused extra wear to the Cannon Pinion. It was an improvement over the even older method which I mentioned, the 'round and round', which meant you had to go forward a full 24 hours to advance the date. 
Makes it pretty tedious, I can tell ya.
So fast forward to the modern era and quick set. Different companies adopted the quick set at different times, so you might be surprised that your 1978 Rolex is NOT a quick set, but your 1968 Mido is. In addition to this, different companies experimented with different mechanisms, and some were just weird, and didn't last. Examples are the 'push-pull', and a mid seventies Omega device that set the Day by rotating the hands backward. Every couple mins would roll a new day past, which makes setting the watch back more than a couple mins a bit challenging, because you will automatically be rolling the Day as well. 
But back to the procedure.
So you pick up the watch, you advance the hands, you know where midnight is. Anytime after say 2am and before 8pm, it will be safe (In ALMOST all cases) to use the quick set. In most modern watches, this is the middle crown position. There is all the way in, middle, and all the way out. All the way out is the hands setting position we all know.
So you pull the crown halfway and now you can set the date and day, depending on your model. Now you advance the hands to whatever time it actually is, and Robert's your Uncle's Brother.
So what's the big deal anyway, you ask?
If you try and use the quick set during the hours that the watch is already beginning to change the day or date, you can strip the teeth off wheels in the motion works, and your watch is now damaged and won't work properly. Other parts may break, depending on the design of the mechanism. What is really important though, is that this can also apply to quick setting Quartz watches. 
So let's say you pick up your watch and the battery is dead, no problem, you change the battery yourself. (Or you take it to a trained professional, but if you do it yourself, use finger cots. Do NOT touch the battery with bare fingers, or the inside of the watch anywhere) And of course you use a quality battery(Like Renata), not some cheapo bulk purchase no name abomination. 
Now you want to set the watch, and all the above protocol applies. The quick set mechanism can be damaged in exactly the same way as those mechanical watches. This doesn't happen as much with quartz watches, because the batteries last a year or more, so you aren't picking up a dead watch that often. 
So that's it. A very important tip to avoid damaging your precious timepiece, and we do see a lot of watches that have issues from this sort of thing.

Keep on Tickin'.

​R

Just a quick word here about the current state of batteries.
In recent years, we have seen the elimination of dangerous toxic materials used in the manufacture of cells, both for watches as well as the more common AA, C, and D cells found in quartz clocks. 
This makes for easier and less toxic recycling, but this seems to come at a price.
We have seen a rise in battery failure, mostly in clocks but also the smaller watch batteries. The batteries are more prone to leaking, and especially for battery powered clocks I recommend changing the  battery once a year, even if the clock is still running.
The chemicals will leak out and damage the battery compartment and can wick along the wires or circuit board and destroy the quartz clock movement. Some brands are more likely to do this than others. 
Generally, when this happens we make an attempt to clean out the chemicals and re-establish proper contact, but in some cases the damage is too severe and the movement is kaput.
​We change our store clock batteries once a year, in the Fall. 
I should point out that battery failure is not a warranty issue, but we make every attempt to address the problem, and both Bulova and Howard Miller are sympathetic to this issue. 
In addition, handling or touching the battery, especially in watches, will increase the likelihood that the battery will fail or leak. Under no circumstances should you touch the watch button battery, or the movement inside your quartz watch. Finger cots must be worn to change batteries and this is our procedure, we have seen countless movements with fingerprints burned right into the metal parts. 
Of course, you could always take your watch to your friendly neighbourhood watchmaker, and they will change your battery properly for you.

Ok, I'm going to go outside of my normal rap on watchmaking and watches and relate a little incident that kind of ties in with a recent tv show about how Health Canada is woefully incorrect about the limits of cell radiation, and how it really should be something we think about.

CBC's MarketPlace had Wendy Mesley investigating cell phone radiation and the standards and warnings that surround it, and there does seem to be some question as to the true dosages we are getting, and some surprising anecdotal evidence of numerous cancers in a small area, etc.

I was at a watchmaking class, we were servicing the venerable Rolex 1570, kindly provided by Lititz Technicum in PA, a couple years ago. I had my movt fully re-staffed and CTR'd and sitting in its cradle on the Witschi (Watch timing computer) when one of the students said he had noticed something and wanted to show us.
He stood beside my bench, with his cell phone in hand, a web page showing. He was going to click on a link, and he was about 6- 8 inches from the movt in the microphone cradle. What happened next was a bit shocking. He clicked. 
The Witschi completely lost it, the nice flat line I had been observing as I regulated the movt disappeared, to be replaced by noise and artifacts on the screen. We had to re-boot it, and the watch itself took two attempts at de-magnetisation before it would behave itself again. 
It immediately made us all wonder about the strength and effects this field had on our tissues. It was strong enough to magnetize a hairspring and various steel parts at a distance, and the Witschi didn't like it either.
Now granted, this was an uncased movt, and steel in the form of tiny parts and ribbon springs are fragile, but I can tell you I no longer carry my cell phone in my pocket, especially after the Market Place investigation, which showed 4 independent tumours in a woman's breast, in exactly the place she kept her cell phone- tucked in her bra.
Just something to consider.

​*****

I was listening to the radio this morning on my drive to work, and there was an optimistic fellow talking about his website that shows you how to repair things.
He mentioned that there was an increased interest in repairing things as opposed to throwing them away, and that if a quick fix was available, it should be made accessible to the customer.
They mentioned the various things that were being repaired in Fixit or Repair 'Cafes' and these included lamps, and alarm clocks.
I respectfully disagree on both of these subjects, and I'll tell you why.
With lamps, especially old lamps, or any old electrical appliance, you do need to have an electrician do the repair. 
Why?
Because if anything at all goes wrong and your house burns down, guess what your insurance company will say?
That is why we don't repair any electric or electronic clocks. The old Hammond clocks are very interesting, but the motor is encapsulated in paraffin, and when it overheats, the capsule may leak or burst, and voila,it is an incendiary device. If your house has up to date breakers and wiring, they may trip in time to prevent any problem, but they may not, and then you may be talking to the Insurance guys, and they have no reputation for letting things slide.
Which brings me to alarm clocks.
Sure you can attempt to disassemble an alarm clock, but bear in mind that a fully wound mainspring can and will turn a gear into a buzz saw and take your finger off. Pieces can be launched at your face and eyes, and in general, it is likewise a safety issue. In addition, if you bring me a bag of parts or a clock damaged by tinkering, chances are there is going to be a bigger repair bill. Not always, but chances are.
But alarm clocks are invariably disposable items. There are exceptions to this, but the vast majority of these are tin cans, with sheet metal 'plates', and when the pivots oval their holes, the clock jams. Short of disassembly and bushing these thin plates, and a dozen other procedures, the clock is done. 
This is not to say you can't do it, as long as there are a minimum number of riveted components. You can grind off the rivets, drill holes and tap them in some cases, but this is a lot of work.
Clock overhaul, as I have mentioned elsewhere in this blog, involves quite a few repair techniques to be done properly. There are a lot of ways to do it improperly as well, and Michael Gainey has a 'Wall of Shame' on his Columbus clock repair site, if you want to see how bad it can get. 
One of the methods we see often is the 'dipping' of clock movements, which is a viable technique to help identify a problem, but this must always be followed up with a proper overhaul or at the very least, complete disassembly and cleaning. Dipping washes away some of the dirt, but also allows some to collect exactly where you don't want it. Dirt will accelerate wear or congeal with lubricants and stop the clock at any rate. Soaking the movement down with WD40 (NEVER do this) will do much the same thing, and you absolutely do not want any lube (Of which WD40 is not a good example) on the gear teeth. It will also contaminate your friendly neighbourhood clock repairman's Industry Standard cleaning baths, and this stuff ain't cheap.
Alarm clocks are really not designed to be re-built, but in certain cases it can be done. It will cost far more than the clock is worth in most cases, but we are sentimental beings, and this is why we want our heirlooms looked after. 
I encourage anyone who is interested in clock repair to take some courses like those offered by the NAWCC or the AWCI here in North America.
So while it is a good idea to affect repairs to many things around the home yourself, I wouldn't say alarm clocks are the best example of one of these, much less lamps and appliances. 
Here's that Hall of Shame I mentioned:

Just a quick quartz watch primer.
​For those who may not have given it much thought, yes your battery driven watch is most likely a quartz watch. They utilize a quartz crystal as an oscillator, and can keep very good time. The cheap ones will drift up to 140 seconds per month, the really good ones will be within 5 seconds per month, and the Precisionist Quartz by Bulova is good for 8 seconds per year.
The heart of the watch is the quartz movement, and depending on the watch, they can be repaired or replaced, but most often they are replaced.
If your watch is a good quality one, it may be possible to simply replace the movement, and this is what happens at a repair depot usually. The older quartz watches have robust movements that are obsolete, so sometimes these can be repaired, but with parts being restricted by companies like Swatch, (Swatch owns Longines, Rado, Omega, Tissot, Breguet, Certina, Mido, Hamilton, Calvin Klein, BlancPain and ETA, the movt maker) this may no longer be possible in most cases. This also applies to almost all modern replacements of Swiss quartz movements.
Japanese movements, depending on the maker, are still widely available and there is no move to restrict them in the near future. Chinese movements can be quite inexpensive to replace and are almost never repaired.
Life span for a good quartz watch is about 35 years, for a mediocre one it can be less than 5. 
If your quartz watch is kaput, it may be because of a variety of factors. Leaking battery, magnetic fields, rough handling (extremely common) dirt, wear and tear, and water damage. Sometimes they also just wear out.
As a repair shop, we either repair the movt, or replace it, the latter being most common. Quartz movts can range in price from a few dollars to hundreds or even thousands. 
The long and the short of this story is Quartz watches do not last as long as mechanical watches, and they are easily destroyed by contamination and magnetic fields. We see a lot of watches with fingerprints burned into the batteries or on the movts themselves. It is important to not touch the battery or the movt with your fingers. If you see someone touching your battery or your watch movt with bare fingers, this is wrong and will cause damage. 
Those ten and twenty dollar watches are basically throw away items and we generally do not recommend repairing them.

Clock moving. 
Like Piano moving, can be a task better left to professionals. Now I'm referring to the large Hall and Floor Clocks we all call 'Grandfather', but there are some clocks that hang on the wall that are particularly sensitive, and some table clocks too.
If your clock requires a service, and you feel it should not be moved, definitely tell your friendly neighbourhood horologist and they will likely arrange a house call.
If you wish to bring a clock in for service, there are several things you should keep in mind.
Firstly, remove the pendulum if it has one, as they tend to knock around quite a bit during travel and will damage the clock quite easily.
Secondly, remove the weights if they have any, and the same logic applies.
400 day clocks, otherwise known as Anniversary clocks, need to have their torsion pendulums locked down before you move them any distance at all. The thin suspension spring is very easily damaged, as are the teeth on the tiny escape wheel. Most of the Anniversary clocks have a lock feature, and if they don't, that means they were produced in the frantic last years of the 400 day clock boom, and likely don't have levelling feet either. These clocks, I am sorry to say, (with rare exceptions) really aren't worth repairing.
Atmos clocks also fall into this category, they are extremely sensitive and need to have their disc pendulums locked before transport. If you are unsure of how to do this, do not move the clock without getting some advice or professional help. These clocks are very expensive, and require delicate handling. (In addition, the overhaul of an Atmos clock is likewise expensive)
Clocks with long and heavy suspensions, like Vienna Regulators, need to have weights removed, pendulums removed, and the suspension carefully taped down in the centre to avoid damage during transport. Green masking tape works well for this.
Clocks with mercury pendulums are a special breed- they require not only careful handling, but their hazardous contents dictate they need careful inspection for leaks and should be kept upright at all times. If you spill or break the mercury free from such a pendulum, there are hazardous spill procedures listed online, and depending on the amount spilled (Some clocks contain 4- 8 lbs of mercury) you may be required by law to contact the local Fire Department.
Keep in mind the danger here is from evaporation of the mercury, which is then inhaled. Mercury will evaporate even at room temperature, so follow the procedures and ventilate the area for large spills.
So definitely remove your weights and pendulum, or call and see if a house call is in order for your cherished timepiece. 
Ticking right along as usual……..

​R

There seems to be a small yet persistent impression amongst both young and older, that mechanical watches are kaput, no longer being made, etc. Here's the straight dope:

• Mechanical watches are a multi-billion dollar industry and it is expanding
• Mechanical watches are reliable in hot and humid climates (India) whereas quartz watches are not
• Mechanical watches can and do last for 100+ years, quartz watches maybe 20-35 years for the best
• Mechanical watches do not keep quartz accuracy, COSC spec is within 4.5 sec/day
• Some quartz watches in the lower end don't meet COSC spec
• Mechanical watches are green technology, no batteries required ever and their footprint of manufacture is spread out over a long period of time
• Mechanical watches are in some cases more robust than quartz, they are not rendered dead by magnetic fields whereas a good jolt will kill a quartz watch. Mechanical watches are more susceptible to shock
• No charging, no cells to buy, no capacitors to replace, no re-programming, the movement is made of metal, not plastic
• See where I'm going here?

$49 bought you a quality watch in 1950, and that translates into $800 today. You can get an excellent Swiss mechanical watch for around $400-$500, so the prices are actually lower now.
Don't want to spend that much? Look into a quality used Swiss mechanical, serviced and guaranteed by your friendly neighbourhood watchmaker.

Cheers to a new year

​R

For those of us that have never known anything but the silent accuracy of a quartz watch, and for those that may have forgotten the joys of a mechanical watch, a word on timekeeping....
I often say that a mechanical watch is green technology, no batteries to discard and recycle, and will last a lifetime if properly cared for, spreading it's footprint over many years. However, compared to a quartz watch, there are a few concessions that must be made and these mainly involve timekeeping.
The best COSC chronometer will vary as much as 4.5 seconds per day, so that means a possible variation of 139 seconds in a month, maybe more. Run of the mill quartz movts we tested in watchmaking school also showed about the same drift. However, a mechanical watch is also affected by shocks, sometimes as slight as shaking your watch on it's metal bracelet to adjust the way it lies on your wrist- a common practice.
The oscillator, that is, the balance assembly runs at 4 Hz in a modern wristwatch compared to 32,768 Hz in a quartz. The faster the oscillator, the better the timekeeping. Bulova's Precisionist series is the only significant improvement made to quartz watches, vibrating at 262,144 Hz. The second hands on these watches sweep, reminiscent of the Old Accutron Tuning Fork watches of the 60's and 70's. 
​Mechanical watches that run at 4 Hz oscillate 28,800 vibrations per hour, and this tops out at 36,000 vph in a so-called Hi-Beat watch. The extra wear and tear of a mechanical mechanism running at this rate negates any benefit gained, so it has largely been abandoned. 
Still, this means the quartz watch is more accurate, but we all knew that, unless of course the battery goes dead, or gets too cold or the movt is not thermo-compensated. Batteries leak, too. Generally speaking though, the difference is glaring.
So why would anyone spend hundreds, or maybe thousands of dollars on a mechanical watch?
Longevity is the principle advantage, meaning the possibility of passing the watch down as a working heirloom is fairly certain, if the watch is well cared for. 
No batteries to buy, but you do need to service it periodically, and the interval is 4 to 6 years. Back in the early days of the quartz revolution, quartz watches were also serviced, and it is still possible to service some of the more expensive quartz watches, but generally the movement is a throwaway item. A lot of times the cheaper quartz watches are throwaway also, and may be made of very questionable base metals. 
Status may be another reason, or perhaps the knowledge that your watch was designed and built with varying amounts of hand work. Patek Philippe famously says you never really own a Patek, you just take care of it for the next generation. Entry level for a new Patek is about $15,000, Rolex is about $8000.
Even if you buy a new throwaway watch every six months, you'd have to buy a lot of them to spend that kind of money, but it needn't be so.
Excellent quality Swiss Mechanical watches like the Hamilton Jazzmaster can be had for under $500, which is about the same as a 50 dollar watch in 1950. 
Which brings me back to timekeeping.
Vintage mechanical watches can and do require manual adjustment every few days or once a week. The variation in timekeeping depends on many factors, not the least is how old the watch is and how it was made. 1930's Railroad watches can still run to very exacting standards, for example, but an old watch or clock that needs to get adjusted for a few minutes per week is quite normal, even when they were new. In the case of old clocks especially, the escapement may more often be the culprit here, as certain types keep better time than others, and weight clocks are more accurate than spring clocks.
Adjusting your watch or winding it daily brings you in conscious, mindful contact with your timepiece, a practice that may seem anachronistic to anyone born after the quartz crisis of the 70's. 
The main reason people bring an old watch to us for overhaul is invariably because of sentimental reasons, or sometimes because a collector wants to keep his watch in good condition to protect its value. 
I still have the watch my Grandfather gave to me when I was a teenager, and I have kept it serviced properly for 40 years. It was already 25 years old when he gave it to me, and drifts a few minutes per week. Every time I adjust the time to the radio signal at 1 pm, I think of him, and the grandchildren who will inherit it from me.

R