comments:
Yes, when you start out you will feel like a dummy a d will get discouraged but once you get to the end of your first watch and as soon as you put the balance back on and it immediately starts ticking... that dopamine hit is insane. You feel like you discovered fire. Its hard to tell you but you will figure it out; go gently on holding smaller items with your tweezers. You'll think you need a solid grip in fear of dropping it but what you end up doing is loading up a bunch of energy that will maje your tweezers ping them into the abyss (The Swiss Space Program some call it). Grab screws, springs and jewels just hard enough to get them off the movement. Gentle and steady are the way. The SW200 are quite easy to work on, its a basic movement thats share th3 same mechanics and 100s of other movements and there are plenty of videos online you can follow along with. Be aware of the keyless works on those though. They are NOTORIOUS for being a finicky pain in the ass. You'll remove the crown stem incorrectly and the whole things shifts (without you knowing) and when you go to put the crown back in (typically the last thing you do)...it won't want to click in place and now you gotta take the dial side of the watch off and do it all over again. If I were you, id find out what movement is in the Tag and start watching videos of people working on them. I would assume it would be a common ETA movement. Continue to play with your ST36 to figure out the mechanics and get comfortable with holding screws, installing click springs and taking off abd putting back on the balance. Balance installation can be a little frustrating when starting because you have to rotate the movement or the balance cock with your tweezers to make sure the impulse jewel lines up. When you feel ready to get to work on the Tag, get some brass/copper tweezers. You really have to press hard to do it but they typically dont scratch parts on the movement. I also like the feel of them over steel tweezers. On top of the brass tweezers, get a decent set of screwdrivers. There is a MAJOR difference in screwdrivers between low quality shit versus a set that might only be $20-$30 more. I used these for a while and just recently upgraded to a set from TimeLab. Kwong Yuen is a chinese brand that makes some REALLY good stuff for the price. https://www.amazon.com/Precision-Phillips-Screwdriver-Different-Watchmakers/dp/B0B3MP4F23/ref=mp_s_a_1_20?dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.lrm99-ZOkH1kmTNJzKax1GjJKM0hUvs4mD_3vwqKG25uMmNRoIINl8xBGpO-1f44ZvxPV0KtvE3oF2NGOK8Hhk-u__nZeHoMsquHsxC8VFH3r8EH4FwcmSjdqA_7wmFRL8PXJCpp7ljZJ5bSGSTjXgKukLU-u_SL_V9KrOpF3KNooNm0y1_Lua48ohdsfYxZbMxITsXZwTI3av42a4Puog.Z0MzLbqBjL-8seEX_dw0iIV01aHMNqYkvLdJC_UAjqk&dib_tag=se&keywords=watch+screwdriver&qid=1782595293&sr=8-20 Go on ebay and look up vintage Benrus watches, Bulova, Elgin or Benrus. Ebay is flooded with them You can find some cool stuff for under $100. Most of the time they are $40. What's great is those watch brands used ETA, AS, and sometimes old Seiko movements so parts are readily available and cheap. As a tip: when you do get an older watch to work on, find the movement ref. number on it (always stamped or etched on one of the plates, sometimes under the balance cock) and in Google, spell out the refrence number and put "emmy" after it. That will take you to emmywatch.com where it will list all the parts and all the Ebay listings that are selling them. What's really cool is that it will also tell you what the base model of your movement is and what other watches used the same movement. Some movement pages on Emmy will also have PDF tech sheets as well. Most watch companies would buy movements off the shelf from a company and etch their own names on it and give it a different reference/model number. For example: a Bulova 7AK movement is actually an ETA 735. Knowing that info you'll be able to discover that parts for an ETA 735 are cheaper than a Bulova 7AK...its the same movement, one just says Bulova. They are interchangeable. I am pretty positive the movement in your Tag will have a stamp that say T-xxx but its actually an SW200. Buy some clunkers on ebay (Elgin, Benrus, Bulova, Waltham even old Seikos), preferably some that are running. Its difficult trying to troubleshoot a watch thats not running because you havent worked on that many that were in perfect condition so how are you supposed to properly troubleshoot when you're still leaning the mechanics? You have to know how these things are supposed to work to then discover how one isnt. And all watches work the same, except calender functions, chronographs, yada yada. All the time keeping functions for the most part are the sane across the board: Spring in a barrel, 4 wheels, a pallet fork and a balance. To tell time, thats all that is needed. One last bit: go on Amazon and get a LinkMicro Digital Microscope (or something comparable) for around $80 if you're thinking about going down in the rabbit hole. The Digital Microscope is damn near a must. It really helps you inspect parts and gives you the ability to see what, where and how much oil you are using on pivots. Oiling after assembling clean parts is a must, its also my most favorite part of the process. Thanks for attending my TedTalk...