Deeper Into This Hobby (cont.)

Hamilton bought the movement maker Standard Time and, indirectly Vantage. Vantage was the budget AliExpress brand of their day. That looks like a good one.

Exactly right. And I love the AliExpress analogy! I’m sure that has something to do with why I could get an almost-running example for $19. But if you’re planning to tear it apart with no experience, seemed a fortunate find.

My next project is a truly Swiss movement (Avia) from similar era but missing stem, crown, and all but the hour hand. I think of it as my $7 “cadaver.” 💀

Nice work and great a bargain!

It’s unclear to me what you worked on the watch?

Not very much. Mostly the movement ring was installed incorrectly so movement and dial were banging around inside the case. Sometimes it would run sometimes not. After that just took movement out and pulled crystal to clean. Case was grungy. Crystal was rough so polished it. But I’ve never done more that a battery replacement before, so felt like major surgery (as all the modders just roll their eyes. 🙄)

You've done more than I've had the courage to do. I can change batteries and bands, but that's as far as I go. 😎

That’s more than most folks do. I’m just an engineer by nature. I feel as if the don’t really understand how something works until I take it apart. But I didn’t have the courage to take apart something nice. 🤔

Yeah, I have been thinking about buying a bunch of broken movements on EBay just to practice on; if the movement is already broken, then the only thing I could possibly do to it would be to make an improvement, LOL 😎 But right now, I don't have the time to sit down and practice. Too much high-priority stuff going on right now. 😀

I’m an empty nester. That comes with a certain luxury of control over my time. 😉

Though I will share advice sent to me. “If you work on a working watch and it still works, you’ve learned something. If you work on a broken watch and it’s still broken you have not learned anything.” 😉

Hope you have time to try someday