Watch modding frustration

After breaking a bezel and case trying to replace a bezel insert, I bought a new case to put my movement/dial/hands in, I just managed to put the stem in the new crown well secured and everything, and as I dropped the little movement holder tabs in the case, one of them somehow slipped under the balance wheel and snapped the hairspring. So now I have to buy a whole new movement because I have none of the tools required to replace a balance wheel. I spent 4€ in a bezel insert which turned into 50€ of watch case which is now turning into needing to get a whole new movement so that's a big no, no more watch modding for me, I'm done

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I messed up a movement just before Christmas trying to regulate it and I must be a glutton for punishment as I just order a bunch of parts for a new build.

I don't want to think about the money I wasted since I started modding by not being careful or doing it when I'm overtired. The other night I did another when I took off the wrong dial stems and rendered my dial useless with the 4'clock crown. Going to have to get dial dots now. However, only had one movement disaster so far.

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I didn't break a case or bezel but I did muck up the case trying to take the bezel off. To make it worse it was a Christmas present for my son. I kept the  scratched up watch and bought him another one. The next watch I changed the bezel insert on I went in at the 12 o'clock position and it just snapped right off. Very little pressure and zero scratches.

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thatguy306

I messed up a movement just before Christmas trying to regulate it and I must be a glutton for punishment as I just order a bunch of parts for a new build.

I don't want to think about the money I wasted since I started modding by not being careful or doing it when I'm overtired. The other night I did another when I took off the wrong dial stems and rendered my dial useless with the 4'clock crown. Going to have to get dial dots now. However, only had one movement disaster so far.

What I find sad is that it's almost more expensive to build a watch than to buy one already factory made

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jrmoney

I didn't break a case or bezel but I did muck up the case trying to take the bezel off. To make it worse it was a Christmas present for my son. I kept the  scratched up watch and bought him another one. The next watch I changed the bezel insert on I went in at the 12 o'clock position and it just snapped right off. Very little pressure and zero scratches.

What I didn't know was that on this model the bezel couldn't be removed without taking the bezel insert off, and that could only be done by removing the crystal since the tolerances were so small, trying to pry it out I bent the bezel, broke the ceramic insert, made a deep cut in the case and broke a caseback knife

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You could brush old case.
If it is NH3xx movement - sometimes you can have good deal on Ali on eBuy.
What case and bezel it is ?
and why you wanted to change it ?

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Stephme

What I find sad is that it's almost more expensive to build a watch than to buy one already factory made

The rational side of my brain keeps screaming that at me but I'm a pretty hardcore DIY Junkie. I find a lot of satisfaction from the process of building things myself and pride when some asks and I can say I made that. Sadly more times than not the cost of buying something premade isn't that different. I always have a few projects underway and one is usually a watch build. My other big one at the moment is a restore of a 1972 Fiberglass Camper if I look at the growing parts bill I likely should have just bought a Camper lol.

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tomkoval

You could brush old case.
If it is NH3xx movement - sometimes you can have good deal on Ali on eBuy.
What case and bezel it is ?
and why you wanted to change it ?

The old case isn't only scratched it has a 2mm gash in it because I levered the bezel too hard, which is also why the bezel got badly bent and broke the insert. The now dead movement is a miyota 8215 and I bought a case for it so it wouldn't likely fit anything else. Everything is now at the bottom of the trash since none of it is usable without me spending at least enough to buy a brand new watch. It was a sub style case and I just wanted to swap the bezel insert from black to green at first. 

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thatguy306

The rational side of my brain keeps screaming that at me but I'm a pretty hardcore DIY Junkie. I find a lot of satisfaction from the process of building things myself and pride when some asks and I can say I made that. Sadly more times than not the cost of buying something premade isn't that different. I always have a few projects underway and one is usually a watch build. My other big one at the moment is a restore of a 1972 Fiberglass Camper if I look at the growing parts bill I likely should have just bought a Camper lol.

Sadly I have really bad shaking in my hands which made a simple dial replacement turn into a 1h nightmare as I desperately tried to drop the hands on the correct spot. And as for pride for things I make myself I can just point to cars and be like "hey I repaired this" Haha. 

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Stephme

Sadly I have really bad shaking in my hands which made a simple dial replacement turn into a 1h nightmare as I desperately tried to drop the hands on the correct spot. And as for pride for things I make myself I can just point to cars and be like "hey I repaired this" Haha. 

Lol I noticed your car picture I dabbled in Car Repair in my 20s but I'd be completely lost now on anything that came out of the factory after 1980. Plus it's best not to let me weld anything that was not a natural skill for me. If I ever finish my Camper I may try and find a classic car to bring back to life.

Watch hands are the worst specially the second hand. I destroyed probably 3 seconds hands on both of my first two mods. I figured out a technique that works for me so now I can slap on hands pretty quick. However, it was literally a day long task just to do the hands on my first couple mods. I gave one to my brother and the second hand is all bent it drives me nuts that it's out there in the wild and he won't let me fix it.

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thatguy306

Lol I noticed your car picture I dabbled in Car Repair in my 20s but I'd be completely lost now on anything that came out of the factory after 1980. Plus it's best not to let me weld anything that was not a natural skill for me. If I ever finish my Camper I may try and find a classic car to bring back to life.

Watch hands are the worst specially the second hand. I destroyed probably 3 seconds hands on both of my first two mods. I figured out a technique that works for me so now I can slap on hands pretty quick. However, it was literally a day long task just to do the hands on my first couple mods. I gave one to my brother and the second hand is all bent it drives me nuts that it's out there in the wild and he won't let me fix it.

The second hand on this watch I replaced the dial on got slightly bent too, I'm keeping it like this to remind myself, it's got its own charm I guess

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I still have my first mod. The hands came from China and were slightly bend, and while my attempt to straighten them was successful, they look a little wobbly. Still yes, I keep it around, because nobody else will have something like this...I assume.