What are your oddest watch tools?
I was curious what are some of your oddest watch tools?
If you work on watches long enough, you're bound to have improvised tools that aren't found in any watch kit. Either due to sub-professional tools not being enough or because improvised tools work better.
A medicine bottle cap and a memory foam sampler that came with an old pair of shoes are 2 of my tools. Both are used to reinstall the baseback on my Timex Weekender.
The Weekender is a pain to reinstall the caseback and one hack I learned from YouTube was to use the medicine bottle cap to use your shoe to press it back into place - gently. The memory foam I either use on the glass or to be between the cap and the caseback if I can a carpet or towel under the glass.
The Timex is tough enough to make this the simplest process. But the whole thing had me wondering what other odd tools or methods everyone else used.
Submitted for your approval, a man and the watches he wears in... the twilight zone.
I've used a C-clamp to reinstall casebacks that wouldn't seat using the lever press.
I use a rubber ball I pilfered from a Chucky Cheese’s ball pit when I was a kid many many decades ago to open case backs.
When I was a kid, I would use my pocketknife to remove pins when changing watch straps.
A file. My Vostok had a sharp edge which chewed on any two-piece strap. So... I filed it. Not precisely, no vise on hand, but it did the trick. On any other watch it would have been a blasphemy...
My fingernails
A file. My Vostok had a sharp edge which chewed on any two-piece strap. So... I filed it. Not precisely, no vise on hand, but it did the trick. On any other watch it would have been a blasphemy...
Vostok is one of those brands where maintaince seems like it would be running the warchworks under a garden hose and using whatever motor or cooking oil is handy to oil it.
The oldest tool I have is a tam o' Shanter home from the late 1890s. But I have had my spring bar tool and two case opener knifes for over 10 years.
Back in the day, prior to getting my quality China made press, I used to install case backs with a rubber mallet :)
Back in the day, prior to getting my quality China made press, I used to install case backs with a rubber mallet :)
Haha, didn't consider that one
Vostok is one of those brands where maintaince seems like it would be running the warchworks under a garden hose and using whatever motor or cooking oil is handy to oil it.
It is still a delicate machine, mind you. It's certainly no G-shock. It's also not simple. Mine has 31 jewels, because it uses some for one element Swiss and Japanese watches do without jewels. That doesn't mean it's better overall, only that in one aspect it has some minor advantage. I'm not a watchmaker, so I don't know which aspect.
Two-sided heavy duty sticky tape (also known as Carpet Tape) is my go-to for odd casebacks.
It is still a delicate machine, mind you. It's certainly no G-shock. It's also not simple. Mine has 31 jewels, because it uses some for one element Swiss and Japanese watches do without jewels. That doesn't mean it's better overall, only that in one aspect it has some minor advantage. I'm not a watchmaker, so I don't know which aspect.
Very true. Only mechanical watch that I know of that was a true beast was the Timex Marlin which was designed to be able to throw into lighter fluid and get a drop of oil after and be good to go.