This weeks blog post is to go over a situation that as Peter Griffin would say “Grinds my Gears”
This is the phone call that bugs me the most. It comes from a new watch collector and he has a watch that he just picked up, or was gifted to by his dad, uncle etc.. After doing some research on the internet, and watching a few YouTube videos, he starts to tell me exactly what he thinks it needs and how I should go about the repair process. His watch is old, worn and from the 1970’s and does not run well, but he says a good cleaning will get it back to perfect running condition. I listen to him ramble for a few minutes and try to keep my composure before I lose my cool… What he is implying to me is ”How hard can it be” to repair this watch????? I try and explain to him what I can and can’t deliver on this repair, but sometimes I can hear that he thinks that I don’t quite know what I am talking about.
Just for the record, I am 67 years old and have been a watchmaker since I was 18 after graduating from the Joseph Bulova school of watchmaking in NYC. I do this job everyday as a business, not a hobby.
I have passed every test, fixed tens of thousands of watches over my career. My dad and uncle were also watchmakers and I worked alongside my dad for 22 years before venturing out on my own to start my business. I am a certified Accutron Technician which was one of the main and hardest things we ever did at school (working on an Accutron under a microscope is just about the most difficult thing that I have ever done).
So as we say on the playground, “I am not bragging, it is just the facts”!
So when some random customer tries to tell me how to do my job, I get a bit grumpy (it doesn’t take much to make me grumpy these days).
The next phone call comes from a highly educated gentleman, possibly an engineer, etc. They always say that they are very mechanical and have researched this watch and then give me their opinion of the repair process. Some will then look up the movement on the web, send me the technical info (like I have never heard or seen this movement before), they will give me the proper oiling procedures and sometimes ask what type of oil that I use, just to make sure it is up to their standards… once again, I try and keep my composure and not take it personally.
Most of these customers start quoting terms like “power reserve”, “beat error” and “amplitude”. Those are all proper terms, but they have no idea of what they mean or how to adjust or correct them on any given repair.
I also have watched a lot of YouTube videos with “wanna to be watchmakers” taking a watch apart and trying to sound like they actually know what they are doing. Some of their videos are well made, but they make it look like this is just about the easiest job in the world to do. How hard can it be?
They typically take apart a simple movement, and then show how to clean it, then reassemble it, oil, etc. Most of the time they are doing it wrong , or with editing make it look like they got it right on the first try.
Taking a watch apart and putting it back together is not that hard, with practice you can learn how to do that in a few weeks. Unfortunately that is about 30% of what goes into my job. The other 70% is the hard part, the part that takes years of experience to learn.
My job is far more complicated than just the assembly process. Most things that I have learned are not in any book, they have been learned the hard way, by making a mistake and then correcting the mistake and learning from it. For example, there is no way to determine if a cannon pinion is too tight or too loose, it is a judgment call that comes from setting thousand of watches and knowing what ”just right” feels like.
Hopefully my long winded ramble does not sound like I am a know it all, but as my childhood cartoon favorite would say ”
Shown below are a few of my blog posts that give you a better idea of some of the tasks that a watchmaker needs to master.
Mark Sirianni Watch Repair
25 Fraley Street
Kane, Pa. 16735
814-837-9435
814-558-4818 (cell)
watchdoctorpa@gmail.com
Charley
2012-2024
