OK - So I seem to have got the basic handle on how the Blog works I'm going to start to bring together some of the information about my exploration of the Pocket watch world.

I have to say that everyone I meet is extremely friendly and happy to share knowledge and I very quickly amassed a range of nice, junk and near junk watches to play with ( you can see them in the background). From zero knowledge, I now merely classify myself as ignorant and I've had fun on the way. The way I see it, is if I buy a broken watch, try to fix it, and can't then I can always sell the watch as broken and profit from the understandings that I've gained in the process.

Early on in my exploration I rapidly discovered the bewildering range of tools required. Most of which I can say I managed to either make myself, or are very reasonably available on Ebay. I have long enjoyed fiddling with home-made robots and electronic gizmos, which has given me the confidence to experiment, so I think some of my solutions are a little on the "unconventional" side


The biggest exception to this has been the Pultra watchmaker's lathe - a stately old pre-war lady I'm only just coming to terms with her frailties and difficult habits - why for instance, build an 8mm chuck, but then provide it with a 1/4" x 40 TPI thread ? I'm playing nicely and that's the main thing, mostly cobbling up adaptors to fit other tools I already have. I'm hoping to produce my first actually useful bit sometime in the next 6 months :-)

Being a techie - I developed my own database for my collection. Then with the aid of some cheap software courtesy of http://www.watchoscope.com/ built my own watch timing equipment - the suggested microphone tool doesn't work too well, so again I built my own, using a "spy microphone I got of ebay for under £5.00 - I will post details on my solution on my "equipment page". I find this really quite useful and very helpful in timing watches to be accurate.