Well I’m still struggling to move through my backlog of watches awaiting service but that certainly doesn’t mean the desire isn’t there. I’ve got a lot of stuff coming which I hope to have posted at regular intervals and some exciting calibres to debut. Let’s keep our fingers crossed that the goods actually arrive on time and we can all bask in the nerdery that is my chronograph obsession! Today’s watch is part two of my Seiko chronograph journey. I serviced a Seiko 6138 chronograph movement back in 2020 (a lovely 6138-8021 Panda chronograph) and here we have the Seiko 7018-7000 One-Eyed Panda ..read more

Well, a lot has changed since my last post. The pandemic hit, I moved into a new (smaller) home and I’ve spent most of the past year and a half working from that home. I also lost my workshop as a result of the move and am now setup in the garage; sadly, I’ve found the summer heat in there to be unbearable and thus my hobby now needs to wait until late fall or winter. But all this hasn’t kept my mind off horology and I’ve managed to accumulate a few more timepieces for tinkering. I’ve picked up a few junkers and a few gems- all which require a bit of work. One such watch, a piece I’ve been on ..read more

With everything going on in the world today it’s probably not much of a surprise that I haven’t had the time I normally would to engage in my favored hobby. My family moved to a new home in April of this year which was a challenge due to the local pandemic response. I lost my workshop and have been relocated to the garage which gets pretty warm in the summer months. It’s also been the hottest year on record (again). Consequently I’ve avoided working on watches and clocks until it cools down a bit. Earlier this year my father called me after disassembling the dashboard of his ’66 El Camino. He ..read more

Since the day I set out on my horological journey I’ve worked on a lot of chronograph movements so it may come as a surprise, four years in, that there are still many I have yet to get my hands on. Beautiful movements by Minerva, Longines, and Angelus have yet to cross my bench as well sturdy workhorses from Seiko, Citizen, and Poljot. Today I’m pleased to check yet one more off the list and present a Movado Sub Sea chronograph dating from the 1960’s and powered by Movado’s own in-house chronograph movement. Today Movado is a company that doesn’t get much respect among watch aficionados. This ..read more

This watch has been on and off of my workbench now for three years. In the beginning it was missing parts and that’s what kept it off the bench. Then it developed a problem which took forever to track down; I’d lose interest in fixing the piece and forget about it, then rediscover it at a later date. I have a lot of watches that have followed a similar path to completion, but this one is a bit special because technically it isn’t complete (but I’ll get to that later). This is a Sprint chronograph that dates to the 1940’s. I picked up this piece because I hadn’t yet worked on a Venus 170 movem ..read more

Although this is another Omega Speedmaster chronograph, it’s a little bit different from Moonwatch I did back in 2016 and the Speedmaster Automatic from earlier this year. This is the modern version of the Speedmaster Professional which is powered by the Omega calibre 861 chronograph movement. In outward appearance it is no different from earlier Moonwatches, but inside you’ll find Lemania’s most up to date hand wound chronograph movement. This origin of this project came about when I picked up a used Omega Speedmaster Professional case which I dated to the late 1970’s or early 1980’s. Sometim ..read more

As I stated on my most recent post, I’ve begun searching for the proper bracelets or straps for each timepiece that crosses the workbench. Prior to the 1960’s most watches were sold with simple leather watch bands although some brands (Hamilton springs to mind) designed metal bracelets for their watches during this period and those bracelets were tailored to the timepiece. From the 1960’s forward, it was not uncommon for stainless steel watches to come with stainless steel link bracelets. Many of these bracelets have not survived the test of time and if you can find a 50+ year old timepiece wi ..read more

Almost two years ago I placed a post on the blog detailing the service and repair of a vintage Favre Leuba chronograph  that I’d purchased from an antique dealer. I commented at the time that I had become aware of the Favre Leuba brand when I read about their “Bivouac” model which had the ability to inform the user of his or her altitude in addition to the time. Today I’m happy to be able to tell the story of my Favre Leuba Bivouac, which I’ve been working on for the past three years. For a little background information, Favre Leuba is a Switzerland based watch manufacturer with a history dat ..read more

Slowly but surely I’ve been working my way through the various chronograph movements from the Golden Age of Chronographs. I’ve worked on the Valjoux, Venus, Landeron, and Lemania movements and today I can strike the elusive Excelsior Park movement off the to do list. If you’ve started a collection of watches dating to the Golden Age (1940 – 1979) then you simply must acquire a Heuer, Breitling, and a Gallet as these three companies were the chronograph specialists of yesteryear. Now obviously I’ve tinkered with a Breitling, but finding a good Heuer or Gallet has been a challenge- especially s ..read more

A couple of years ago when I first got into this watchmaking thing I wanted to share my hobby with the family and figured giving my father and brother a good watch for Christmas was a capital idea. Fast forward to Christmas Eve and my father had a finely refurbished Seiko 7002-7000 and my brother had the empty case of a 7002-700J- it would take another couple of weeks for the movement to be ready! I learned a valuable lesson from that experience and am now careful about what I purchase from the watch chop-shops of India. In the end my brother was quite pleased with his Seiko although about a y ..read more