An oddly satisfying video, sometimes seeing the same old high dollar jeweled movements can get a little hum-drum. I appreciate the off-beat watches sometimes even if they are cheaper quality.....cheers!!
This is such a great channel. I'm happy RUclips recommended this to me. Also, just wanted to compliment you on the quality of the video. How you film with this close up clarity while working on the watch is amazing.
Thanks so much, Paul! I'm still working on production quality and there's a lot of improvement potential, but one step at a time :) More to come shortly, so stay tuned!
It's astonishing to me that in ten years a product can fall from around £1000 to less than £40. I remember spending hours each week in the winter of 1980 with my nose pressed up against jewellers' windows, looking at all the LED, LCD and Analogue/LCD combo watches, and hoping for a happy Christmas present! I especially loved the combos, with analogue hands ticking *_once per second_* (unbelievable) with a small rectangular LCD panel beneath also showing the numerical time.
In the early 1990's I had a Timex Ironman with more functions than I could ever ask for but I was wishing I could make calls and send payments with it. Just 30 yrs later we're here. Not sure it's a good thing but I use a smartwatch, just too bad I didn't get my MrFusion yet.
In the early 80's my parents would take me to Sunday Markets... I remeber seeing boards covered in digial watches for £1.99 each or the 'luxury' ones for £5. Perfectly servicable watches but at first but fall apart after a fairly short time....
Pretty straight forward and entertaining explanation of the quartz chrisis. I was shocked to learn it was Longines who first came up with the quartz technology. I must admit I didn't even go to Wikipedia to learn about the subject but looked for this video instead as I had heard you mention it in several others of your videos. Now I have watched it I'll go and try to learn more. Just didn't want any spoilers. Thanks for the hard work and congratulations on your channel.
I can't say I know which I prefer the most about your videos. The information you tell us, the information you show us or the relaxation I feel from your voice. Anyway I enjoyed this video. Thank you.
When I was a kid, my dad bought for him one watch with this movement (steel, not brass though). The case and dial was beautiful, the crown very easy to use. Personally I loved it. He stopped wearing it after very short time and when I asked him why he simply said it was a bad watch - it did not keep time accurately. It is one of the many (of his and my) watches that I eventually managed to break by multiple disassembling and assembling :). As a 12 year old 'watchmaker', my philosophy was 'if I don't break the shafts and put the pieces back together, it should still work just like they do in the factory'. This movement gave me greater courage because of the conic shaft. I eventually mangled the hair, replaced it with one I found in a completely different movement and botched its accuracy to within 30 sec per hour. Fun times.
That was the era when I was finally able to move from cheap Timex unreliable mechanical watches to reasonably cheap and reliable and accurate Japanese electronic watches. In those days any Swiss watch would have been half a year's salary for me, and I had more important things to spend my money on, like food and shoes.
Yep, that was the experience of a lot of people. The Swiss didn't make digital quartz watches, which were what really drove the market back then. I remember a friend had a Seiko with a calculator on it and I was sooooo envious...
Which is why Seiko is my favorite time piece. The History behind Seiko is amazing and the ground breaking work they did back then and are still doing today. Many people might know that they produce affordable and reliable watches but few people even watch enthusiast realize the achievements they have accomplished. If you own a quartz watch no matter what it might say on the dial or case back there is a very good chance that the movement inside was made by Seiko ro one of its subsidiaries.
In my childhood, a very rich uncle came on his yearly world tour visit. He always brought "gifts". Mine was a big gold watch (with date!). Well, my wrist turned green two weeks later. On week 3-4, the watch changed to indicate exact time twice a day - it died. My grandmother said it was a perfectly appropriate gift - cheap and useless. Looking at your sample, after a Rolex and an Omega, it sure looks like a shrunk clunky alarm clock. The type that keeps you awake with its loud ticking but fails to ring when expected to. Thank you for an interesting channel. Simon
Hi Simon, thanks for that great story! Sounds like your very rich uncle might have not been entirely as rich as he showed off to be then :) The design of these roskopf watches indeed very much resemble alarm clocks, which frequently used cone pivots, just like this very cheap watch. There were pin pallet watches made of pretty high standard, but they were designed to be cheap and reasonably reliable for enough time to get value from them. "Dollar watches" for instance were made to last for a year or two and then you'd just buy another one. A bit like Daniel Wellington and the ilk today.
@@VintageWatchServicesI would argue the real end of pin pallet watches began in the 1950’s and 1960’s with the arrival of Soviet and Japanese watches with fully jewelled, shock resistant and anti magnetic movements. Oris were forced from 1934 to 1964 to only make pin pallet movement watches. Theirs were made to a very high standard even a few chronometers
19:51 AHHHH HHMM HMMM. They DO HAVE a chronograph UMF Ruhla. The first time I saw the inside one, was someone repairing a 1978 chronograph one. (ticking watch channel, young polish guy)
Yes, there are pin pallet chronographs but they are exceedingly rare. It is a bit like making a race car out of a Trabant; you might be able to do it if you really want to but it was never intended for it.
I learn LOTS about the watch industry from your vids, Stian! In addition to watch making of course. It's like history lectures. I also thought that the main reason for the quartz crisis was Japanese watch brands flooding the market with quartz watches. And I didn't know that Swiss brands produced that amount of pin pallet watches during the 70s. Great vid!
@@VintageWatchServices Skjønner. Men det er godt at de mekaniske klokkene fortsatt lever i beste velgående! Jeg har ingen stor samling selv altså, men noen få. Og antall klokker med batteri jeg har er NULL! Jeg er ivrig metalldetektorist og samler på gamle sølvmynter og diverse, liker gamle ting inkl. armbåndsur.
The thing with Ruhla wasn't they were designed per se as such but because their Soviet overlords in the GDR didn't even recognise East Germany as anything but a convenience tank park and treated the poor E Germans quite abysmally and they gave the country just the bare bare minimum to survive with the choicest resources heading east so the country was pretty starved of things even the main Soviet nations had in plenty and so Ruhla had to work some absolute magic to bring about these quite accurate tinplate movement watches.
I have some hoary old Ruhla's including their proto-diver "wasserproof" and also a NOS 1970's gold plated one I got for an absolute song from someone in the former GDR, never worn just gathered dust and after some persuasion came to life like a brand new watch, tough brand and was told by a German friend that back in the day the watch chap would have a saucer of lighter fluid, would rest the movement in the saucer to cleanse, then generally oiled anything moving, a little tweaking on the timing and back to the owner all working fine for another 10 years.
Thanks for your insightful comment and Ruhla certainly did very nice work with what they had. The design of this watch is really quite fabulous, and I've seen some very nice other Ruhlas also :)
I had pulsar with the red led display. I did love that watch. I used it to help pick up a few ladies who were surprised to see something completely different. It had a tiny magnet that was used to set the time. The magnet was stored in a compartment in the clasp of the band.
Hi Harold, thanks for watching and for your comment! The movement certainly has character and it's a cool watch. Not the most accurate or well made, but still 😁
There are very good quality movements from UMF, like the M2. But it was cheaper to build the cal M24. The market known also 'Glashütte'. It is also from East Germany. Both companies produced also quartz watches.
Hei Cristo, takk for det! Timexer er ikke egentlig ment å bli serviced, de ble laget for ä vare en stund og så bli kassert og erstattet med en ny en :) Lykke til men det kan bli ganske frustrerende 😉
Seems the real legacy of the pin pallet watch is as a snare for newbie watch hobbyists. Ended up with a few of these strewn across my desk before I found some cheap jeweled movements. Love the quartz history!
Thanks Nathan! There are indeed tons of cheap old watches out there with pin pallet movements. Whenever you see a watch saying "jewelled", "x jewels" where x is less than 15 etc, you're looking at a pin pallet watch :)
These early Ruhla movements are very reliable. Later ones with plastic parts in the keyless works, not so much. They were made as early as the late 1940s and as late as the early 1980s.
I've been teaching myself (with your help, as well as other RUclipsrs) watchmaking, and started by buying a bunch of non-running watches off eBay. Many of them turned out to be pin pallet movements. I've done several of them now (mostly BFG 866 and 158 but also some 1 jewel movements) and have gotten to where I'm comfortable with them. They are somewhat tough to learn on because fitting and aligning the holes in the plates can be challenging. Once you get them running you can hear them ticking from across the room!
Hello Shane, that's very cool to hear! It can indeed be very frustrating working on those kinds of watches, as making them run can be very difficult and thus make your effort less rewarding. I always suggest getting a Seiko 5 or a Russian watch that already runs, so you know whose fault it is if it doesn't after you've put your hands on it 😉 But if you made them run, kudos!
I received a 17 jewel Swiss pocket watch as a gift in the 70’s. I have since acquired 3 more of the same brand. I have no taste😁. These watches have two different movements, but are all pin pallet movements. Really enjoyed the video.
Andre Rivalle. I haven’t been able to find much information on the watches. I assumed the same movements were available in more than one brand. The movements were made by E. Gluck and are shock protected.
The name Ruhla has a amazing history. From the Thiel german brothers. Too shame is that after the ww2 the plant was in the future East Germany, controled by soviets. Poor quality is not entire real. Some other watch makers used point pin mechanisms. But on Wikipedia who wants reads about this.
And do not forget the rigid market order and cartelization among brands and companies. The entire Swiss watchmaking industry was organized in a way to trim competition. This also was a major obstacle to timely restructuring. Personally, I am into ORIS vintage watches, until the late 60-ies all pin pallet with up to 17 jewels. One calibre, a time only, even reached COSC certification. But basically ORIS was a highly integrated mass manufacturer under the Asuag umbrella. Nearly went under, but fortunately did a very successful management buy-out to become independent again.
Thanks for your great comment, that's very informative! Yes, there were absolutely more than one reason for the demise, but the overall factor was probably a reluctance to follow the times. Both organizationally and product wise they stuck with outdated ways for much too long.
Another thing worth mentioning is that the East German government esablished a policy immediately after WWII for the country to be completely self-reliant. This meant that not only did all products in East Germany had to be made within its borders, so did all the materials to make it. This is why the mass-market UMF Rhula only ever made pin-pallet watches and why GUB Glashütte were extremely expensive, as artificially-grown rubies weren't abundant within the GDR.
Very interesting new insight on an important part of the recent horological history. The design is pretty nice though, even quite elegant. Außen hui, innen pfui. 😁
It's a great looking watch indeed. But the mechanics are as you say not very high grade. Then again, these were the cheap fashion watches of their time, made completely obsolete by quartz.
Hello Stian, This was an interesting episode that I came back to after only seeing part of, originally. A retired watchmaker friend of mine told me that watches made by ORIS also employed a pin pallet movement, yet I recall that brand being around in the 2000s so they must have survived in one form or another. Is it possible to illustrate what makes the difference between a really cheap pin pallet movement like the one in this video, versus one that was of better quality? Thanks for your very watchable channel! You're the best!
Hello Ian, thanks for watching! I have a video specifically about Oris and their struggles, and it was as your friend said a tough situation for them since they were forced to use pin pallet movements :)
@@VintageWatchServices Thanks for your reply, Stian. I looked through the library but could not see your episode featuring Oris. I'll keep searching! Meanwhile, thanks again for your great workmanship and humour.
Dumb crystal question. I'm doing a ruhla 44 for a co worker, basically the same watch. It has a a severely oranged celluloid crystal in it. Doesn't have much of a dome to it. Which style crystal did you use here? Thanks alot!
In 1979 I was a teenager working at a petrol station for some pocket money. I remember we sold lcd watches for £1. Crazy cheap considering technology was quite expensive in the seventies.
Roughly £6 in todays money, so still not a lot, while a basic Casio LCD watch can be found on Amazon for about £8. Having said that I take your point about quartz and LCD panels being relatively expensive back in those days.
Sir, could I ask a question? For a hobbyist, would a relatively cheap ultrasonic cleaner suffice for cleaning watch movement parts, rather than using a proper watchmakers’ machine. (By the way, I would have no intention of taking the back off my GMTMaster.)
Yes, a cheap ultrasonic is certainly good enough as a hobbyist. Don't put the balance in there and use small jars filled with cleaning solution rather than filling the entire tank. That way you can save on the cleaning fluid also.
Hello Pascal, thanks for watching and for your comment! Yes, a new crystal is pretty much always a very worthwhile investment and for this one it makes a world of a difference 👍
Hi Karol, Bergeon has a reputation for being overpriced, but their quality is mostly also top notch. I'm personally a big Horotec fan and have a whole row of their tools I use all the time. I'd say if you need a tool that both brands make, I'd go for Horotec most of the time since their quality is pretty much the same but the prices more reasonable.
Indeed it is! Kienzle had versions of that family that were jeweled and thus a bit more reliable, but the base 46/0 was very similar to this one. Does it still run?
@@VintageWatchServices Unfortunately not. It won't wind. I am afraid that the spring on the rocking mechanism is out of place or broken and prevents the mechanism to make proper contact with the winding wheel. I am trying to find enough courage to open up the movement and try to rectify it. I've never done anything like that (on that scale) before and the watch is in otherwise quite good condition. www.horlogeforum.nl/uploads/db9961/optimized/4X/5/6/2/562b5961a784f13938d966ff4118d0c3ea297fa0_2_562x750.jpeg
Ie ziet er goed uit! Misschien zou je eerst een dollar watch van eBay kopen om daardoor een beetje ervaring kunnen opbouwen? Het uurwerk is meer of min dezelfde en dan voel je je een beetje zekerder als je op je Kienzle werkt.
I had a doctor expert in hears noze and throtle that used a pocket watch to test my audiction; today they have electronics, but at the end we have the same result!
Thanks for watching and for your comment! That's great to hear and I hope I didn't come across as crucifying Ruhla as a brand. The movement in this watch had certainly been neglected and was a low price one, while they also made better watches.
You know the feeling when you find a really good tv-series and you decide to pretty much binge watch the lot? And all of a sudden you reach the end and there's no more episodes to watch. And you end up in fetal position in the corner of your sofa feeling empty, depressed and the anxiety hangs over you like a vulture just waiting for its prey to die. Well that's how I feel now that I watched all of your videos. I have a question though. Is that a Dumont style 7 tweezers you use most of the time?
Hi Hans, that's very cool to hear! Once you've exhausted the backlog there's unfortunately going to be a week or so wait for each next video... it takes a while to make them in between running my actual business :) The tweezers I use are brass, from Regine Horology. I buy them through beco-technic.com
Is a Mavado a good watch? And I have Swiss watch in pieces in a bag would you be willing to accept the challenge of resurrecting it, in my opinion it would take and expert to save it.
Hello Jp, thanks for watching and for your question! Movado was a respected watchmaker, yes, although not at the highest rungs. You can contact me at Stian @vintagewatchservices.eu for your watch, then we can discuss how to proceed.
You went ahead and took apart a Timex without me having to ask you. I'm currently torturing a ca 1988 Timex. The book says .001"/.025mm end shake for the balance. I assume you know from experience what end shake is correct?
Hello Eric, yes, the end shake is a bit a matter of feel and experience. But this balance was wobbling so badly it was very clear the end shake was way too high. If you hold the balance wheel with your tweezer and try to move it up and down it shouldn't move much, but there should be just discernible movement.
I want to get some so I can start watchmaking as a hobby because there's no jewels and the low number of parts. You said they made tons HOWEVER they're 4 times the price of nice made slavas like the 2414. Quite annoying. Beyond me how the junk watches are more expensive than the well made ones. I know it's because people want east german stuff because it's kinda rare and a fashion to get east german stuff, but it is ridiculous all the same considering the junk quality.
Hello Link, thanks for your comment! The best thing to do if you want to start playing around with watches is probably to buy some Seiko 5's or some old Soviet watches. Those are good watches that you can get for $50 on eBay. Starting with a junky old pin pallet watch is not such a good thing, as the quality is so low it might cause a lot of frustration and be more demotivating than anything else...
I understand you serviced this watch for historical reasons. Thank You 🫡 I do actually keep the sound on. I'm impressed by the results you managed to achieve.
Thanks for watching and for your comment! There is a lot of variation in the quality of watch movements, also pin pallet ones. I'm planning another video of a very different pin pallet movement of much better quality soon :)
Hello Mircea, thanks for watching and for your comment! Fitting jewels in this watch would certainly make it run better, but it would still be a low budget watch with low precision parts etc. It would kind of be a fun project though :)
I would have been "that guy" that would choose a mechanical watch over any quartz watch. I've only owned two quartz watches in my life, one was a Seiko that lives in a new home now, and the other is a TAG. I still have the TAG, but it just lays in a drawer. I just can't find anything interesting about it to make me want to wear it much. I much prefer my Vostok Amphibia. I've always loved watches since I got my first used dollar pocket watch watch when I was about 8 years old. Watching my grandad tinker with watches and clocks always fascinated me. I'm in my early 60's now and have watch tools my grandad never dreamed about. I'm still hooked on pocket watches(pre 1925). I'm learning quiet a bit about watches in general from your videos. Thanks so much for taking the time to make them. Will you be doing any American pocket watch videos in the future?
Thanks so much, Chuck! Mechanical watches are fascinating in a way a quartz watch can never be :) I have a couple of pocket watches coming up, but neither are of the classic late 19th century American ones. I hope to have one on the bench soon enough.
This VEB GUB GLASHÜTTE watch at its time was not a budget watch for the GDR citizens. They didnt get one. The production was reserved for the nomenklatura, export, and sold for US$. Plain people got Ruhla watches of inferior quality.
" Plain people got Ruhla watches of inferior quality." Not necessarily. While a lot of UMF Rhula's production did consist of jewel-less pin-pallets, high-quality jeweled examples did exist using traditional Swiss-lever escapements. Rhula quartz watches were also high quality and jeweled.
“Goes up and down like sour milk in a kitten”!! I nearly choked on my water! Where do you get these things? You weren’t on a rant about the movement or the brand, you were placing them in historical context. I think most people tend to like that. Coincidentally, today I watched a video but the Lock Picking Lawyer, where he apologized for providing history regarding a lock he had bought in original packaging from someone in Ukraine. It had been manufactured in the same month that Ukraine voted to secede from the Soviet Union. It was a copy of a 100 year old Finnish design, and was judged by the lawyer and his subscribers to be more secure than most modern locks. The subscribers want more history in future videos. On the topic of history, I noted that your watch today says on the dial that it was “Made in Germany”. In English. This seems a bit disingenuous, no? The English speaking world at the time considered “West Germany” to be “Germany”. Do you suppose they saw the writing on the wall and were trying to attach the non-Soviet market? Interesting video, I enjoyed it, including the sour milk.
another great job, I know these watches, I learned from them (I don't like their horrible ones). very low quality and after the service I often did not know if I made it right or this watch is like that. Russian ones were much better, just as cheap and very good quality slava poljot vostok rakieta very nice and very cheap. some very pretty
There's a huge fan base out there for Russian watches nowadays, just yesterday I bought a Slave, a Poljot and a Komandirskie from a dealer and am excitedly waiting for the courier to bring them. I was only marginally more excited waiting for the 5722-9990 Grand Seiko SelfDater to arrive (mostly running, at just less than double the price of the Russians!) Watch fans are weird people, go figure.
Russian ones were LIGHT YEARS ahead of them. I have things like seconds hacking and a date that flicks straight over in 1980s slavas that I don't have in my 2002 gold plated citizen automatic.
I actually hadn’t watched this video when I referenced the EB8800, but yeah, I stumbled on this conclusion early in my watch journey- that the prolific production of this garbage was a problem, not just against Quartz, but also things like the humble Seiko 5. I’m no Seiko fan but it’s way better than this crap.
Seiko 5's offer outstanding value indeed. There were actually some pretty high quality pin pallet watches and I even have a chronograph one that I hope to be able to make run properly. But most of them were "dollar watches" that were meant to be worn and thrown away when they didn't perform anymore.
Realize MOST OF these were made in east germany. We're talking a country that saw its FIRST production 4 stroke car in 1985/86..... and it was a engine change in a 2 stroke trabant.
@@OffGridInvestor that is absurd; many fine products came out of East Germany, such as the Praktika cameras, GUB Spezimatic watches, and frankly even the Trabant you reference was an engineering marvel.
The quartz story is a little like the auto story. Detroit made crap, knew it was making crap, and kept making crap even as Japan made quality. Detroit decided to lie instead of improving quality. It lied about labor costs and lied about quality. Then finally it had to improve quality. And Lo! Good cars. Finally. What a surprise. This watch, however, looks better than the Mustang II.
Thanks for watching and for your comment! Yes, Timex started making quartz watches in the 70s as almost all brands did. They were however best known for their cheap mechanical watches and due to this they were also among the companies very hard hit during the quartz crisis, losing some of their best known corporate customers such as Disney and Polaroid, and they had to lay off a lot of employees.
This is a bad movement. It is scary to see you work on it. Is is worthy of your time? It's Timex quality... I like the watch face. You did an excellent job on it.
Hello Joop, no, it's certainly not worth my time 😂 I did the video because there are a lot of misconceptions out there regarding the quartz revolution, so I wanted to show the low end watches that quartz mainly replaced, but this is not a watch worth spending time on in our days.
@@VintageWatchServices Thank you. I am old enough to have I seen the quartz revolution unfold. I remember the magic of the red led screens. I enjoyed this comment very much! Greetings from the Netherlands from a hobby watch tinkerer. Always love to see a professional at work!
Sorry I only found you a few days ago. Thank you for the content. You brought up an interesting question/ thought I've had in the past and I was wondering your thoughts. In the past there was numerous movements, nearly as many as there was watch companies. The trend is pushing back that way to in house movements. Being that it's the more popular brands, and there seems to be a price floor, so you think that could happen again? A reset to a hand full of movements again.
Welcome to the channel! It's a very interesting question indeed, and it could go a lot of ways. The world is such a different place from back then, however. In the 20th century there were a lot of workers who could operate simple machinery at very high skill levels, and those machines were not expensive. Especially in Switzerland there were lots of small companies specializing in various part manufacture. So making movements wasn't necessarily that expensive, it might just take long due to the lack of computer simulations etc. Nowadays it's a bit the opposite; there are specialized 3D tools for watchmaking that can basically simulate everything and make the files necessary for manufacturing a movement, but these tools are very expensive (e.g 20k license per year) and the machinery needed to make the parts are also very expensive (six figure EDM machines etc). Lastly, even though ETA is no longer supplying movements to anyone who knocks on the door, other suppliers like Sellita, STP, Seiko, Miyota etc do. So it is very easy and quite cheap to make a watch with a movement from one of those suppliers, but making your own movement is more expensive and difficult than it was 50-100 years ago.
An oddly satisfying video, sometimes seeing the same old high dollar jeweled movements can get a little hum-drum. I appreciate the off-beat watches sometimes even if they are cheaper quality.....cheers!!
"Like sour milk moving up and down in a cat" is now on my list of all time favourite sayings!
It's a great saying... moving up and down like sour milk in a kitten 😂 I snagged it from my grandmother!
This is such a great channel. I'm happy RUclips recommended this to me. Also, just wanted to compliment you on the quality of the video. How you film with this close up clarity while working on the watch is amazing.
Thanks so much, Paul! I'm still working on production quality and there's a lot of improvement potential, but one step at a time :) More to come shortly, so stay tuned!
It's astonishing to me that in ten years a product can fall from around £1000 to less than £40. I remember spending hours each week in the winter of 1980 with my nose pressed up against jewellers' windows, looking at all the LED, LCD and Analogue/LCD combo watches, and hoping for a happy Christmas present! I especially loved the combos, with analogue hands ticking *_once per second_* (unbelievable) with a small rectangular LCD panel beneath also showing the numerical time.
In the early 1990's I had a Timex Ironman with more functions than I could ever ask for but I was wishing I could make calls and send payments with it.
Just 30 yrs later we're here.
Not sure it's a good thing but I use a smartwatch, just too bad I didn't get my MrFusion yet.
@@LaurentiusTriarius haha good one
In the early 80's my parents would take me to Sunday Markets... I remeber seeing boards covered in digial watches for £1.99 each or the 'luxury' ones for £5. Perfectly servicable watches but at first but fall apart after a fairly short time....
Pretty straight forward and entertaining explanation of the quartz chrisis. I was shocked to learn it was Longines who first came up with the quartz technology. I must admit I didn't even go to Wikipedia to learn about the subject but looked for this video instead as I had heard you mention it in several others of your videos. Now I have watched it I'll go and try to learn more. Just didn't want any spoilers. Thanks for the hard work and congratulations on your channel.
I can't say I know which I prefer the most about your videos. The information you tell us, the information you show us or the relaxation I feel from your voice. Anyway I enjoyed this video. Thank you.
Hello Franklin, thanks so much for that! As long as you enjoy the videos, that's the most important thing 😄
When I was a kid, my dad bought for him one watch with this movement (steel, not brass though). The case and dial was beautiful, the crown very easy to use. Personally I loved it. He stopped wearing it after very short time and when I asked him why he simply said it was a bad watch - it did not keep time accurately.
It is one of the many (of his and my) watches that I eventually managed to break by multiple disassembling and assembling :). As a 12 year old 'watchmaker', my philosophy was 'if I don't break the shafts and put the pieces back together, it should still work just like they do in the factory'. This movement gave me greater courage because of the conic shaft. I eventually mangled the hair, replaced it with one I found in a completely different movement and botched its accuracy to within 30 sec per hour. Fun times.
Very cool story! 👍
That was the era when I was finally able to move from cheap Timex unreliable mechanical watches to reasonably cheap and reliable and accurate Japanese electronic watches. In those days any Swiss watch would have been half a year's salary for me, and I had more important things to spend my money on, like food and shoes.
Yep, that was the experience of a lot of people. The Swiss didn't make digital quartz watches, which were what really drove the market back then. I remember a friend had a Seiko with a calculator on it and I was sooooo envious...
Which is why Seiko is my favorite time piece. The History behind Seiko is amazing and the ground breaking work they did back then and are still doing today. Many people might know that they produce affordable and reliable watches but few people even watch enthusiast realize the achievements they have accomplished. If you own a quartz watch no matter what it might say on the dial or case back there is a very good chance that the movement inside was made by Seiko ro one of its subsidiaries.
Spot on, Victor. Seiko is a fantastic company with so much going on and a history to boot. I'll be doing more Seiko's shortly, so stay tuned :)
However, there were brands like Cortébert that filled in the gaps between these primitive movements and the jet set Omega’s.
In my childhood, a very rich uncle came on his yearly world tour visit. He always brought "gifts". Mine was a big gold watch (with date!).
Well, my wrist turned green two weeks later. On week 3-4, the watch changed to indicate exact time twice a day - it died. My grandmother said it was a perfectly appropriate gift - cheap and useless.
Looking at your sample, after a Rolex and an Omega, it sure looks like a shrunk clunky alarm clock. The type that keeps you awake with its loud ticking but fails to ring when expected to.
Thank you for an interesting channel.
Simon
Hi Simon, thanks for that great story! Sounds like your very rich uncle might have not been entirely as rich as he showed off to be then :)
The design of these roskopf watches indeed very much resemble alarm clocks, which frequently used cone pivots, just like this very cheap watch. There were pin pallet watches made of pretty high standard, but they were designed to be cheap and reasonably reliable for enough time to get value from them. "Dollar watches" for instance were made to last for a year or two and then you'd just buy another one. A bit like Daniel Wellington and the ilk today.
@@VintageWatchServicesI would argue the real end of pin pallet watches began in the 1950’s and 1960’s with the arrival of Soviet and Japanese watches with fully jewelled, shock resistant and anti magnetic movements.
Oris were forced from 1934 to 1964 to only make pin pallet movement watches. Theirs were made to a very high standard even a few chronometers
Fascinating historical overview, thank you
Double domed crystal needs to make a comeback. Looks so cool
Double domed sapphire isn't super hard to find.
19:51 AHHHH HHMM HMMM. They DO HAVE a chronograph UMF Ruhla. The first time I saw the inside one, was someone repairing a 1978 chronograph one. (ticking watch channel, young polish guy)
Yes, there are pin pallet chronographs but they are exceedingly rare. It is a bit like making a race car out of a Trabant; you might be able to do it if you really want to but it was never intended for it.
I learn LOTS about the watch industry from your vids, Stian! In addition to watch making of course. It's like history lectures. I also thought that the main reason for the quartz crisis was Japanese watch brands flooding the market with quartz watches. And I didn't know that Swiss brands produced that amount of pin pallet watches during the 70s. Great vid!
Takker, Terje! Jepp, Sveitserne laget veldig mange billige pin pallet ur, og det var disse som virkelig ble knust av quartz
@@VintageWatchServices Skjønner. Men det er godt at de mekaniske klokkene fortsatt lever i beste velgående! Jeg har ingen stor samling selv altså, men noen få. Og antall klokker med batteri jeg har er NULL! Jeg er ivrig metalldetektorist og samler på gamle sølvmynter og diverse, liker gamle ting inkl. armbåndsur.
The thing with Ruhla wasn't they were designed per se as such but because their Soviet overlords in the GDR didn't even recognise East Germany as anything but a convenience tank park and treated the poor E Germans quite abysmally and they gave the country just the bare bare minimum to survive with the choicest resources heading east so the country was pretty starved of things even the main Soviet nations had in plenty and so Ruhla had to work some absolute magic to bring about these quite accurate tinplate movement watches.
I have some hoary old Ruhla's including their proto-diver "wasserproof" and also a NOS 1970's gold plated one I got for an absolute song from someone in the former GDR, never worn just gathered dust and after some persuasion came to life like a brand new watch, tough brand and was told by a German friend that back in the day the watch chap would have a saucer of lighter fluid, would rest the movement in the saucer to cleanse, then generally oiled anything moving, a little tweaking on the timing and back to the owner all working fine for another 10 years.
Thanks for your insightful comment and Ruhla certainly did very nice work with what they had. The design of this watch is really quite fabulous, and I've seen some very nice other Ruhlas also :)
I had pulsar with the red led display. I did love that watch. I used it to help pick up a few ladies who were surprised to see something completely different. It had a tiny magnet that was used to set the time. The magnet was stored in a compartment in the clasp of the band.
Very cool! Was that a chick magnet you used? 😉
That large wheel on top gives the movement some character. I would want an exhibition back to look at that.
Hi Harold, thanks for watching and for your comment! The movement certainly has character and it's a cool watch. Not the most accurate or well made, but still 😁
There are very good quality movements from UMF, like the M2. But it was cheaper to build the cal M24. The market known also 'Glashütte'. It is also from East Germany. Both companies produced also quartz watches.
Here a closer look to the UMF M2. ruclips.net/video/8LEcwT4HC14/видео.htmlsi=nsOuDtNY-A0jL2gW
Ypperlig underholding! Har en Timex på lur som jeg gruer meg til å ta fra hverandre. Tilsynelatende 0 skruer i urverket.
Keep those vids coming!
Hei Cristo, takk for det! Timexer er ikke egentlig ment å bli serviced, de ble laget for ä vare en stund og så bli kassert og erstattet med en ny en :) Lykke til men det kan bli ganske frustrerende 😉
Seems the real legacy of the pin pallet watch is as a snare for newbie watch hobbyists. Ended up with a few of these strewn across my desk before I found some cheap jeweled movements.
Love the quartz history!
Thanks Nathan! There are indeed tons of cheap old watches out there with pin pallet movements. Whenever you see a watch saying "jewelled", "x jewels" where x is less than 15 etc, you're looking at a pin pallet watch :)
These early Ruhla movements are very reliable. Later ones with plastic parts in the keyless works, not so much. They were made as early as the late 1940s and as late as the early 1980s.
Reliable as in running, yes. In timekeeping, not that much, imho 😉
Thanks for sharing your knowledge ⌚️👍🏻
Thanks for watching and for your comment!
I've been teaching myself (with your help, as well as other RUclipsrs) watchmaking, and started by buying a bunch of non-running watches off eBay. Many of them turned out to be pin pallet movements. I've done several of them now (mostly BFG 866 and 158 but also some 1 jewel movements) and have gotten to where I'm comfortable with them. They are somewhat tough to learn on because fitting and aligning the holes in the plates can be challenging. Once you get them running you can hear them ticking from across the room!
Hello Shane, that's very cool to hear! It can indeed be very frustrating working on those kinds of watches, as making them run can be very difficult and thus make your effort less rewarding. I always suggest getting a Seiko 5 or a Russian watch that already runs, so you know whose fault it is if it doesn't after you've put your hands on it 😉 But if you made them run, kudos!
You can hear them when you enter the village just like your grandma's Westclock.
😂
I received a 17 jewel Swiss pocket watch as a gift in the 70’s. I have since acquired 3 more of the same brand. I have no taste😁. These watches have two different movements, but are all pin pallet movements. Really enjoyed the video.
That sounds very nice, Ronald! Which brand is that then?
Andre Rivalle. I haven’t been able to find much information on the watches. I assumed the same movements were available in more than one brand. The movements were made by E. Gluck and are shock protected.
Extremely informative and thanks for showing a pin-pallet restoration.
Glad you enjoyed it! Much more to come, so stay tuned :)
The name Ruhla has a amazing history. From the Thiel german brothers. Too shame is that after the ww2 the plant was in the future East Germany, controled by soviets. Poor quality is not entire real. Some other watch makers used point pin mechanisms. But on Wikipedia who wants reads about this.
Thank you for that history lesson, I so enjoyed it!. I learned a lot today. Adrian
That's really cool to hear, Adrian, thanks so much!
And do not forget the rigid market order and cartelization among brands and companies. The entire Swiss watchmaking industry was organized in a way to trim competition. This also was a major obstacle to timely restructuring.
Personally, I am into ORIS vintage watches, until the late 60-ies all pin pallet with up to 17 jewels. One calibre, a time only, even reached COSC certification. But basically ORIS was a highly integrated mass manufacturer under the Asuag umbrella. Nearly went under, but fortunately did a very successful management buy-out to become independent again.
Thanks for your great comment, that's very informative! Yes, there were absolutely more than one reason for the demise, but the overall factor was probably a reluctance to follow the times. Both organizationally and product wise they stuck with outdated ways for much too long.
This is really a nice channel. I am enjoying your content.
Glad you enjoy it, Glen! More to come, so stay tuned :)
I know it's a cheaply made watch, but I really like it. It's a handsome timepiece that you brought back to life!
Thanks James! I really agree, the watch design is very nice, just a shame it didn't have a higher quality movement...
A Patek Philippe would also be a "budget watch", albeit a different size budget.
😂 Good point!
Love the history that was great thanks.
Glad you enjoyed it, Paul!
Another thing worth mentioning is that the East German government esablished a policy immediately after WWII for the country to be completely self-reliant. This meant that not only did all products in East Germany had to be made within its borders, so did all the materials to make it. This is why the mass-market UMF Rhula only ever made pin-pallet watches and why GUB Glashütte were extremely expensive, as artificially-grown rubies weren't abundant within the GDR.
Interesting, thanks for sharing!
Very interesting new insight on an important part of the recent horological history.
The design is pretty nice though, even quite elegant.
Außen hui, innen pfui. 😁
It's a great looking watch indeed. But the mechanics are as you say not very high grade. Then again, these were the cheap fashion watches of their time, made completely obsolete by quartz.
Made obsolete by equally priced but superior Japanese watches
Hello Stian,
This was an interesting episode that I came back to after only seeing part of, originally.
A retired watchmaker friend of mine told me that watches made by ORIS also employed a pin pallet movement, yet I recall that brand being around in the 2000s so they must have survived in one form or another. Is it possible to illustrate what makes the difference between a really cheap pin pallet movement like the one in this video, versus one that was of better quality?
Thanks for your very watchable channel! You're the best!
Hello Ian, thanks for watching! I have a video specifically about Oris and their struggles, and it was as your friend said a tough situation for them since they were forced to use pin pallet movements :)
@@VintageWatchServices
Thanks for your reply, Stian. I looked through the library but could not see your episode featuring Oris. I'll keep searching! Meanwhile, thanks again for your great workmanship and humour.
Pin lever type, no jewels you say. Sounds like an old John Cameran Swazey Timex.
Yep, exactly.
Yeah, this is not how I understood the so-called "quartz crisis". Thanks again for the history lesson!
Thanks for watching, Rob!
Dumb crystal question. I'm doing a ruhla 44 for a co worker, basically the same watch. It has a a severely oranged celluloid crystal in it. Doesn't have much of a dome to it. Which style crystal did you use here? Thanks alot!
I honestly do not remember, but I believe it was a low dome one.
In 1979 I was a teenager working at a petrol station for some pocket money. I remember we sold lcd watches for £1. Crazy cheap considering technology was quite expensive in the seventies.
Sounds like the good old days, Jerry! 😁
Roughly £6 in todays money, so still not a lot, while a basic Casio LCD watch can be found on Amazon for about £8. Having said that I take your point about quartz and LCD panels being relatively expensive back in those days.
For context my wages were £1/hour
I was loaded 😁
Sir, could I ask a question? For a hobbyist, would a relatively cheap ultrasonic cleaner suffice for cleaning watch movement parts, rather than using a proper watchmakers’ machine. (By the way, I would have no intention of taking the back off my GMTMaster.)
Yes, a cheap ultrasonic is certainly good enough as a hobbyist. Don't put the balance in there and use small jars filled with cleaning solution rather than filling the entire tank. That way you can save on the cleaning fluid also.
@@VintageWatchServices Thank you.
Something missing at 26:14? Just saying, just wondering, just having a great day.
Yes, I don't remember why the crown was taken out 😂
Before the crystal came off, I thought the whole dial was gold coloured. The new crystal makes a world of a difference.
Hello Pascal, thanks for watching and for your comment! Yes, a new crystal is pretty much always a very worthwhile investment and for this one it makes a world of a difference 👍
question to the professional bergeon or horotec? or maybe something else? and why ? prices and quality similar / expensive
Hi Karol, Bergeon has a reputation for being overpriced, but their quality is mostly also top notch. I'm personally a big Horotec fan and have a whole row of their tools I use all the time. I'd say if you need a tool that both brands make, I'd go for Horotec most of the time since their quality is pretty much the same but the prices more reasonable.
"What the...?" Not what you want to hear a master watchmaker say. Ever.
😂 My honest reaction when I opened that watch...
Nice vintage time-indicator! I see a lot of similarities to my Kienzle pocketwatch 046/0 movement!
Indeed it is! Kienzle had versions of that family that were jeweled and thus a bit more reliable, but the base 46/0 was very similar to this one. Does it still run?
@@VintageWatchServices Unfortunately not. It won't wind. I am afraid that the spring on the rocking mechanism is out of place or broken and prevents the mechanism to make proper contact with the winding wheel.
I am trying to find enough courage to open up the movement and try to rectify it. I've never done anything like that (on that scale) before and the watch is in otherwise quite good condition.
www.horlogeforum.nl/uploads/db9961/optimized/4X/5/6/2/562b5961a784f13938d966ff4118d0c3ea297fa0_2_562x750.jpeg
Ie ziet er goed uit! Misschien zou je eerst een dollar watch van eBay kopen om daardoor een beetje ervaring kunnen opbouwen? Het uurwerk is meer of min dezelfde en dan voel je je een beetje zekerder als je op je Kienzle werkt.
@@VintageWatchServices Sounds like a plan! ;-)
ÓTIMO TRABALHO from Brasil ok
Thanks Kleytons!
Fascinating.
I had a doctor expert in hears noze and throtle that used a pocket watch to test my audiction; today they have electronics, but at the end we have the same result!
Indeed!
I have a Ruhla from around the 70s and it stills keeps good time.
Thanks for watching and for your comment! That's great to hear and I hope I didn't come across as crucifying Ruhla as a brand. The movement in this watch had certainly been neglected and was a low price one, while they also made better watches.
Is this movement similar to the original timer Ez
Which one is that?
Does the pin pallet watch play the yellow rose of Texas
Only on Saturdays
You know the feeling when you find a really good tv-series and you decide to pretty much binge watch the lot? And all of a sudden you reach the end and there's no more episodes to watch. And you end up in fetal position in the corner of your sofa feeling empty, depressed and the anxiety hangs over you like a vulture just waiting for its prey to die. Well that's how I feel now that I watched all of your videos. I have a question though. Is that a Dumont style 7 tweezers you use most of the time?
Hi Hans, that's very cool to hear! Once you've exhausted the backlog there's unfortunately going to be a week or so wait for each next video... it takes a while to make them in between running my actual business :)
The tweezers I use are brass, from Regine Horology. I buy them through beco-technic.com
Is a Mavado a good watch? And I have Swiss watch in pieces in a bag would you be willing to accept the challenge of resurrecting it, in my opinion it would take and expert to save it.
Hello Jp, thanks for watching and for your question! Movado was a respected watchmaker, yes, although not at the highest rungs. You can contact me at Stian @vintagewatchservices.eu for your watch, then we can discuss how to proceed.
Thanks for another informative and entertaining video! What brand and model tweezers do you use? I'd really like a pair. Thanks again!!
Hi Woody, thanks so much! The tweezers I use are made of brass, from Regine Horology. I buy them through beco-technic.com
@@VintageWatchServices Thank you very much!!!
Great video.
Thanks Arthur! More to come, so stay tuned :)
You went ahead and took apart a Timex without me having to ask you. I'm currently torturing a ca 1988 Timex. The book says .001"/.025mm end shake for the balance. I assume you know from experience what end shake is correct?
Hello Eric, yes, the end shake is a bit a matter of feel and experience. But this balance was wobbling so badly it was very clear the end shake was way too high.
If you hold the balance wheel with your tweezer and try to move it up and down it shouldn't move much, but there should be just discernible movement.
Looks like something one might win at a Carnival.
I want to get some so I can start watchmaking as a hobby because there's no jewels and the low number of parts. You said they made tons HOWEVER they're 4 times the price of nice made slavas like the 2414. Quite annoying. Beyond me how the junk watches are more expensive than the well made ones. I know it's because people want east german stuff because it's kinda rare and a fashion to get east german stuff, but it is ridiculous all the same considering the junk quality.
Hello Link, thanks for your comment! The best thing to do if you want to start playing around with watches is probably to buy some Seiko 5's or some old Soviet watches. Those are good watches that you can get for $50 on eBay. Starting with a junky old pin pallet watch is not such a good thing, as the quality is so low it might cause a lot of frustration and be more demotivating than anything else...
Shame about the poor quality movement because it is indeed a handsome watch. It's uch nicer than the 1970s Dugena quartz LCD watch I'm wearing.
Thanks, Kenny! It might look better, but I'm sure your Dugena keeps time a whole lot better 😂
There is so much going on here that I don't understand.... must learn!
Thanks for watching, Micah! Watch repair is a very nice hobby that you can do relatively cheaply and until the end of time (pun intended) 😄
I understand you serviced this watch for historical reasons. Thank You 🫡 I do actually keep the sound on. I'm impressed by the results you managed to achieve.
Thanks!
When you opened that case I heard that horror music theme again.
Ewww. Thanks for preserving it nonetheless (:
😂👍
I have a Lucerne and two Lanco watches.
These watches are Swiss Made with pin lever and keeps quite good time.These must be at least 40 years old.
Thanks for watching and for your comment! There is a lot of variation in the quality of watch movements, also pin pallet ones. I'm planning another video of a very different pin pallet movement of much better quality soon :)
I would like to see someone fitting jewels in this watch
Hello Mircea, thanks for watching and for your comment! Fitting jewels in this watch would certainly make it run better, but it would still be a low budget watch with low precision parts etc. It would kind of be a fun project though :)
INTERESTING.
Thanks Brian!
I would have been "that guy" that would choose a mechanical watch over any quartz watch. I've only owned two quartz watches in my life, one was a Seiko that lives in a new home now, and the other is a TAG. I still have the TAG, but it just lays in a drawer. I just can't find anything interesting about it to make me want to wear it much. I much prefer my Vostok Amphibia.
I've always loved watches since I got my first used dollar pocket watch watch when I was about 8 years old. Watching my grandad tinker with watches and clocks always fascinated me. I'm in my early 60's now and have watch tools my grandad never dreamed about. I'm still hooked on pocket watches(pre 1925). I'm learning quiet a bit about watches in general from your videos. Thanks so much for taking the time to make them. Will you be doing any American pocket watch videos in the future?
Thanks so much, Chuck! Mechanical watches are fascinating in a way a quartz watch can never be :) I have a couple of pocket watches coming up, but neither are of the classic late 19th century American ones. I hope to have one on the bench soon enough.
If a silk purse could be made out of a sow’s ear....it seems you have done it! Thanks for the education!
Thanks a lot, Mickey!
A great fact packed video, However, the jokes this week were few and far between. Please work on some new ones before your next installment!
Thanks Martin! I'm testing out some new material on the stand-up circuit here in Switzerland, so I should be prepared for the next one 😎
This VEB GUB GLASHÜTTE watch at its time was not a budget watch for the GDR citizens. They didnt get one. The production was reserved for the nomenklatura, export, and sold for US$. Plain people got Ruhla watches of inferior quality.
" Plain people got Ruhla watches of inferior quality." Not necessarily. While a lot of UMF Rhula's production did consist of jewel-less pin-pallets, high-quality jeweled examples did exist using traditional Swiss-lever escapements. Rhula quartz watches were also high quality and jeweled.
Отличная работа!!!
Спасибо, Александр!
@@VintageWatchServices Выпускайте ролики почаще!!!
I publish videos about once a week, and that's already taking a lot of time. So more frequently then that isn't really possible, I'm afraid.
“Goes up and down like sour milk in a kitten”!! I nearly choked on my water! Where do you get these things? You weren’t on a rant about the movement or the brand, you were placing them in historical context. I think most people tend to like that. Coincidentally, today I watched a video but the Lock Picking Lawyer, where he apologized for providing history regarding a lock he had bought in original packaging from someone in Ukraine. It had been manufactured in the same month that Ukraine voted to secede from the Soviet Union. It was a copy of a 100 year old Finnish design, and was judged by the lawyer and his subscribers to be more secure than most modern locks. The subscribers want more history in future videos. On the topic of history, I noted that your watch today says on the dial that it was “Made in Germany”. In English. This seems a bit disingenuous, no? The English speaking world at the time considered “West Germany” to be “Germany”. Do you suppose they saw the writing on the wall and were trying to attach the non-Soviet market? Interesting video, I enjoyed it, including the sour milk.
😂 That was an expression my late grandmother used, so it's not a new one :)
Looks to be more of a small clock than a watch movement
Spot on, Stephen! This design is more akin to a small clock than a watch, and it's all to reduce machining complexity and save costs.
Or "quartz disruptive marketing..."
Top , i love see this...👍
👍
another great job, I know these watches, I learned from them (I don't like their horrible ones). very low quality and after the service I often did not know if I made it right or this watch is like that. Russian ones were much better, just as cheap and very good quality slava poljot vostok rakieta very nice and very cheap. some very pretty
Hello Karol, yes, UMF made more thoughtful watches than this one, but the Russian ones were generally better, some even very good!
There's a huge fan base out there for Russian watches nowadays, just yesterday I bought a Slave, a Poljot and a Komandirskie from a dealer and am excitedly waiting for the courier to bring them. I was only marginally more excited waiting for the 5722-9990 Grand Seiko SelfDater to arrive (mostly running, at just less than double the price of the Russians!)
Watch fans are weird people, go figure.
Russian ones were LIGHT YEARS ahead of them. I have things like seconds hacking and a date that flicks straight over in 1980s slavas that I don't have in my 2002 gold plated citizen automatic.
I actually hadn’t watched this video when I referenced the EB8800, but yeah, I stumbled on this conclusion early in my watch journey- that the prolific production of this garbage was a problem, not just against Quartz, but also things like the humble Seiko 5. I’m no Seiko fan but it’s way better than this crap.
Seiko 5's offer outstanding value indeed. There were actually some pretty high quality pin pallet watches and I even have a chronograph one that I hope to be able to make run properly. But most of them were "dollar watches" that were meant to be worn and thrown away when they didn't perform anymore.
Realize MOST OF these were made in east germany. We're talking a country that saw its FIRST production 4 stroke car in 1985/86..... and it was a engine change in a 2 stroke trabant.
@@OffGridInvestor that is absurd; many fine products came out of East Germany, such as the Praktika cameras, GUB Spezimatic watches, and frankly even the Trabant you reference was an engineering marvel.
The quartz story is a little like the auto story. Detroit made crap, knew it was making crap, and kept making crap even as Japan made quality. Detroit decided to lie instead of improving quality. It lied about labor costs and lied about quality. Then finally it had to improve quality. And Lo! Good cars. Finally. What a surprise. This watch, however, looks better than the Mustang II.
That's indeed a very similar story. The Japanese have done it to many products!
Take me to the part where GM made good quality cars...... EVER.
Timex did quartz in the 70s.
Thanks for watching and for your comment! Yes, Timex started making quartz watches in the 70s as almost all brands did. They were however best known for their cheap mechanical watches and due to this they were also among the companies very hard hit during the quartz crisis, losing some of their best known corporate customers such as Disney and Polaroid, and they had to lay off a lot of employees.
I could have used a few more words spent on how this escapement works, not that I am complaining.
This is a bad movement. It is scary to see you work on it. Is is worthy of your time?
It's Timex quality...
I like the watch face. You did an excellent job on it.
Hello Joop, no, it's certainly not worth my time 😂 I did the video because there are a lot of misconceptions out there regarding the quartz revolution, so I wanted to show the low end watches that quartz mainly replaced, but this is not a watch worth spending time on in our days.
@@VintageWatchServices
Thank you. I am old enough to have I seen the quartz revolution unfold. I remember the magic of the red led screens. I enjoyed this comment very much!
Greetings from the Netherlands from a hobby watch tinkerer. Always love to see a professional at work!
What kind of hair is that on your buffing wheel?
Hi Frank, I think it's cotton.
@@VintageWatchServices OK, it looked to me like some kind of animal hair. Anyway, you made that old watch look pretty nice
If you watch a certain "Louis" you'll get rants about expensive crap. You can fool some of the people some of the time...
There's a sucker born every minute, some say 😉
vintage umf nice :-)
Thanks Theo! Not so sure I prefer working on this instead of something else, but to each their own 😁
Sorry I only found you a few days ago. Thank you for the content.
You brought up an interesting question/ thought I've had in the past and I was wondering your thoughts. In the past there was numerous movements, nearly as many as there was watch companies. The trend is pushing back that way to in house movements. Being that it's the more popular brands, and there seems to be a price floor, so you think that could happen again? A reset to a hand full of movements again.
Welcome to the channel! It's a very interesting question indeed, and it could go a lot of ways. The world is such a different place from back then, however. In the 20th century there were a lot of workers who could operate simple machinery at very high skill levels, and those machines were not expensive. Especially in Switzerland there were lots of small companies specializing in various part manufacture. So making movements wasn't necessarily that expensive, it might just take long due to the lack of computer simulations etc. Nowadays it's a bit the opposite; there are specialized 3D tools for watchmaking that can basically simulate everything and make the files necessary for manufacturing a movement, but these tools are very expensive (e.g 20k license per year) and the machinery needed to make the parts are also very expensive (six figure EDM machines etc). Lastly, even though ETA is no longer supplying movements to anyone who knocks on the door, other suppliers like Sellita, STP, Seiko, Miyota etc do. So it is very easy and quite cheap to make a watch with a movement from one of those suppliers, but making your own movement is more expensive and difficult than it was 50-100 years ago.