I received the cheapest Amazon Mechanical Watch! Can the Sewor run better after a Watch Service?
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- Опубликовано: 24 июл 2024
- Horology Biology takes on a watch service restoration challenge. The cheapest mechanical watch on Amazon. Can I make it run better than it did out of the box?
The Sewor Skeleton Mechanical watch is available on Amazon for a mere €29,99. Is this a lot of watch for your money or totally not fresh?
www.amazon.nl/dp/B07MC3K213?p...
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00:00 Intro
00:43 Pre Timergrapher and strip down
08:28 Pre-cleaning // Pegging the jewels
09:09 Basket prep & Cleaning
09:23 The Rebuild
23:03 Pallet fork oiling
23:58 Hands refitting
25:30 Casing up the watch
26:12 Caseback press
26:58 Strap refitting
27:31 Timergrapher Results
In between videos check out www.vintageenicar.com & www.horologybiology.com for more watches or follow me on Instagram: / horology_biology
Also available on Facebook at / horologybiology
Technical equipment:
Cam 1: Panasonic Lumix G7 with a 14-140mm lens with a x2 magnifier lens
Cam 2: Panasonic Lumix G7 with a 7-14mm Lecia wide angle lens
Cam 3: Microscope Sony IMX290 autofocus camera 1080p
Amscope trinocular stereo microscope
Rode Videomic Go / in video and voice over recordings
Blue Yeti overhead microphone
Macbook Pro 2021
Yolobox Pro encoder multicam. Monitor/Live video decoder
Final Cut Pro / Editing
Photopea.com / thumbnail creation
#horologybiology
#watchrestoration
#amazon
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Mate your accent has got me stumped ... are you or your parents from Yorkshire?
I liked and subscribed :) but how do we get to know who won?
@@SideWalkAstronomyNetherlands he said once the channel hits 10,000 subs. So I imagine he'll do a video then!
I would wear it with pride, while creating a youtube channel that I can share with others about the amazing hobby of watches. There is truly not much like a finely made watch! Only thing that comes close to that highly precision parts is space venture. The International Space Staion is perfect to every single degree. Zero room for error
Done. Liked and subscribed 🎉
I'm just amazed that so much engineering design and manufacture has gone into such a cheap watch.
You have a fair point there Peter 💪
I'm more amazed they put so much into it and named it the Sewor.
It’s amazing what Chinese slave labor can produce at such a price.
@@h.rutten2187nailed it. Absolute truth.
Looks like a terrible clone of a Seagull ST5 movement so I'm going to guess that the watch has pretty much zero "Engineering and design"
This looks like a great practice piece for someone trying to get into watch maintenance. You'll get €29,99 value out of it if you can spend a day or two taking it apart and cleaning it and doing a rebuild on a watch you don't really care about.
Excellent point. 👏🏻👏🏻
My thoughts exactly!
My only thought on that is it is such poor quality that it would probably be harder to work on and require greater skill.
That's exactly what I did!
This watch is rather amazing when you think about it. Not the product itself but the factory making these must be a marvel of either efficiency or poverty to put this together for $30 and still turn some profit.
I actually read in the some of the comments that people had found them even cheaper 😶 Thanks for watching 👍
Worker poverty wins hands down whenever a product sells cheap but hand fitting of parts is involved. I wonder if the factory even provides them with magnification and proper lighting, since workers are expendable.
The movement inside appears to be a skeletonized Chinese Standard Movement (also referred to the Tongji or SZ-1). It was developed in the during the Fourth Five-Year Plan in the late 1960s in order to provide every citizen of the People's Republic of China with an affordable, reasonably good quality, 17 jewel, manual-wind, steel-cased watch. Pretty much like the Indian HMT or Soviet Pobeda/ZiM in philosophy. They were made across multiple factories and its design was very much based upon the Enicar AR1010. Makes sense, given the PRC's long-standing relationship with Enicar watches. While earlier ones were much better finished, modern ones have dispensed with any of that. The Tongji lives on today in only the least expensive new watches, as this demonstrates. For $30 new, one can hardly complain about its crude finishing.
Thanks for sharing that. Very interesting to know 👍 Thanks for watching
I feel the parts in the hmt 0231 movement are of better quality.
I have a variant of this watch, bought it of Aliexpress many years ago just for fun (think i payed 10 dollar for it). Its still working quite well till this day.
Thanks for sharing!
Love the sewer watch. Perfect for dumpster diving.
😅 So harsh lolol
As a Hot Wheels and Matchbox fan, I think the internals are made of zinc. It just has that chassis of a Hot Wheels car look about it.
haha I was thinking this and was actually going to say the same thing on the recording. The material really does remind me of the old cars when I was a kid
Super fresh vid mate, you doubled the value of the watch with just the moebius oils you used. 🤣👍🙏
Haha cheers Nick 💪🏻 you have a point 🤣
It would cost more to service it than the watch is worth. 😂
Absolutely! Thanks for watching 👍
Most would it cost to service? @@HorologyBiology
"The details of mechanism speaks its character, it is defying, it is also impeccable great, it cannot be measured, for it is genuinely crafted"
Thanks for watching 👍🏻👍🏻
Sewer is an appropriate name for it.
🤣
Very interesting to see someone treat a very cheap watch with care. Despite the comparatively shoddy materials and craftsmanship, it is still a wonder of modern human engineering that would have amazed people not too long ago. :-) And it didn't melt under light! Anyway, thanks for the video.
Is it perhaps a zinc alloy of some sort? I am not a materials expert, but I know many inexpensive lightweight cases are made of a zinc alloy, so maybe this movement is similar. EDIT: Come to think of it, I have no idea what good movements are usually made out of. I assume stainless steel, but I could be wrong.
Thanks for watching 👍
Yeah I'm really not sure. whatever it was it wasn't brass.
If nothing else, it's good for beginning watchmakers to practice on, without spending a lot.
You are totally right! The fundamentals of the mechanics are the same as any handwinder 👍🏼
Love these cheap watch services videos
Thanks for watching 👍
Just found your channel and I'm very impressed! Good stuff!
Welcome aboard and thank you very much 🙏🏼
HMT watches from India are quite good standard mechanical watch in low prices. If possible get your hands on one of them. It would be a delight to watch you review it.
Thanks for watching. I have seen the HMT watches and there are many around. I have personally never had one in. I think mainly because the watches are very affordable most people would never bother with the cost of a service on one.
Perfect watch to learn on getting into watch making, if you break something, it wasn’t ever worth anything in the first place.
Exactly that 👍🏻
That metal looks like what would be left after tossing beer cans into a campfire and letting them melt
🤣🤣
iv seen this alloy before in cheap crappy tools its definatly chinesium
The material's finish appears to be the characteristic 'overchrome' look of polished ZAMAK, an extremely cheap but remarkably durable and easy to work/cast zinc alloy.
Thanks for the input and thanks for watching 👍
Great Video, I an so impressed that you could take this apart and put it back together, I have quite a few of this quality watch and most are a few years old, some with multiple working inner dials, all are still working and keeping ok time.
Glad you enjoyed it, thank you so much 😊
That was pretty cool to watch! Great idea doing this kind of a video! Thank you and best of luck growing the channel! I'll keep an eye on your awesome work as well! 🙂
Thank you so much :) Glad you enjoyed it.
Fellow watchmaker here…worked on a few of these AND THEY ARE NOT FUN! you make this look easy!
Thanks for watching. You’ve worked on a few 😳 this was my first and probably the last one. I just cannot see anyone sending one in
This is SO great; thank you! I constantly see these popping up in Amazon searches, etc. and I always wondered what they're made of/how they're built. Excellent video!
Glad I could help!👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻
That was an entertaining exercise. Reminds me of my old timexs that continue to run 50 years later. There are some videos elsewhere of people attempting to service them. Actually very interesting to see the engineering involved in cutting costs and minimizing components.
If it's something that can be restored then I'm all for it 💪
Amazes me that someone can make this, assemble it, sell it, ship it, and make money on it at $29.99.
This can fall under many categories though ;)
I think this movement is made out of that new chinesium 2.0 with extra special invisible oil. The fact you got this watch for less than 43,000 is amazing.
😂😂 Chinesium 2.0
For The Money it's a Miracle...
👍🏻😊
I've gotten a cheap skeleton watch from Amazon it cost me $40, I've had it for 3 years wear it on occasion it keeps time good over a weekend still runs strong love the aesthetics, don't understand why most automatic watches cover the movement with simple boring looking dial covers.
Thanks for watching 👍🏻 it’s a variant like many things in life. Some have an exposed movement and some don’t.
It's not bad. I may buy one. Great show--thank you--very fine servicing.
Thanks for watching 👍
i got my first mechanical watch when i was in 7th grade in 1963. it was a 17 jewel and cost $6.95! i had it for 6 years and it kept perfect time. i never had it serviced.
The question is do you still have it. My first watch was a Timex hand winder when I was a boy. I have no idea what happened to it in the end :(
I have had one of these for about 5 years , it kept time just fine , I ended up giving it away to a friend , it was a slightly different case on mine , but the same movement , I paid 12.00 from Ali express for it
You bargain hunter you .. 👍👍
I like that you completely reassembled the watch before putting it back on the time graph.
Once before and then once afterwards 💪🏻💪🏻 Thanks for watching
Love it love your manner, personality and how careful and "technical" (a very positive attribute incidentally). I subbed on the first time and first video. I love how honest you are, but it's "fresh" to see a pro like you give a watch like this a fighting chance! I found it down right heart warming you were frank about the watch but also seemed to be rooting for it just a bit. I love to follow folks that are honest about what is but can also be optimistic about how a proper service and careful reassembly has real possibilities to help this watch be a little better. As a wannabe I can certainly watch and enjoy your videos as well as learn so much! Kudos and thanks!
Oh wow, thank you very much. Such a nice comment to make. I like to be objective but informative at the same time so others can benefit regardless of the type of watch I'm dealing with. Thanks again
I own this watch and yes the "leather band" started to peel away and felt like plastic underneath. I loved this video. Always been fascinated by mechanical watches. Thank you sir!
Thanks for sharing and thanks for watching 😊
@@HorologyBiology I can share pics of the watch after normal use if you would like.
Feel free to email 👍🏼
that was the first movement i successfully took apart ( and reassembled :- ) seems to be the 2650s movement. i was getting a 270 amplitude, accuracy changes a lot with amplitude, when low it gets a lot faster, but when regulary wound its about +- 15 sec a day - not too bad. its a pocket watch , i keep it running, because i want to see how long it works after that first service
It will probably out live you, and to be honest it should. Sound like you did a cracking job 💪
I'm a car mechanic by profession... seeing you delicately handle these parts is entertaining to watch... I can only image the destruction there would be if actually undertook this process of servicing a mechanical watch lol.... I'm used to dealing with rusty stuck on bolts that require the heave-ho and a strong hands... I might just try it on a cheap movement just to see how I get on i have always been interested in watchmaking but never took the plunge yet...
You should. With your work background you might find it easier than you think 💪🏻
Sewor__How apt!
😅 gets me every time
The movement you are working with here is Tongji: "Chinese Stsndard Movement" as they proudly like to call it.
Thanks for that and thanks for watching 👍
I’m going to buy this watch because if your video it looks good, great video! I enjoyed it, this is obviously not a throw away watch
Well it's not a bank breaker so if you like it ,why not
The metal that this watch is most likely made of is a Chinesium alloy.
Definitely low grade
Wow,i really just watched this whole video with absolutely no intention on doing so. 🤙
🤣 watch videos can get you like that. Many thanks for watching 👍🏻
I bought a similar one from Amazon 10 years ago for fun! And the darn thing still works fantastic if i dont forget to wind it. Cheers🍻
Good to know!💪🏻💪🏻💪🏻
Thank you for reviewing this!
I absolutely love mechanical watches and just found those watches on Amazon. I, of course, would rather buy something of better quality, but family comes first. I'm hoping a cheap watch will satisfy enough until I have the money saved for a nice watch.
An added bonus here is after I get a nice watch I could tear the cheap one apart without worrying about ruining something nice.
Thanks for watching. You could buy a nice Seiko watch for not a crazy amount of money.
€500 service on a €30 watch. Nice 🙂
😅 Thanks for watching
For someone like me who finds a old Land rover delicate to work on, to see your gently approach is amazing
haha thanks for that. And to think I seriously lack in patience haha
Just subbed. Would like to say that this video was really interesting. I mostly service antique pocket watches so i dont have much experience with the newer stuff.
Thanks for the sub! This is actually the newest watch I have ever worked on 😂
Loved the video! True to your name, you inspected the biology of the horology. Brilliant idea to do this, being different.
Great sense of humour!!
Keep up the good work!!
That's very kind to say thank you :)
thank you for making this kind of content, it's really entertaining and interesting!
Glad you enjoy it!
Fun to see what goes inside these amazon specials. Indeed, impressive to see given its price but you can see where the money was saved. As someone who enjoys watches for the fine art of them (that would be most of us here I reckon), this wouldn't be my kind of thing. But it's cool to see you work on it anyway, and your camera work is top notch, beautiful microscope shots.
Thank you for the comment, super appreciated. Thanks for watching 👍
everyone avoids discussing showing two things. 1, how to orient the mainspring. 2, how to safely get the end of the spring in the winder. Please do a dedicated how to on this
My latest video shows a spring being placed into a mainspring winder if that's what you are referring to 👍
@@HorologyBiology it is, and I've struggled to get the orientation correct before, turning it backwards and even inside out. The only to snap the tail off at the last wind. I'm scared to use them now
@@jondavidg3155 Maybe I will do a quick demo video for the channel with close ups. Good shout
This is exactly what I needed to get started. After finding your video, I bought one of these (pocket watch version) and spent this afternoon following along and doing the tear down. I'm finding that tools are everything. My $20 microscope sucks.
My copy of this movement is gold anodized, and it's got lots of oil. I'm getting oil on everything.
Tomorrow I'll try reassembly. :-)
Thanks, this is very educational.
You’re very welcome. It's always nice to read comments like this where someone has made the step to have a go themselves. Tools are important of course but everyones microscope budgets are different. Try also using a loupe. It can help you also.
Thanks for watching and I'm glad you found it beneficial 👍
@@HorologyBiology Update: Success! It runs! Thanks again!
This was so good to watch , very suprised how good this watch was for the money. For a beater watch its perfect, you break it you bin it and get another lol id rather this than some battery operated watch put it that way.thanks for sharing .
Glad you enjoyed it!
Most of these inexpensive movements are assembled without any lubrication, or completely soaked in it. It seems there's no in-between. Very cool to see, thanks for the video!
You are correct. Thanks for stopping by 😊
Oh thank goodness for this video! I bought a model with the same movement (but screw on case back) because Amazon had it for just $5.00 and I thought "Worst case, you can just use screws and parts from it for other watches. I wound it once a day for 5 days and on the last, fully wound it was completely locked up. I went through it and saw the fork the crown stem moves wasn't fully engaging the levers it was supposed to. So I put it away and just left it for the last 2 years
Then your video showed in suggested videos and I watched it... Sure enough oiling it almost immediately had it run.
Thank you!
😅 Your very welcome, glad it can be of some use to you. Now that’s gotta be worth a sub and a like 😉
Looks good! I’m not gonna lie I buy homages and even a rep. I’m not rich and will never be. I wear watches for me. No one around me cares about my watches. Just me. Lol when I look at my wrist it gives good feels.
I'm not a fan of reps because I think for the price you pay for some of the so called good ones you could get a really nice Seiko which is logically a really great watch. Thanks for watching :)
1st time viewer. Great video. You gained another subscriber! 😉👍🏼
Awesome! Thank you! Glad you found it informative 😊
Glad I found this channel. I havent liked a lot of other watch repair channels
Welcome aboard!
I have a watch with a similar movement. Bought it second hand for a song. I'm actually surprised that it works ok. But it's nothing special. Just a fun watch to wear when nothing special is happening. 😅
Wear it and enjoy it. Thanks for watching 👍
This was great! You definitely left that watch feeling 'super fresh.'
Glad you enjoyed it!
AN old school Chinese Standard Movement aka Tongji which is itself a close copy of Swiss Enicar caliber from the late 50's. Jewels are thin because those were first synthetic rubies. China had produced more than a million of them but then quartz became ultracheap and more accurate so what you've got there is an NOS movement from the early 70's which may explain the rust and evaporated oil.
The train lay out is similar but to be fair most vintage pieces have a very similar train lay out 👍
I just want a mechanical watch that I can own and admire and tell my wife all about while she's texting with her boyfriend.
😅😅 wtf
you know what would be fun? is to replace all the jewels and refinish all the pieces with a pearlage pattern, you gotta admit it would make a cool video
True but ehhhh no thanks😅
love watching these vids
Thanks for watching 👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻
Years ago my very first automatic mechanical watch was very similar to this one, also purchased on Amazon for about the same price. With it being my very first automatic skeleton watch it was just thrilled that I had one at that price point. I did have slight concerns with it at the time since I was finishing my MM in keyboard performance and would wonder how much that would affect its performance. I found that it would lose about 5 minutes a day, and I didn't really mind it. Like you said, ""you get what you pay for,"" but I have since then moved on to better slightly more expensive skeleton watches that work and look much better. Thank you for your content! 😀 It brought me back a little bit.
Many thanks for watching. Great that a similar watch started you on your skeleton watch journey 👍
Thank you, that was interesting.
Glad you enjoyed it
Very interesting. Thanks for doing this video.
Glad you enjoyed it!
Crazy guy. Well done!
💪🏻
What an awesome video
Thanks very much 👍🏻👍🏻
The care and attention you put into watches is amazing. I'd love for you to work on mine.
Feel free to email me, contact info is in the about section page of the channel. 👍
Quel travail ! Magnifique 😊
Thank you very much 👍
The watch says Thank you very much!!!
Thanks for watching 🙌🏼🙌🏼
We call this movement CH96 in India, available around for ₹ 300 -400
Cheap finished but work good ❤
Thanks for sharing
Achha hua HMT ka movement nahi daala 😂😂😂😂 Wo to 100 Rs main mil jata hai.
Good narrative work there buddy.
Thank you kindly 🙌🏻🙌🏻
Been looking forward to this!!
Cheers Don 👍🏼
Great video. I was afraid something was going to break. You get what you pay for is right. Thanks for the video
haha me too. It have been over for sure if something did.
You are on 3.5 k so long way to go but i wish you all the luck.
Suscribed.
Fingers crossed.
Many thanks
Nice dismental !! and cleaning great video
Thank you! 👍🏻 thanks for watching
The finishing of this watch is as fine as I could do in 5th grade iron working class at school.
🤣🤣 killed it
Thanks for the video
No problem!
“Sewor” (Sewer) pretty much sums up the quality of this watch. Nice dis/reassembly though.
😅 Thank for watching and liking Keith, appreciated 👍
I have a $25 mechanical pocket watch off amazon. Really, keeps time ok and has ran for 2 weeks now. The first day it ran VERY fast, now it seems ok
Good shout. Thanks for watching as well 👍
@@HorologyBiology any reason it would run insanely fast on the first wind?
@@moto_rad I really wouldn't know. Usually this is when they are magnetised, but the issue would continue.
I don't have the ability or know how to take watches apart, so I could never have an opinion on that. But I've purchased a couple for reviewing and after 2 to 3 years all 3 are still working just fine. They are not the same quality as a $300.00 and up watch but you are correct, there are shortcuts taken that can be noticed.
Thanks for the comment. That's good to know that they do last a while at least 👍🏼
I would buy it and wear it, but I definitely wouldn't be trying to show it off to anyone. Once it stops keeping decent time, I'd probably just toss it.
Should last a fair while after servicing. I doubt out of the box tho
very informative sir useful to watch and i really enjoyed, keep up sir from Philippines 👍👍👍😊🙏
Glad you enjoyed it
Still more serviceable than swatch system 51
🤣🤣 you’re totally right of course 💪🏻
Great watch to learn on. Automatic watches have been around for a hundred years, not surprised we can make it cheaply its just metal.
Thanks for watching 😀
thats a Tongji -Movement - the chinese Standartmovement, made from different companies in various degree of finishing and skeletonisazion. Its a tried and proved movement through the history.. basic, but reliable.. like the Vostok movement or the classic Seiko 5 movement.
Thanks for the info and for watching 👍
Bought the same movement a decade ago for $20 at a street fair, just in a skeletonized pocketwatch. Sat at times, but was used like a regular clock at work or on a nightstand for years. Never adjusted it, but it probably lost about 30s a day or so. Lost amplitude to the point of stalling maybe a year ago, decided to finally do a dirty job on it last night, only cleaned the removable jewels, then lubricated the rest using a filed needle and the thinnest oil l own. I don't have watch tools, or even other watches, so l don't mind potentially ruining what's left of it in an experiment. Hell, the crown and ratchet wheels are drilled far enough off axis that they very nearly lose engagement at points, so it's only a matter of time until the teeth wear enough that they do.
Congrats on having a go with it and also being creative with what you had 💪🏻💪🏻
This is actually the perfect watch for a beginning watchmaker to practice on. Buy 10 of them for the price of one "real" watch and go to town. As a consumer watch, it's not that great a value IMO. Yeah it's only about 30 bucks, but to run OK it needs a $300 service...
Definitely a great practise watch for new people as the principals of the watch mechanics are the same as most. Thanks for watching
Looks like it was finished with 80 grit sandpaper
That's harsh! At least 120 😅
Made from recycled tin cans.
Ther were moments when you applied some force to remove a
screw , i could almost feel the metal snap. Ill be honest i was frightened 😮Getting the uptick on the amplitude, that was good.
An experiment accomplished !
Bravo 👏🍻
🤣 I hear you on that one. Some tense times with a couple of screws.
The commodification of watches is both a blessing and a curse lol.
🤣 Thanks for watching 👍🏻
OK, first time viewer and now ima have watch all of your videos. This one took me by suprise as to how cheap the watch was. Pump out thousands of these movements and you can afford to put them in a cheap case with meerkat strap
😅😅 Thanks for watching and supporting the channel. Appreciated 👍
I bought that watch keep time so bad I returned after few days. I would love to get the one you just rebuilt. Great job. I’ve been trying to find a reasonable priced version of that watch they’re either really cheap or really expensive and nothing in the middle..
Many thanks for watching. I do think there are some mid range skeleton watches out there so you should be good.
@@HorologyBiology been looking for 20 years no luck so far.
It’s just this I was referring to
www.cousinsuk.com/product/glass-dial-hand-watch-cleaning-pen-bergeon-swiss
I believe the movement is a Chinese Standard Movement aka a Tongji. I wish higher quality versions of it exist as it has a fascinating history.
Yes you are totally right about the movement 👍
Nice presentation
Thank you! Cheers!
perfect watch for practicing disassembling and rebuilding watches?
Exactly that! Thanks for watching
Always wanted to do this as a hobby
Never to late to start. Go for it 👍
Super fresh!👍🏼👍🏼
Super Nice 💪
HB goodness⌚👍🏼👍🏼