Watchmaking
The first and most comprehensive step-by-step guide on the subject, Watchmaking has become a classic in its own right. This new edition is updated to include a new section which discusses and illustrates a variety of the author's own watches. The author's principal aim in writing this book has been to inspire and encourage the art of watchmaking, especially among a new generation of enthusiasts. The making of the precision timekeeper is described, step by step, and is illustrated at each stage with line drawings and brief explanatory captions. Great care has been taken to ensure the text is easy to follow and to avoid complicated technical descriptions.
Stats for nerds
11recommend
14mentions
13people
2013–2025years
86% recommend14% neutral
Mentions per year
What Hacker News says
- While I have the utmost respect and admiration for the fabricating skills and ingenuity employed, building every component “aside from the movement” is akin to building a car ‘aside from the engine and transmission’.
For a soup-to-nuts breakdown, seek out ‘Watchmaking’ by horological legend George Daniels
- I started with Greg Daniel's masterpiece: Watchmaking.
https://www.amazon.com/Watchmaking-George-Daniels/dp/0856677...
- After skimming through a large portion of George Daniel's book "Watchmaking", if anything, I very much appreciate how complicated making a mechanical watch is, and even more so, how easy it is to get things wrong. From what I saw, you have to have a lot of tooks to make your own mechanical watch, and it would not be something I would want to do without someone skilled in the craft.
That is a long way of saying, I am confused on how making a mechanical watch is a "hobby"?
- If you are curious on actually making a watch movement, I recommend looking at George Daniel's book "Watchmaking". It is a very well put together book, but is also very technical.
- Go find a PDF of "Fundamentals of Mechanical Accuracy" by Wayne R. Moore, if you haven't already seen it. That book, along with George Daniels text "Watchmaking" are some of the top inspiring works on the mechanical arts in my collection.
- I've been making my own movements for fun for a while. Most of the parts you can print/order, but for accuracy purposes I tend to use an existing balance spring (generally sourced from any old Seiko movement).
I recommend 2 books if you want to make your own movements
1) Watchmaking by George Daniels 2) Practical Watch Repairing by Donald de Carle
The first is a textbook and second deals with repairing, but actually taught me the more practical side of how to assemble & regulate a watch, and what makes a movement accurate.
I've made my own hand-winding movement. It is within COSC specs but only when it's more than 75% wound, perfectly flat, and in a cool place. Oh did I mention it's the size of a ping pong bat. It makes me appreciate ETAs and their reliability even more now. It's time consuming and drives me nuts at times but totally worth it.
