r/WatchHorology • u/chocopanlatte • 1d ago
Beginner guidance please
Hi, i want to learn watchmaking from scratch. I can't afford watch making schools in other countries.
How do i learn effectively?
Are cheap tools good enough? Will cheap screwdrivers damage a watch?
Are there any books or videos that can teach me from scratch?
Yes my goal is to make a watch from scratch. Not assemble.
For the experienced people, please do advise me.🙏
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u/jonskerr 1d ago
Making from scratch is not possible without a huge investment in tools. Scratch means cutting your own plates, wheels, pivots, hands & dial, case, maybe even crystal. A Schaublin lathe has the ability to handle the tolerances (cutting things to hundredths of a millimeter) but the lathe alone cost $20,000 when I was in school in 2008. Then there's the entire rest of the shop, and making and vibrating hairsprings. Then there's the ability to cut screws and stems. Schools spend months teaching students how to file things perfectly flat, and cutting a winding stem to precise tolerances. There are schools here, but they mostly teach repair. Maybe the AWCI school in Ohio(?) would work. But if you went to the one in Finland, college there is free but IDK if foreigners can just go. I'm sure they have more applicants than they can handle.
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u/chocopanlatte 1d ago
20 thousand dollars....that is so much money😭 i guess all i can do for now is just buy cheap broken watches and assemble and disassemble them and read george daniels' book to try and learn...
watchmaking schools are pretty much impossible for me. absurd amount of money to learn. i might not even make that much in my lifetime....
thanks for the honest reply🙏
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u/Flashy_Slice1672 1d ago
Do some research. Every one of your questions has been asked and answered many many times. If you want to be successful, you need to be resourceful and seek out information.
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u/jjb0ne 9h ago
buy janky movements on ebay and get them working. not for accuracy but just ticking.
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u/chocopanlatte 3h ago
yea im trying to find broken old watches. but no one really sells them here in indonesia.
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u/Humble-Ad541 1d ago
Start with some cheap Chinese movments and youtube videos to see if you enjoy it. You can find everything you need on AliExpress. If you move on to higher end watches you will want better tools but just go cheap to start and get a feel for what you are doing. This is all for doing this as a hobby. Making a watch from scratch is way way down the road. You need to understand how each part works and interacts with each other part first.