Watch Repair

Horology is the fancy word for the study of time keeping machines, whether they be watches, clocks, or whatever. There are many valuable videos on You-Tube, I have in particular learned a lot from a guy who calls himself "bunn special".

Staking Tools

One thing you will want and need, once you get beyond basic work is a staking set. This allows you to replace broken balance staffs and to perform many other tasks. The set of choice is the K and D Inverto #18. You can get it with a jewel pressing attachment which often adds about $200 to the price. The word I hear is that you are better off getting a separate Seitz jeweling tool, but I am not to that stage yet.

In January, 2013 I began shopping for an inverto set. I passed up bidding on one set with the jeweling attachment (which ended up selling for $530). I then watched another nice complete Inverto 18 set, but it ended up going for $510 without the jeweling attachment, which suprised me, but it was a complete set, albeit with some rust. Interestingly the bids sat at $210 for days, and in the last 2 minutes jumped 210, 360, 410, 449, 510. Such is the nature of Ebay, sniping usually brings home the goods. On closer inspection of this set, I believe it included the jeweling attachment, hence the price was actually to be expected. I just didn't recognize it as it was not mounted on the base.

The first thing I hope to do with a staking set is to replace a friction fit balance staff in a Waltham 1908 pocket watch. K and D sold a special set 13 with the stumps and stakes to do this for several size watches (16, 12, and 0), and the word is that some Inverto sets include these stumps.

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Have any comments? Questions? Drop me a line!

Tom's notes / tom@mmto.org