Its back!!

Many years ago, an Italian guy had rented a small cottage that belonged to my grandfather. When the time came for him to go back to Italy, he ran short of cash to pay the rent for the past few months and asked my granddad if he'd accept his gold Omega (Cal. 320) watch instead. My grandfather initially declined telling him not to worry about the rent and to keep his watch, but the Italian requested him to take the watch as he didn't feel right about not paying, and eventually my grandfather had to accept it.
My grandfather then gave the watch to my dad, who wore it for a few year in college. It had then been sent in for servicing to a local watch maker (there was no Omega service centers here back then) who turned out to be not at all competent and messed up the movement. It stopped running and was put into a safe in the bank, forgotten over the years.
Last year, after me and Bio got into watches, my Dad remembered the watch and told us about it. We finally managed to persuade him to go back to our hometown and bring the watch to us so we could have a look at it. It was beautiful and didn't deserve to be lying unused in a safe.
I'm really pleased to say that Bio and I finally managed to get it serviced and cleaned up from a local watchmaker we discovered recently (Singapore Watch Repair). They have done a pretty neat job and brought life back into the vintage beauty. Since the original gold strap was now small for my dad's wrist, we replaced it with a dark brown leather band with a golden buckle.
My dad couldn't believe his eyes when he saw the watch - working again and back on his wrist after so many years. He had totally given up hope on it after that watchmaker ruined it. This is why you have to love mechanical watches!

So excited!!

My dad has a vintage Omega Cal. 320 which really needed to be repaired as some idiot watchmaker had screwed the movement a long time ago. We had first sent it to the Omega servicing center in the city but they just returned it saying they don't have the parts required to fix it.
Last week, I had come across an ad for a place called "Singapore Watch Company" in my city and they mentioned that they specialize in repairing/servicing old vintage watches. So Bio and I thought we'd give them a shot at fixing it. I just got a call from them saying that the watch is ready to be picked up. We are really hoping they have done a good job at it. We can't wait to surprise our dad!!
Keeping my fingers crossed!

Time to get a lil serious

Just enrolled for the Time Zone Watch School Level 1 course. This course features an introduction to watch repairing and covers the basics of disassemble and re-assembly of the movement. You can read more about it here. I'll post a review of the course once I've completed it. In the meantime, I've also ordered the book Practical Watch Repairing, which should be on its way to me.

Can't wait to get started!

Got a little dust under the crystal?

In that case, you need the right tools!
A fellow WIS had a little dust under the crystal of one of his HMT watches, and asked me if I knew anything about how to fix it.
I have opened a HMT watch before to clean the inside of the crystal, so I sort of know the process. Below is a crude step by step process on how I went about doing it.

Note 1: I am in no way an expert regarding this topic and I do this only with my cheaper, beater watches. So anyone trying this, should do so at their own risk
Note 2: I have a press fit tool to snap the case back shut, but I've been successful with just my bare hands in the past. However, while using your hands, be very careful not to put pressure on the crystal, rather than the case.









I apologise, in advance, to any experienced watchmakers/repairers in advance, if I'm doing it incorrectly and would love to have any advice from them, on how to do it right.

Customers!

The other day, I paid a visit to a watch shop for picking up few watches I had ordered for. This place was bustling with customers and I started browsing the watches on display while waiting to be attended to. They had all the fashion brands on display as usual and of course Titan and Timex. Bio and I always dream of owning a nice watch shop one day where we could service,repair and sell good brands and meet other watch enthusiast. However, the customers here were nothing like that at all.
There was one guy who had a badly worn out strap with one of the keepers missing (which he substituted with a rubber band). I think he had a Fossil watch on and wanted to get the strap replaced. The guy behind the counter told him that it would cost him around Rs.1800 (~$40) to get a new original one, which seemed to be too much for him. He instead chooses to keep the strap as it is with the rubber band as a keeper and walks out. Now, I'm thinking, why couldn't he just replace it with another cheaper strap. You get pretty decent ones for Rs.250-350 ($6-8) and besides, its an old Fossil, its not like he plans to sell it in the future and is worried that the absence of the original strap will drastically lower the sale price.

Then there was this guy, who again had a Fossil with the crown missing. The guy behind the counter tells him that the price to replace it would be around Rs.850 ($18). Again, this is too much for the guy to justify and he asks for a cheaper alternative. "Well, if you want, I can just stick something on it to cover the hole (where the crown was), but you won't be able to change the time or the date. It will cost you just Rs.350 ($7-8)." This guy started thinking and I thought, surely he'll get the crown replaced, but no, he preferred to just let the watch be how it was (with the crown missing) and left. Oh! Did, I mention its monsoon here and rains everyday! Maybe he'll be back soon wondering why his watch has stopped working.

Another lady wanted to have pics of herself on a few watches to probably give away as gifts!

Then the worst kind, a guy asking for fake watches, in his case, fake Rolex Daytonas and Submariners. He also proudly claimed that his dad wears a fake Rolex and gifts them to his friends.

Now if these are the kind of customers I can expect to visit my watch shop, I'm not sure I'm too keen on the idea anymore!

New sales corner

We now have a new 'Sales Section' here at IWB where we'll be selling mostly HMTs and some of our pre-owned watches. Feel free to take a look. Link is on the right!

Incoming Poljot Strela

When I came back to work from lunch, I was informed by the security guard that a parcel was waiting for me. My Strela had made it's way from Germany to my office, in Mumbai, in just 5 days! Fantastic time, considering the shipping was free!

Here are some un-boxing pics:

Well packaged :)

It came with a stock black leather strap, but the quality wasn't to my liking, so I swapped it with a brown one from my old Lorus.
This Strela was a re-issue of the watch worn by Alexei Leonov during the first ever space walk on 18th March, 1965. It has the proven Poljot 3133 caliber, which replaced the old 3017 caliber, present on the original watch.
As you can see, this is a limited edition series, with mine being no 93/500 :)
The quality of the dial took me by surprise. I've heard stories of poor quality control on Poljot watches, but I have to say, the dial seems really well built. The case is 38mm across, which is the perfect dress watch size for me.


The literature that came with it mentioned that the accuracy is about -10 to +20 sec a day, but I'll only be able to comment on that once it's spend some time on the wrist.
It's sad that Poljot is no longer manufacturing watches, but there are still plenty of new old stocks out there to keep watch enthusiasts like me happy.
For more info on Poljot, here's a link to their wiki page.