Maintenance Servicing

Here is a full summary of all the modules and lessons found in Level 2 of this course. Maintenance Servicing of the basic mechanical watch.

OVER 4 HOURS OF WATCH REPAIR LESSONS

Level 1 of the Watch Repair Course provides more than 4 hours of teaching with 41 full high definition videos, plus access to our bonus videos specific to level 2 as well as full access to our back catalog of watch repair videos.

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Level 2 – Maintenance Servicing

41 High Definition Videos
Over 4 hours of video lessons
1 Certificate of Completion
All Pricing in USD
  • Enrollment Cost$119.00

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What you will learn in Level 2

Level 2 of this course, 'Maintenance Servicing', builds upon the foundations set in Level 1In particular you will gain a greater understanding of the anatomy of the watch movement as we strip the basic mechanical watch to pieces, clean the components, check for wear or damage, re-assemble, lubricate and re-calibrate.

HOW TO SAFELY STRIP A WATCH MOVEMENT TO PIECES - AND RE-ASSEMBLE IT

This level contains all the information you need, from providing a guideline procedure for dismantling the movement, to choosing the correct lubricant for the various friction points as you re-assemble it. And most importantly, how to regulate and test the watch once re-assembled and lubricated in order to get the best performance out of the watch.

Level 2 Course Content

Please find below a detailed description of all the lessons and topics found within Level 2 of the Watch Repair Course.

c2.0.0 Introduction

This video lesson serves as an introduction and summarizes the teachings provided in level 2 of the Watch Repair Course.

c2.0.1 Using & Maintaining Tweezers

In order to reduce the risk of watch parts getting lost, it is advisable to choose high quality tweezers and to maintain the tweezer tips. When new to watch repair you should spend quite a bit of time practicing with your tweezers and developing your technique.

USING & MAINTAINING TWEEZERS
c2.0.2 Using & Maintaining Screwdrivers

Watchmakers screwdrivers come in sets of various different sizes. Choosing a suitable size for the screw you wish to loosen, or tighten, will reduce the risk of damaging the screw head or slot. You should choose a screwdriver with a blade width slightly smaller than the diameter of the screw head. If the blade is to large then you risk damaging, or scoring the material around the screw.

USING & MAINTAINING SCREWDRIVERS

c2.1.0 Stripping Down The Movement

Stripping down a watch movement

There are no specific rules to the order a watch is stripped to pieces. We discuss the importance of being aware of the potential to cause damage being greater unless you follow a basic guideline procedure.

c2.1.1 Removing The Movement From The Watch Case

It is never a good idea to start stripping a watch movement down when it is still in it’s watch case. The movement may not be fully secure and you will run the risk of damaging the dial as you apply downwards pressure on certain screws. This lesson discusses the same removal of the watch movement from the watch case.

REMOVING THE MOVEMENT FROM THE WATCH CASE
c2.1.2 Removing The Dial and Hands

When working with watch movements, it is the watch repairers duty to take extreme care not to damage or scratch any of the parts even if they are not visible. However, when working with the dial and hands, this duty should become an obsession.

REMOVING THE DIAL AND HANDS
c2.1.3 Removing Power From The Mainspring

Releasing any power in the mainspring is a very important prerequisite to stripping down any watch or clock movement. Failing to perform this step can cause damage to your movement in several different ways.

REMOVING POWER FROM THE MAINSPRING
c2.1.4 Removing The Balance

Arguably the most sensitive part of the watch movement is the balance assembly, and in particular, the balance spring. Therefore it is recommended that this should be the first component to remove and set safely aside.

REMOVING THE BALANCE
c2.1.5 Removing The Motion Work

Removing the Motion Work before removing the Train Wheels is a great example of where observing this guideline is important because the Cannon Pinion is friction fitted to the Centre Wheel.

REMOVING THE MOTION WORK
c2.1.6 Removing The Pallets

The Pallet fork is located under the balance and is secured with a bridge which needs to be removed first. The pallet staff pivots are very fine and if you are not careful when removing the Pallets then you run a real risk of them breaking.

REMOVING THE PALLETS

c2.2.0 Inspecting The Watch Parts

Watch Servicing - Inspecting The Watch Parts

Watches are designed to run for a very long time, sometimes many years, without the need for service. However, some watch owners will tend to have an “if its’s not broken then it doesn’t need repair” attitude towards their timepiece. We discuss the importance that you inspect each part individually as you strip and service a watch movement.

c2.2.1 Inspecting Jewels And Pivot Holes

Servicing and maintaining watches does not end with stripping the movement to pieces, cleaning, lubrication and re-assembling. A large part of your focus when working on any movement should be devoted to observation. We start with a discussion on inspecting the various pivot and jewel holes.

INSPECTING JEWELS AND PIVOT HOLES
c2.2.2 Checking For and Dealing With Rust

Rust is most definitely an issue you will come across at some point when you start servicing and maintaining watch movements. 

CHECKING FOR AND DEALING WITH RUST
c2.2.3 Checking For Damage and Wear

There are three basic stages for performing a maintenance service with any watch movement. Stripping it down, cleaning it and then rebuilding it. During all three of these stages, it is good practice to be on the constant lookout for issues which will affect the good running of the watch.

CHECKING FOR DAMAGE AND WEAR

c2.3.0 Cleaning Techniques

Watch Repair Techniques - Cleaning Watch Parts

Once the movement has been taken to pieces and you have inspected all the parts, its now time to proceed with cleaning those parts. There are various methods to cleaning watch movement components which may result in differing levels of cleanliness - the topics within this lesson will discuss various different cleaning methods including automated with machines and cleaning watch parts by hand.

c2.3.1 Cleaning By Hand

When you are first starting out with watch repair, it may not be practical or even advisable to invest in expensive equipment such as ultrasonic machines or watch cleaning machines.

CLEANING BY HAND
c2.3.2 Using An Ultrasonic Bath

When cleaning your watch movement components by hand, you may find it useful to agitate the parts whilst they are soaking in the cleaning fluid with an ultrasonic bath.

USING AN ULTRASONIC BATH
c2.3.3 Watch Cleaning Machine

Using a dedicated watch cleaning machine will both increase your productivity and arguably give you better results when cleaning watch components. You will still need to be able to clean certain parts by hand, but investing in a watch cleaning machine will be a natural step forward as you progress in watch repair.

WATCH CLEANING MACHINE

c2.4.0 Lubrication And Re-Assembly

Re-Assembling and Lubricating watch movements

Discussing the lubrication and the re-assembly of the basic mechanical watch movement. You may observe that these two subjects are not separated, this is because the lubrication and re-assembly of a watch movement, for the most part, will go hand in hand.

c2.4.1 Choosing Correct Lubricant

Many modern watch movement calibers will have a corresponding data sheet with part numbers, illustrations and often an oiling chart. These can be extremely useful to help you determine the correct lubricant for a particular friction point.

CHOOSING CORRECT LUBRICANT
c2.4.2 Lubrication Techniques

Before we get started with re-assembly, lets take a look at some principles in the lubrication of friction points in mechanical watch movements. For the most part, you will need to lubricate where any two components come into contact and interact with each other…

LUBRICATION TECHNIQUES
c2.4.3 Re-Assembling The Watch Movement

Now we are ready to start re-assembling and lubricating the movement. You may remember, we previously talked about a guideline procedure for stripping a movement to pieces.

RE-ASSEMBLING THE WATCH MOVEMENT
c2.4.4 Assemble The Train of Wheels

If you made notes or took photographs whilst you were stripping the movement down, this should be a relatively simple task. Assembling the train of wheels is a simple case of placing the wheels the correct way up and in the correct order.

ASSEMBLE THE TRAIN OF WHEELS
c2.4.5 Assemble The Going Barrel

When re-assembling the barrel you have to make a choice wether to use the existing mainspring which you removed when you stripped the watch down, or to replace it with a new one.

ASSEMBLE THE GOING BARREL
c2.4.6 Using A Mainspring Winder

Mainspring winders are quite an expensive investment but very useful to have in your tool kit. Depending on the size of the set you purchase, there will be many different drums to suit the size of barrel you wish to fit the spring into. Choose a drum which is slightly smaller than the inside diameter of your barrel and remove the crank…

USING A MAINSPRING WINDER

c2.5.0 Testing & Timing

Timing and calibration of a watch movement

With the watch movement fully assembled and running, it is now time to discuss the testing of its operation and the calibration of its timekeeping. If there are any issues with the watch movement then these issues will be identified during the testing stage and so it is very important not to skip this step.

c2.5.1 De-Magnetising The Movement

After the watch movement parts have been exposed to potential magnetic fields, for example, emitted by a watch cleaning machine motor, the movement will need to be de-magnetised.

DE-MAGNETISING THE MOVEMENT
c2.5.2 The basics of regulating a movement

If a watch does not maintain a reasonable expectation of time-keeping, then it’s does not serve much of a purpose. And of course, following a full strip down and re-assembly along with fresh lubrication applied and perhaps even replacement of worn parts, the time keeping of the movement will need to be assessed and adjusted accordingly.

THE BASICS OF REGULATING A MOVEMENT
c2.5.3 Adjusting The Movement Rate

The rate of the watch is determined by the speed, or rate, at which a beat occurs as compared to the preceding beat. This rate is governed by the balance assembly and in particular, the diameter and weight of the balance wheel, and the strength and length of the balance spring….

ADJUSTING THE MOVEMENT RATE
c2.5.4 Setting The Movement In Beat

As the balance oscillates, it interacts with the pallet fork twice. These are called vibrations, or beats. Effectively it is the ‘tictoc’ sound you hear with any mechanical watch movement.

SETTING THE MOVEMENT IN BEAT
c2.5.5 Adjusting For Positional Error

When timing a watch you would aim to test the rate in several different positions. This lesson discusses the use of the watch timing machine and the deviation of rate when the movement is orientated in different positions.

ADJUSTING FOR POSITIONAL ERROR
c2.5.6 Testing a Movement

Now that you have adjusted the rate of your watch movement, it is very important to put the watch through various stages of testing.

TESTING A MOVEMENT

c2.6.0 Summary

This video lesson follows the level assessment and summarizes Level 2 of the watch repair course.

Free Level 2 Bonus VIdeos

As a commitment to giving you continuous value for money, you now get these extra bonus videos for FREE when you complete Level 2. This is an on-going project and there will be more coming, again – at no extra charge when they are available.
c2b2 - Refitting Dial and hands to a watch

Recent Reviews For Level 2

Here are some of the most recent feedback comments we have received for Level 2 of our Watch Repair Course. If you are enrolled on any of our course levels, you can send us feedback via a link found on your account dashboard.

Detailed and accurate

Submitted on: October 11, 2024

Excelente course. Very clear and easy to follow.

Level 2

Submitted on: July 10, 2024

Mark i have really enjoyed this course and it as helped me a lot my skills are improving every day thanks to your lesson and i am looking forward to…

Level 2

Submitted on: July 4, 2024

Love the course content. I can’t wait until I get my 6497 movement so I can start working on it, as we progress through the program.