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A comment on Mechanical Watch. Parent comment

Re:Mechanical Watch by shostack on Monday December 11, 2023 @05:36PM (#38606417)
I wish there was a good beginner level entry point with a kit or something. But most of what I saw was "you need to build your own tools and then you can start" and that's too high a barrier for me.

Is there by chance a simulator of this on Steam if a good beginner hobby kit doesn't exist?

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Mechanical Watch by kQq9oHeAz6wLLS on Monday December 11, 2023 @09:50PM (#38608726)
Bah, don't listen to 'em. Inexpensive set of jeweler's screwdrivers, and pair of precision tweezers, some sort of magnifying device, and a couple oils (use Liberty oil for the pivots, it's cheap but good enough to start). Cheap oiler tools off eBay or amazon. I have maybe $50 in tools.

Buy some cheap movements off eBay, and dive in. Yeah, you'll lose parts and break things but you'll learn a bunch.

I have a couple Westclox watches from the 60s that I bought for $10/each on eBay, and they both now run at +/- 2 seconds a day.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Mechanical Watch by Double_a_92 on Tuesday December 12, 2023 @02:26AM (#38610663)
A set of small screwdrivers (at least one 0.8mm and one 1.2mm or so), pointy tweezers and a movement holder should be all you need to try the hobby out.

The screwdrivers and tweezers should be of good quality though, at least get the ones that cost 3-4$ each from China.

And you don't even need a mechanical watch. Cheap quartz watches also have tiny interesting parts in them that you can try to disassemble and reassemble.

[ Parent | on HN ]