I've always had a fascination with mechanical things... I can remember cutting myself on various clockwork clocks and toys when the spring got let out of its cage, it was remarkable how so much metal could be confined in such a small place.
My toys in those days were made in China and were of typically made of pressed steel metal with a clockwork 'engine' These were usually made in 2 pieces and held together with little bent tabs, it was simple work to bend these tabs and get to the bits inside. My toys usually didn't last long.... I've seen these tin-toys on sale for good money now..!
My early watch history starts with a boys 'Cadet' handwind, I must have been about 11 or 12, its sadly long gone. My sister got a Mickey Mouse with a red strap. This would have been around 1980...
I had a few digital watches but I can remember lusting for a chunky mechanical winding watch on display at the Johor Baru Emporium (KOMTAR), this was a Campus and looking back I believe it was a pin-lever type as the mechanism was quite uninspiring to look at. I remember getting the case off and unscrewing something and............bzzzzzzit, something flew off and the watch wouldn't wind. It must have been the 'click'!!
When I was in the Sixth form in English College, I had a classmate by the name of Azmi Salleh (where are you now?) who had a nice Swiss watch...either a Titus or Titoni, can't really remember. He bought this watch from Sungei Road in Singapore for around MYR50 I think..Good deal, I knew I had to get there. Another friend had a square Titus, also from Sungei Road.
Singapore is just across the Straits of Tebrau from Johor Baru, where I grew up, and Sungei Road was conveniently a short walk from the terminus of the Singapore Bus Services Johor Baru - Singapore route (service 170). Sungei Road would be called a 'flea-market' today but in the mid-eighties we called it a thieves market. There would be a lot of junk, mostly tools but a lot of guys would have watches spread out on the road. Later on when I was working in Singapore, I used to frequent Sungei Road often. I could usually pick up a hand-winding Swiss watch for around MYR50 and autos were around the MYR100 mark. Looking back should have bought more..!
My first purchase there was a Titoni Airmaster. This was an elegant hand-winding watch with a Swiss ETA 2409. Titonis were good for the beginner (or not, as the case may be) as the back could be removed with an adjustable spanner. Much later on, I figured out how to remove the stem on this watch by releasing the stem release screw. This watch, I later realised, was a bodge of sorts, the main bridge was from a Pagol (I didn't knew then about ETA and how watch companies operated).. I ended up giving this watch to a friend of mine.
I had a few other sources of watches...there were watchmakers who worked in the five-foot ways of the shop-houses around town, they usually had watches for sale. There was also the possibility of finding some good stuff around the Meldrum area. I remember buying my Omega Seamaster here around 1995 for MYR350 (with original 'Beads of rice' bracelet!). The big building on Jalan Meldrum (MerlinTower if I remember correctly) also had a sidewalk watch-repair guy with old watches, there was a big black Favre-Leuba that I wanted but it was way too expensive. By the way, my fascination with Favre-Leuba stemmed from the Singapore channel News where the time display before the news proper was sponsored by Favre-Leuba.
Anyway, twenty years on, my fascination with mechanical watches is still healthy and with the infinite resources of the Internet my knowledge has grown. In the beginning, there were no resources to speak of. No magazines, no clubs (that I knew of)., no support groups. As a result of this, my collecting only consisted of buying watches and wearing them occasionally,.When they broke...it was off to the watch-repair guy. Now I can take apart a watch and be reasonably confident that I can put it back together again in even better condition. This would not have been possible without the Internet.
Here I have to say I had some support from my friend who runs a watch shop in Port Dickson (where I live now). I got my first tools from him and he pointed me in the right direction, but the way businesses 'repair' watches and how it should be done is not the same. A typical watch repair business will do only what is necessary to get the watch running properly. It rarely extends to dismantling the watch completely, typically the balance and pallet-fork will be removed, the train pivots cleaned with lighter-fluid and oiled in-situ, and they whole thing re-assembled. Rarely is the main-spring barrel opened and the keyless works just get a bit of oil. There are definitely some good ones around but what I described above is typical. I can't really blame them as the supply of parts is very bad. You may be able to get some common parts but apart from that you'll be very lucky to get what you need. For example I've been trying to get a main-spring barrel for an AS1700 but no luck so far.
Thats all for today.. bye for now.
My toys in those days were made in China and were of typically made of pressed steel metal with a clockwork 'engine' These were usually made in 2 pieces and held together with little bent tabs, it was simple work to bend these tabs and get to the bits inside. My toys usually didn't last long.... I've seen these tin-toys on sale for good money now..!
My early watch history starts with a boys 'Cadet' handwind, I must have been about 11 or 12, its sadly long gone. My sister got a Mickey Mouse with a red strap. This would have been around 1980...
I had a few digital watches but I can remember lusting for a chunky mechanical winding watch on display at the Johor Baru Emporium (KOMTAR), this was a Campus and looking back I believe it was a pin-lever type as the mechanism was quite uninspiring to look at. I remember getting the case off and unscrewing something and............bzzzzzzit, something flew off and the watch wouldn't wind. It must have been the 'click'!!
When I was in the Sixth form in English College, I had a classmate by the name of Azmi Salleh (where are you now?) who had a nice Swiss watch...either a Titus or Titoni, can't really remember. He bought this watch from Sungei Road in Singapore for around MYR50 I think..Good deal, I knew I had to get there. Another friend had a square Titus, also from Sungei Road.
Singapore is just across the Straits of Tebrau from Johor Baru, where I grew up, and Sungei Road was conveniently a short walk from the terminus of the Singapore Bus Services Johor Baru - Singapore route (service 170). Sungei Road would be called a 'flea-market' today but in the mid-eighties we called it a thieves market. There would be a lot of junk, mostly tools but a lot of guys would have watches spread out on the road. Later on when I was working in Singapore, I used to frequent Sungei Road often. I could usually pick up a hand-winding Swiss watch for around MYR50 and autos were around the MYR100 mark. Looking back should have bought more..!
My first purchase there was a Titoni Airmaster. This was an elegant hand-winding watch with a Swiss ETA 2409. Titonis were good for the beginner (or not, as the case may be) as the back could be removed with an adjustable spanner. Much later on, I figured out how to remove the stem on this watch by releasing the stem release screw. This watch, I later realised, was a bodge of sorts, the main bridge was from a Pagol (I didn't knew then about ETA and how watch companies operated).. I ended up giving this watch to a friend of mine.
I had a few other sources of watches...there were watchmakers who worked in the five-foot ways of the shop-houses around town, they usually had watches for sale. There was also the possibility of finding some good stuff around the Meldrum area. I remember buying my Omega Seamaster here around 1995 for MYR350 (with original 'Beads of rice' bracelet!). The big building on Jalan Meldrum (MerlinTower if I remember correctly) also had a sidewalk watch-repair guy with old watches, there was a big black Favre-Leuba that I wanted but it was way too expensive. By the way, my fascination with Favre-Leuba stemmed from the Singapore channel News where the time display before the news proper was sponsored by Favre-Leuba.
Anyway, twenty years on, my fascination with mechanical watches is still healthy and with the infinite resources of the Internet my knowledge has grown. In the beginning, there were no resources to speak of. No magazines, no clubs (that I knew of)., no support groups. As a result of this, my collecting only consisted of buying watches and wearing them occasionally,.When they broke...it was off to the watch-repair guy. Now I can take apart a watch and be reasonably confident that I can put it back together again in even better condition. This would not have been possible without the Internet.
Here I have to say I had some support from my friend who runs a watch shop in Port Dickson (where I live now). I got my first tools from him and he pointed me in the right direction, but the way businesses 'repair' watches and how it should be done is not the same. A typical watch repair business will do only what is necessary to get the watch running properly. It rarely extends to dismantling the watch completely, typically the balance and pallet-fork will be removed, the train pivots cleaned with lighter-fluid and oiled in-situ, and they whole thing re-assembled. Rarely is the main-spring barrel opened and the keyless works just get a bit of oil. There are definitely some good ones around but what I described above is typical. I can't really blame them as the supply of parts is very bad. You may be able to get some common parts but apart from that you'll be very lucky to get what you need. For example I've been trying to get a main-spring barrel for an AS1700 but no luck so far.
Thats all for today.. bye for now.
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