The Watchmaker's Bench: A Complete Illustrated Manual of Watch Servicing & Restoration (Horological Atlas)

Expanded edition with 122 figures, including step-by-step technical drawings for every core procedure.

Most watch repair books open with a movement. This one opens with the bench, because far more watches are ruined by a slipped screwdriver, a launched spring or a bent hairspring than by a wrong diagnosis. From there it takes you through the three families of movement in order of consequence: quartz first, where steady hands are learned cheaply, then mechanical, then automatic.

Every procedure is a numbered sequence with its own drawing. Opening snap and screw casebacks, removing the movement from the case, battery replacement and contact cleaning, testing the coil with a multimeter, letting the mainspring down safely, removing the balance and pallet fork, cleaning, oiling the escapement, reassembly with checks, fitting a mainspring with a winder, correcting beat error, casing up, spring bars and crystals.

Quartz troubleshooting that starts with the cheapest cause: the signal chain from cell to hands, a non-runner flowchart, coil readings, and when to replace a movement instead of repairing it. Mechanical servicing in the right order: fragility first on the way apart, two cheap checks on the way back together, and a lubrication map you can read at a glance. Reading a timing machine: rate, amplitude, beat error and lift angle, trace patterns, the positional check, and why you regulate last. Automatics, calendars and chronographs: how reversers wind, the date-change danger window, and how a hammer and heart cam return a chronograph to zero. Honest workmanship: resealing, water resistance stated plainly, case finishing without over-polishing, and a handover the owner can trust. Written for the hobbyist servicing a first movement at the kitchen table, the collector who wants to understand what a service involves, and the improver who already owns the tools and wants a method. A glossary of 46 bench terms closes the book.

Please note: the procedural figures are clear technical drawings made for this book, alongside a smaller number of illustrative images. Drawings show the principle of each step on a generic movement; always check the service data for your own calibre.