Fear and Loathing at the Amateur Watchmaker’s Desk

ROB MARRIAGE

It’s well after midnight now. Everyone else in the house is asleep. But here I am hunched over my desk, a narrow shaft of light from my magnifying glass the room’s only illumination as I try for what must be the 20th time to get the seconds hand mounted on the dial of this watch.

The last eight or so tries have resulted in me threatening to give up on the whole project and launch it through the window. But then I calm down and try again.

And again.

It’s not like I even have a deadline or anything. It’s just that I ordered these parts so long ago, and I’m so excited to build my next watch that I can’t go to bed. Not until I’ve made some real progress on this thing.

The “thing” will be a homemade Seiko SKX007 automatic watch with a date and day-of-the-week window, domed crystal, ceramic bezel, and Mercedes hands. It’s going to be awesome. Or garbage. It all depends on if I can get this seconds hand installed.

Seikos, especially the SKX models, are by far the most modified watches. This is mostly because of their quality, affordability, and interoperability of their parts. But also because they can look so damn cool.

I stumbled on to the hobby of making and modifying watches quite by accident. I had been looking for relaxing videos to watch on YouTube and found one promising an ASMR experience while viewing a watchmaker at work. Soon I was clicking on videos of Patek Phillipe and Rolex watches being built by hand in Geneva, and Chinese watches being built by robots in Guangzhou factories. At some point I watched an amateur with a rudimentary set of tools swap out a bezel for a new one he bought from a parts supplier.

I was mesmerized, and found myself watching and reading anything I could find online about making and modding my own watch. I knew right away that I had to try it myself. You see, if you had asked me a couple years ago what I did for fun, or what my hobbies were, I probably would have looked at you blankly for a few seconds and then replied “I dunno, work? Sleep?”

I had been self-employed for more than 10 years and things like hobbies were simply not a part of my day. I woke up, I worked, I broke for dinner, I went back to work, and I slept. There simply was no time for hobbies.

Luckily after coming to terms with the fact that this lifestyle wasn’t working, I left self employment behind and got a dreaded job. And now rather than working morning, noon and night, I give my employer eight hours of my day, and in return I get a living wage and, more importantly, time.

Time. The truth is I’ve been obsessed with time for most of my life. Depending on one’s state of mind, a clock’s ticking can be a comfort, bringing a constant pedantic order to the chaos of life. Or it can be the stuff of kafkaesque nightmares as you realize that each tick represents a second that you’ll never experience again, and there’s nothing you can do about it. Have you ever wondered how many seconds you’ll live? I have. It’s probably going to be around 2.5 billion. That sounds like a lot, but consider 31.5 million seconds tick off every year. You spent about 10 million of those seconds sleeping.

Before I start reciting the lyrics to Seasons of Love from Rent, I return my focus back to this seconds hand. If I can just get that set, I’ll be ready to put the whole assembly into the case, and then show it off to… well, no one. Not until the morning anyway.

And that’s OK. I may be alone in my office tonight, but I’m part of a growing community of watch modding enthusiasts. Consider the r/watchmodding subreddit has 2400 members and the r/SeikoMods subreddit has almost a whopping 48,000 members.

And they’ve all struggled with putting the tiny seconds hand on the even tinier pinion.

Besides forums like these, there are numerous parts suppliers like Namoki Mods, Crystal Times, and DLW Watches to name a few. There are companies that will sell you your mounted magnifying glass, first watch-building kit (DIY Watch Club for example), and a genuine YouTube rock star, Eric Yoon of Lume Shot who creates highly produced videos of his builds for his 126,000 subscribers.

Well I’m no Eric Yoon. I’m just a guy in his house with a pair of tweezers, a desk, and dwindling patience.

I wonder aloud if there’s a trick to it. Something I’ve overlooked? I turn to my computer and do a quick search on r/SekioMods…

Oh yes, I’m not alone. This is a common struggle, especially for newbies like myself.

“Take your time and don’t give up,” reads a cheerful though not really helpful message

“Use Rodico,” (a special type of putty) a member suggests.

Another member cautions against Rodico. “It can ruin the lume,” they warn.

One member has gone so far as to draw diagrams with step-bystep instructions. This seems to be the most promising.

I do love this community. People post pictures of their builds all the time and open them up to criticism. Sure you’ll read comments like, “why do you have a 60 minute bezel on a GMT?” but unlike the rest of Reddit, people seem to say nothing at all if they have nothing good to say about your build. I still haven’t posted though, embarrassed by my obvious amateur results.

Finally I set the seconds hand on top of the pinion and give it a push. I think I hear a click! I push the winding stem in, and… the seconds hand suddenly moves!

I hear ticking as it begins it’s first of hopefully many journeys around the dial.

From here on out it’s simple - remove the stem, put the case over the dial and movement assembly, trim the stem, reinsert it, flip the whole thing over and tighten the caseback.

As I set the current time, I realize it’s after 1 am.

I tip toe into bed, turn off the light, pull out my phone and check the delivery status of the next batch of parts. Then I browse dials and cases until nodding off.

Rob Marriage started life in the suburbs of London, England, where he reluctantly attended Abbotts Hall County Infants School and then Abbotts Hall County Juniors School. All he knew of the US during the first half of his childhood was what he saw on American TV shows like “Starsky and Hutch” and “CHiPs.” In 1983, his parents announced the family was moving to the US and young Rob began preparing himself for a life of guns and car chases. This was all for nought though as it turned out that Grand Island, New York was nothing like the freeways of Los Angeles. After graduating from Grand Island High School, Rob went on to a SUNY school just far enough away from home that he had to live on campus. There he studied for a career in the lucrative field of journalism. He received his diploma at about the same time as mass layoffs were occurring in newsrooms around the country. He now works in IT and lives in Rochester NY with his beautiful wife, adoring son, obedient dog, and a growing collection of homemade watches.

Rob occasionally posts pictures of the watches he builds on Instagram.