First time using my tools! 🛠️ Diagnosed two HMTs, but the Citizen is officially a casualty 💀 (Plus a 3 AM dorm room scavenger hunt)
Hey everyone! I recently got my first set of watchmaking tools and decided to finally dive into disassembly right at my college dorm desk. 🏫 I picked up these three vintage watches dirt cheap to serve as my first project pieces: an HMT Kohinoor, an HMT Pilot, and a vintage Citizen. ⌚
First lesson learned: tweezers and tiny screws are a deadly combination. 🤦♂️ I spent half the night at 3 AM crawling around searching for parts that pinged off into the void. I basically had to overhaul my entire room just to find them! 🔦🔍
After surviving the chaos and inspecting the movements, here is the verdict:
HMT Kohinoor: The pallet fork is broken and needs to be reset with shellac. 🔬
HMT Pilot: The mainspring is completely snapped. 💥
Citizen: I found an issue with the pallet wheel, but honestly... I definitely broke some extra parts while taking it apart, and I don't think I can ever assemble it again. RIP to the Citizen. 😭🪦
Since this is my first time doing this, I'm a bit stuck on the next steps for the survivors. Does anyone have tips on applying shellac for the HMT pallet fork, or recommendations on where to source a replacement mainspring for the Pilot? ⚙️ Any advice for a beginner trying not to destroy any more movements (or lose any more screws) would be hugely appreciated! 🙏