Speaks volumes that presumably everyone still involved with Your Party believes there's a way back from "MP who announced party launch threatens to sue presumptive party leader"

A time lapse of me dressing 3 sets of tweezers

Now it's over I think this was the defining moment of Your Party

Lmao

Your Party (July - September 2025)

Vintage mechanical watches currently for sale via my eBay include: A Seiko 5 from approx 1980 A gold plated women's Citizen A women's Sekonda manufactured in the USSR All are in working order.

you did your best to have as many high information people on that march at least fella x

More assembly of the Elgin 485

After much adjustment & readjustment this balance is running as it should. Mechanical watchmaking is not so very different to what it was almost 100 years ago, but it's now much easier. On modern, shock-protected movements this is a much quicker, relatively hassle free job

Identified a major fault during reassembly. One of the cap jewels is cracked - one likely cause of it stopping and starting. This photo is taken at maximum magnification under the microscope

The Elgin from 1931 features a blue hairspring with a Breguet overcoil. Blued hairsprings were phased out due to being more susceptible to magnetism, and less robust than modern alloys - they are however, very pretty

New mainspring installed in an Elgin from 1931

Was talking to a guy who was interested in watchmaking at a party the other night, started showing him photos of my work and swiped across this

My favourite vintage watch I've come across this year is this Raketa, made in the USSR. The bezel flips open when the crown is pushed, enabling the visually impaired to feel what time it is

The Seiko 6119C quick set date function

7 hours of work later: success

My first attempt at resetting pallet stones

Was chatting to one of my most brilliant Physics students yesterday and he had no idea how mechanical watches work and was fascinated by the fact that they make use of such basic Physics principles and the history of how watchmakers have overcome various limitations on accuracy. Shared this with him

Due to the heat, some work is best left til late at night. Like hand polishing this case back

Seiko 6119C disassembled

Pov: you are being told off on Bluesky

A custom pocket watch I assembled for a friend of mine who's getting married. I'm really pleased with how it's turned out.

Now for sale: the Elgin from 1921 with a new crystal, bow, and chain fitted

New crystal installed on this Elgin. Once I've sourced a bow it will be for sale

Practicing the most important part of watchmaking: repeatability. For this I picked up a PT5000, the clone of the ETA 2824-2 (and the Sellita SW200 - the last movement I serviced).

Time lapse of my first time using this

Something a bit different from my usual repair projects: an old German aircraft clock

Finished servicing the Dreyfuss & Co watch with a Sellita SW200 movement. It's now back with its owner who is very happy with the job I did

Another new (vintage) tool I won at auction. It's a jacot lathe, used to adjust the profile of pivots. It will enable me to fix more vintage watches without requiring as many spare parts

After finishing a service a watch must be regulated for timekeeping. The way this is done is by measuring the movement on a timegrapher in different positions. Once an average rate, known as a Delta, is established, the goal is to get it as close to 0 as possible.

My most used watchmaking tweezers

Dressing tweezers: before

Another antique American pocket watch. This Waltham is approximately 117 years old

The escapement of the Poljot after lubrication - difficult to make out even under this high magnification but what a watchmaker looks for is a small amount of oil in between the right pallet jewel and each tooth of the escape wheel

The Soviet Poljot 2609 movement is now running again. As well as a full clean, it needed: a new balance, a new mainspring & barrel, a new click, and various other new parts

Latest pick up. This Elgin is around 104 years old, and has clearly been lovingly maintained. It will be for sale once I've installed a new crystal, and tested it for timekeeping

An example of this from a Russian Poljot 2609 movement I am working on. If you can't see the backlash in the train of wheels from the video, you can hear it. Minimal friction is present in this movement and so reassembly & lubrication can continue

The results of such fine adjustments can be observed in 2 ways. The first is under the microscope. Pic 1 shows the third wheel pivot not quite seated in its lower jewel. Pic 2 shows the same pivot after adjustment seated correctly in its lower jewel

Carried out as much manipulation as the wheel would bear. It's not where I would want it to be, but it's an improvement on where it was

The main fault with the PUW 1260: the third wheel is severely out of true. Like a bike, the wheels of a watch have to be straight for it to run properly - it may run (badly) if the wheel is only slightly bent, but it will not run if it is as wonky as this

Some more photos from the PUW 1260 reassembly. Pic 1 shows the ratchet wheel and click, this movement is unusual as they are fitted to the underside of the main bridge. Usually they're on top Pic 2 shows why the watch was not working: there is a significant amount of wear to the third wheel pivot

Reassembly of the mainspring barrel (PUW 1260) The old mainspring (pic 1) was broken at the bridal and needed to be replaced.

My new (vintage) watch cleaning machine in action

Part of working on new and unfamiliar movements means taking, and labelling, many photos. Without such labels, the movements are much more challenging to reassemble. This is a German PUW 1260 movement. The first automatic movement I've serviced

Today's work: practicing disassembling and reassembling the automatic winding module in this fake ETA 2824.