Swatch-Omega Speedmaster MoonSwatch 1965

I restrained myself on our recent trip to Europe. I didn't buy an expensive watch. I may have in the past given in to such excessive-ness but this time I didn't. I should get at least a half of a brownie point for that. Notice though that I didn't say that I didn't buy a watch, because I did. It's a bit different than your normal watch. It is a Swatch brand quartz chronograph styled after the famous Omega Speedmaster Professional "moon watch", which is a hand-wind mechanical chronograph that was the first watch worn on the moon back in 1969. Swatch calls this the Speedmaster MoonSwatch. This first photo is not of my watch but is something I grabbed from the Swatch website (I'm sure they don't mind). My phone doesn't take photos this good.

Seagull ST3601 Manual Wind Watch "Kit" from AliExpress

This is a first for me. I ordered parts from AliExpress to build a watch. I know everything is made in China, but I wanted to see what the quality was like for things that are so very cheap. I bought a Seagull ST3601 hand-wind movement with a swan neck regulator (cool!), a stainless steel case with sapphire crystal and mineral glass display back, a black dial, two sets of hands (black and white) so I could have an option if I didn't like one set, and a brown leather watch strap.

Epos Triple Date Moon Phase Chronograph, Valjoux 7751 Movement, Minor Adjustment

I don't do much tinkering with watches anymore since I have Familial (or Essential) Tremor. As the name implies, it causes shaky hands and is passed down from parent to child. Lucky me. Anyway, this Epos watch was bought in 1999 (for a whopping sum at the time of $697) after we'd paid off our house loan. It was a time to celebrate and my wife and I each decided to splurge on something nice. This is what I chose to buy. It had been having minute-counter issues for a number of years. When the chronograph was started, the central seconds hand would go round-and-round as it should but the minute counter would haphazardly either count or not count up the minutes (and since the hour counter was tied to the minute counter, its movement was also intermittent).

I didn't wear the watch much lately because I'd gotten other nicer watches over the years but I pulled the Epos out a few days ago to wear it. That's when I decided to try and fix the problem. It is not a small task to delve into an automatic chronograph movement, and it is compounded immensely by both shaky hands and the fact that this chronograph is additionally complicated with a 24-hour pointer, triple-date (day/date/month) functions and moon phase. I'd watched several videos on YouTube prior to taking the plunge, so I figured I knew pretty much what the problem was and how deep into the watch's bowels I had to go.

Blast From The Past - Part II

Blast From The Past Part II, this time from 2005.

Fabricating A Display or Exhibition Back For My Vintage Omega Seamaster 30

Blast From The Past - Part I

I ran across several web pages I'd done back in the 1999 to early 2000's time frame, long before I ever thought about having a blog site (almost at the inception of the internet.... OK, maybe not). Reading through the pages, I thought it would be fun to reproduce some of them on this blog before they got lost to oblivion. So I'm calling these pages Blast From The Past. Back then my main hobby was wrist watches. My grandfather was a watch repairman, so I guess it was only natural that I had more than a passing interest in mechanical watches.

Back then I was hosting my pages on a free website server (freeservers.com) but haven't done anything to the pages for close to 15 years. I am actually surprised they are still out there in the ether. This first Blast post discusses how others (like-minded folks on Watchnet.com and Timezone.com that I frequented back then) could make display backs as I'd done for a few of my watches. I'd purchased a Harbor Freight 7x10 mini lathe in part to do the work. I do still have the lathe but don't know if I could do the same type of delicate work now...

The photos from back then are nothing to write home about but they hopefully get the point across. So without further ado, following is a web post I created in 2003.

How To Make A Display or Exhibition Back For Your Vintage Watch

Photos, scans and text Copyright 2003