It started with an iPad for Christmas...

Did not fall into the pit,jumped into the murky waters of bidding online. Much wiser after finding this site.

With respect, the best quote found is copied below:
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posted October 28, 2010 11:05

"In my experience, the wisdom of a 'knowledgeable collector' is only gained through years of participation in the hobby, reading, observing, trading watches and most importantly, exchanging information with other collectors.

Exchanging knowledge is why we have the PITFALLS section of IHC185. Read the postings here carefully. In time you will acquire the wisdom you seek.

Best Regards,

Ed"
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The journey now is to read,collect tools and practice.
Pleased to be part of a group that respects beautiful sublime machines.
will post pics of 7 mistakes or lucky finds from new fan later.
Mike

Welcome Mike .
IHC185 is the place to be friendly,polite and full of very great people that are aways here to help.
It might be wise to spend $12 and be full member with access to our mart and other sub forum for members.

Bought the book and membership. In for the haul.

Welcome Mike,

Great to have another fellow enthusiast on board. To echo Peter's comments this is a great place to learn and grow with!

The power of knowledge is the square of the number of people who share it. Welcome

Hi Mike, welcome. I am very new to IHC185 myself. Take the time to read the back pages of the Pocket Watch Discussion topics. It's well worth the learning experience and there is now only 106 pages.
Rick

Welcome to 185, Mike.

Thank you all for the warm welcome.
The benefit of being new is there are no stupid questions.
So any wild guesses. What percentage of collectors work on their own stuff.
Mike

100% at least polish and clean. Of our membership, I am guessing 10-15% can disassemble and clean a watch, and 5-10% can repair them with some level of skill.

Thanks David.

hi Mike, i joined IHC just over a month ago completely green. my aim is to learn to clean and repair them and with the help of the incredibly friendly and helpful people here i have already learned a lot. and these beautiful old machines are so much fun to work on.
todd

Mike and Todd, - and anyone else for that matter.

Welcome aboard. Once you get in to opening up your watches and begin to venture inside, a whole new world of excitement and challenges come at you.

The early advise I got was to buy up some distressed movements in my area of interest... Distressed 7j 16s pocket watch movements are available for a song... worth every penny in training value, and teach you 90% of what you need to know to go in to almost any 12s/16s/18s watch. Open them up, practice tearing them down and getting them going.

When I get "stuck"... outside my experience level or tooling... I can post in the technical section, Watch or Clock repair Questions and Answers. Sometimes, a search of this section will provide the answer to my question in an earlier post. Otherwise, one of the guys will chime in and offer guidance.

Over time, I've built relationships with a few of the guys with different areas of interest or expertise that I can call direct when I have a question.

In my case, you are more than welcome to click on my profile, find my email address and get as far in the grass as you need... if it helps, we can swap phone numbers via email and talk through your question.

I'm in Dave's 5-10% category with heavy emphasis on "some level of skill"... I've killed my fair share of pivots/hair springs and am not in the same league as Mr. Nolfe or Mr. Able. But for a hobby enthusiast, I get along pretty well.

Hi Todd, it seems you jumped right into disassemby, way to go. I am still gathering tools. The posts on this site discuss tweezers and screwdrivers well. The cheap are worthless and the quality ones are $$$. I will post to wanted to buy the used vintage as funds allow (went a little off getting 7 lovely pieces in a 3 week period).

Thanks Paul.

There is a ton of information in this post to digest... the rest is learned through wallet cramps.

https://ihc185.infopop.cc/eve/f...6044861/m/1243927977

mike, i have bought just junk watches so far. and a lot of tools. i dont care what the watches look like at this point, i just want the movement for practice. i look for"runs for a while and stops" as i think this means it just needs a good cleaning. got one running this way and learned a lot in the process.
Todd

Todd
Agreed watches may come and go. Good tools and skill by practice last forever.

I am also a relatively new member and I have found tons of information when I have read old posts in the many topics that can be found in the forums. There are many very helpful people in this club.