Anyone here do it?  Looking for some advice on tools and such.  Great vid over on wristwatch revival where he goes over tools and which ones you can go cheap on, but just looking to see if someone here is actually doing it.

Thx

Tools are wicked expensive!

You need a steady hand, Like Jedi steady.

I was going to suggest you watch Wristwatch revival but you already did.

As said the tools are crazy money.  Mainspring winding tool set is $800+ alone.

There is a trade school in Paris Texas.
It is a 18 month class

They also teach jewelry repair.

There is a two year watch school in Quincy Illinois, but I'd be doing this as a hobby.  I currently do clock repair (Cuckoo, Mantle, Grandfather, Grandmother) for a local clock company.  That's my "day job"....this would just be for extra fun.

I'm starting to troll ebay/Amazon for some tools as well as Ebay for some junker/broken automatic watches....

I've entertained this idea as well. I think it would be super interesting and you would learn so much by actually doing it. Talking with my watchmaker friends, they say working on a watch vs a clock are two completely different things.

Tools can get super expensive and you don't know what you don't know. This typically lands you in the position of buying tools that you may not need and coming up with additional cost.

Honestly, I would start with purchasing some old pocket watches and trying to fix them. Pocket watch movements are larger than wrist watch movements so things are easier to work on. Learn to fix broken balance staff pivots 9 times out of 10 that's all they need.

Depending on the type of watches you want to repair, you can get into serious money just in tools. It might be difficult to see a reasonable return on investment on the equipment you'd need as a hobbyist.

All that being said, I think it would be a super fun hobby and very rewarding.

love watching guys do it but too many tiny parts. yesterday put down an AR front sling swivel while i made a rivet for it and now can't find it.  I expect the only way to find it is to place the order for another.  
how does someone make those screws?  or for that matter, the tools used to make the screws?/

I recommend starting out with a watch repair book.  There are several that can get you started.....

"Watch Repair as a Hobby" by D.W. Fletcher, and the old stand by "The Watch Repairer's Manual" by Henry Fried are very good.

Do a search on Amazon for "watch repair" and a number of good books are listed.

A good start is to pick up an old 18 size low jewel pocket movement to learn on.
This is how you start in watchmaker's school, with an old Elgin or other American made 7 jewel 18 size pocket movement that you take apart and reassemble.
You don't have to buy a lot of really expensive tools to start, just get a good Swiss made screwdriver set, some #3 non-magnetic tweezers,  a good loupe, a hand puller, etc.
Add tools as needed.

When/if you buy a staking set, buy a good used K&D/Marshall/Mosley type on eBay.
K&D made these for other sellers under various names but the type of tool was the same.  Other brands are often junky.

You'll need a bench or table top you can set on a bench to raise the work to eye level with no straining, and buy a GOOD powerful bench light.
Cover the top of the work area with either white poster board or a piece of light green or blue synthetic.

Buy a small ultrasonic cleaner, and some glass oiler pipettes.  Buy some synthetic watch oil.  Buy small cans of watch cleaner and rinse.

yeah the tools are restrictive..  I've fooled around with watches, movement swaps, dial and hand swaps. I tried to take down a seiko 6309 movements.. had it all apart on the table with all the parts marked.. someone knocked the table and that was all she wrote.

Wristwatch Revival is a good one.. guy must be loaded though, he does watches "for fun" and has all the top swiss tools.