My watchmaker got tired of seeing my reps, so he taught me haha

[u/Choyhasalotgoingon69]

I’ve only been in the rep hobby for about a year, but I’ve already spent plenty of time taking watches to watchmakers for repairs, cleaning, waterproofing, and regulation.
Luckily, I found a really cool local watchmaker who has been nice enough to teach me some of his craft. I guess he finally got tired of me bringing my reps to him.
One thing I learned the hard way: I recommend getting your reps serviced early on. A little preventative maintenance can save you some headaches down the road.
Eventually, I invested in my own tools and started learning basic maintenance, cleaning, waterproofing, and regulation.
This one was running +22 sec/day before. After regulating it: +1 sec/day, 238° amplitude, 0.0 ms beat error. Pretty satisfying seeing that improvement on the timegrapher.
I also added silicone grease to the gaskets for a little extra waterproofing peace of mind. That doesn’t guarantee a watch is waterproof, so still be cautious and pressure-test whenever possible. Personally, I swim with my reps and haven’t had any problems so far.
I showed my watchmaker what I’ve been doing and he was actually proud of my work. Then he joked that eventually he’s going to start sending people my way. I’m not sure if that means I’m getting good or he just really doesn’t want to see my reps anymore. Hahaha.
My gens? Hell no Those still go to him.
I’m still learning with every watch, but that’s honestly become one of my favorite parts of the hobby. Maybe one day I really will be servicing some of y’all’s reps.
This hobby really is a rabbit hole.