After about 10 days of waiting, the IN-12 Nixie Clock Kit Manuela arrived at my door steps. I un-boxed it carefully and all the components were well packed and labelled.

On 29th Dec 2010, I took a day off from work and managed to complete this fine timepiece as shown in the pictures below. This is really a well designed clock. And it is extremely beautiful with the background LED On. Really enjoys every moment with it. I would definitely keep it as long as it last. Cheers!

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Before that, I had owned few mechanical watches and most does not last. Actually, I could not blame the watches as they are very cheap watches and thus never expect much from a S$40 mechanical watch. To date, I only owned one decent mechanical watch and it is an used Titoni Airmaster. Due to it is used; it also die on me. But, I will take some time off to get it service. As the movement for this watch is ETA 2836-2; it should be able to get the spare parts easily. 

Back to the shop…after viewing of the mechanical watches; my wife found one eye catcher watch from Seiko. Since, I always love mechanical watches she decided to get one for me. I am very touch by my wife. I will keep this watch for life and am sure it will last. Thanks to my wife for such a nice gift. A very nice Christmas gift. I am overjoy! Cheers!

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Horotec and A*F (Rub-Off) also have their own “Rodico”. I got a piece of the Horotec as per the picture below. It is softer than the Bergeon’s Rodico. Have not try the A*F Rub Off, will definitely try in the near future.

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This ETA Swiss automatic movements are durable, reliable, and last for a long time with proper maintenance. This trend has proven itself over the years. If you are looking for something entirely reliable, that you can just wear for years to come, then a watch based on this movement would probably be the best buy for you. Generally, for a automatic movement, it will never be able to over-wind as it has a clutch assembly on the mainspring to allow the mainspring to slip once the watch is fully wound. This Swiss ETA movement is a bi-directionally winding movement, which makes it very efficient. This means that whether the rotor turns clock-wise or counter-clockwise, it still winds the movement.

This ETA 2836-2 is a 28,800 BPH movement. BPH means Beat Per Hour. It also means the watch ticks and tocks 28,800 times per hour. Actually, it is the balance wheel which makes this number of swings clockwise and counter-clockwise every hour. Each swing is a “Tick” (or Tock) and the number per hour, divided by 60 minutes, and 60 seconds, will tell you how smooth the seconds hand runs. For the case of the ETA 2836-2, we have 8 “Ticks/Tocks” per second, and the hand will appear to “Sweep” across the dial, this is the smoothest you can get for this movement. I heard some could go as high as 36,000 BPH. But, I have yet to see one myself.

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This used Titoni Airmaster watch had just arrived. So far for about half a day, it still keep good time. The movement is ETA 2836-2. Heard this famous movement was from the 70′s and still in use today. The ticking sound is louder than all my other watches. I somehow like the simplicity of this watch. The day and date indicator changes at about 12 o’clock.

Notice that the clicking (usual tick-tok) sound from the movement is not very constant. I thought is like tick-tok, tick-tok, tick-tok..etc But for this watch; it is like tick, tick, tick, tong, tong, tick, tick ,tick,tick,tick, tong, tick…that means; No fix pattern of the clicking sound. Is this normal for ETA’s movement?

After 3 days later, the time was off and slower by about 3 minutes since the last adjustment. Maybe the beat is off? This time, I listen to the sound again carefully;  and it seem no “tok” sound; only “tick” and seem to ends with a with “tong” sounds; and all seem to merge together at times. Why is there a ‘tong’ sound? I am not sure as I never own any ETA’s movement before. I will find a chance to listen to a ETA’s to confirm if all this tick, tok or tong sound is normal.  Guess, I will leave as it is for now.

For the time being enjoys the pictures of my new watch below. Cheers!

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After a 10 days wait, my Bausch & Lomb 5x loupe came in yesterday. I got it from Uncle Larry in Canada. It stated there 5X. I am very happy with the quality of this used loupe. It is definitely better than my cheapo so called “10x” loupe. When do a comparison, the “10x” loupe does not seem to be 10x magnifiaction after all. My newly purchased B&L 5x loupe could have a better magnification anytime. It seem like the cheapo “10x” is actually only about 4x. For now, I will leave with this 5x loupe. In future, I will get a 7x or 10x for detail work.

For a start, I need some watch tools to begin with. So, I got myself a very simple watch repair tool set from eBay. I know it is not those tools of top quality but it maybe good enough for the start as hobby watch repair.

Yesterday, I just save S$30 as I managed to make one of my watch to work again by using these newly purchase watch repair tool set. To cut long story short, actually a watch shop quoted me for S$30 to get it repair. But now, I DIYed and it works. Total cost of this watch repair tool set is about S$90. So to make it worth, I only need to do two more of such repairs and this tool set will be free.

Generally, by looking at the tools, I know this is not a very good quality watch repair tools set. But it serve me well for the time being. However, for those serious about watch repair, it will be good to get a better tool set like those from Bergeon. I personally do not own any of the tools from Bergeon, but I heard good comments about them and will definitely get some of those Bergeon’s tools to try.

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