How much wood...

[automatico]

could a woodchuck chuck,

Poster:   "He is an independent CW21 watchmaker with a Rolex parts account. He has over 30 years experience and has serviced over 10K Rolex watches."

The guy who did it:   "I average over 600 watches a year times 30 is 18000 watches, a good watchmaker can service 3 to 5 movements a day just in case you wanted to know."

http://www.rolexforums.com/showthread.php?t=431991

 

...if a woodchuck chukked all day?

A friend had a repair shop and he could turn out about 3 automatic calendar watches a day if he stayed at the bench 8 hours, not counting breaks. But...he had a helper (sometimes two counting me) who removed the movements, looked them over, took them apart, put them in an L&R Ultramatic Ultrasonic cleaning machine, and put them on the bench after they were clean and dry. When a movement was back together it had to be timed, dial/hands fitted etc while the case/bracelet work had to be done (plus steam cleaning) by the helper and ready for the movement. If the movement needed extra work (trouble shooting, balance staff, straighten hairspring, tighten cp, replace rotor axle etc) the repair took a LOT longer. As for case work...changing case tubes and crystals, cleaning bracelets, inspecting everything etc takes more time plus a pressure test or two. If one guy c/o a modern submariner plus all case work by himself from start to finish, they would be very lucky to get one finished per day with no snags at all...and 2 or 3 cans of Red Bull (imho).

If it was the NN2813...maybe one a week.  

 

 

 

[QueTip]

Lol, that sounds crazy man

[SSTEEL]

Crazy, and something that cannot be compared to reps, nothing ever goes straight forward with servicing, or anything else for that matter.  Today, I have serviced two 7750, and three 2824-2 movements.  Ok, stripped them down, and put them through my Elma watch parts cleaner, tomorrow they will be reassembled.

[Nanuq]

I could do 100 movements a day and still have time for beer and brats.  It's simple:

1. Dunk movement in bucket of gasoline
2. Blow dry with air compressor
3. Spray liberally with WD-40.
4. Next
    

[SSTEEL]

I could do 100 movements a day and still have time for beer and brats.  It's simple:

1. Dunk movement in bucket of gasoline
2. Blow dry with air compressor
3. Spray liberally with WD-40.
4. Next
    

That sounds like what I come across almost weekly these days, its as if someone has literally sprayed WD40 run there thinking its done, and a good thing lol

Edited October 28, 2015 by SSTEEL

[lhooq]

But it takes a year to build a Rolex!!!

[automatico]

"But it takes a year to build a Rolex!!!"   

And 5 years to pay for one.  

[nick1972]

"But it takes a year to build a Rolex!!!"   

And 5 years to pay for one.  

Haha

[Original Scope]

That's pretty slow.I can break one in less than five minutes!

[Dlf]

The latter is pretty much bang on, totally agree. 

[Nightwatch]

Taking off the weekends and some 20 other days for holidays etc. if he averages 2.5 watches per day, he does those 600. If he does work routinely on the same lets say 3 types of movement and 500 of the 600 are really just routine service and replacement of the mainspring&crown the remaining 100 he can spend more time working on complicated issues.

If being paid on a - per watch-basis - and having a solid client base it´s a huge incentive.

Hobbywise after 2 hours max doing something on a watch I will quit and do something else.