Restoring a Vintage Rolex GMT

I collect watches, and have an interest in them generally. This is a pretty thorough example of how a watch is disassembled and "restored".

(Retitled, against policy, because the original one doesn't summerize it appropriately.)

Why the quotes? Is it similar to other collectibles like coins where you must keep the patina or it loses value?

Personally I love these channels where they fix old stuff be it electronic, mechanical or paintings

I bought a Seiko automatic that I wore for a while, until it stopped -- I think I got some sand in it.

The watch shop asked for more than the cost of the watch to service it, so I watched a few videos and tried to do it myself.

Make no mistake, those gears are TINY. Insanely so. I had imagined that I'd put them into place carefully, lining up the teeth... But they're so small it's closer to "well I dropped you into place and bumped you a few times and it seems good now".

I got the watch to run, but somehow messed up the date window. Fiddlesticks.

I've just gotten into this hobby and the pivots on these watches are around the 0.01mm range with the individual teeth coming in around that size too. So might be that 0.1mm brass cutting could do the trick, if you finesse it right. From what I've been reading/watching, lots of classical jewelry education focused on learning how to manufacture extremely precise tools to shape, mill, and manipulate various materials.

I had extremely limited success replicating a gear using a 0.3mm FDM Cartesian 3d printer, but even then I had to manually shave off every single tooth under a loupe.

Old "tools" like vintage watches, cameras, etc are pretty cool. In my experience they were built to be more serviceable, but also due to less precise manufacturing, there were seemingly a lot more tolerances built into the designs. It's great watching people restore Rolexes, Leicas, etc.

Similar to the video here, I have my grandfathers Rolex. He wore it while trimming hedges and doing all sorts of yard work. Why not, it was his only watch and he needed to tell the time! If it's so good it ought to be able to stand up to the abuse! It's also not like he serviced it regularly, and after being in a safe for 20 years after his passing, I put it on, moved around for a day with it.. and it started to keep time about as accurately as specified.

These days you see the exact opposite behavior. Everyone has just become so precious about their goods. "It's really expensive so I need to protect it / use it sparingly / use great caution". Look at the entire ecosystem of protective cases for iPhones/Apple Watches/etc. On upscale cars you have the obsession with paint protection films, ceramic coatings, etc.

In some cases its warranted - we got my wife a (not Rolex) expensive watch 10 years ago, and the thing has had to go in for service every 2-3 years for weeks at a time to get it to keep time properly. Even if some companies like Tesla have notoriously thin paint, no ones cars are rusting in 5 years like they did in the 80s.