Hello i am looking for hand for a 1928 banker...i was wondering if any makes copies of these hands..Do the ones at Otto Frie work? i am not promoting the actually i called them once and the owner Frie Jr or whatever was kinda rude when i asked a question about blank hairsprings, he told me to build a timemachine and go back in time and buy factroy replacement parts..Anyway not important, does anyone have a remedy for replaceing these hands....thanks ahead of time
The humour in that is simply that vintage watch parts are very scarce and that you really need to have NOS vintage parts from the manufacturer and that if we could, we would go back and buy a tone of stuff. No company today is going to reverse engineer and re-produce vintage parts as there is just not a big enough market for that.
As to finding hands, Cathedrals especially will involve buying and scraping a parts watch for the hands and movement parts. Same deal for the hairsprings, mainsprings, gears, yokes, pinions etc. Save everything you have to scrap out, someday you'll need it.
doesn't work admin. Do You know how many cheap junkers I've purchased for Vintage Hands only to find it worth restoring.
It's a viscious circle...
: )
The probability of finding the correct Hands are next to nil, unless You're very lucky and find them tucked away in a parts 'lot' and any Collector will spot an incorrect (Swiss replacement) Hand from a mile away.
My advice: Buy one with Hands.
yeah i kinda thought it funny too when he said that but then i realize i am a customer and he was not trying to be funny,and rude..anyway, i get it that you can't just find vintage parts anywhere and buying a whole watch for the hands is a crap shoot anyway,no one gives measurements on the hands...i just thought maybe some company makes reproduction hands or someother type peroid hands that will work...i guess i will try etsy but i just tried that and now i have 15 dollars worth of useless old ladies watch hands,because....the seller didn't give measurements and didn't put anything next to them to scale them...i was hope somebody know something i didn't...BTW has anyone had any luck with Etsy, i sometimes find good dials and other things, but not too often
Isn't there a way to cut and make watch hands? what metal is used? i guess you would need a broach tool, or the tool that makes the hand opening larger, i know there is also a tool to make the opening smaller...has anyone had any luck making there own watch hands???