This blog explores watch adjusting, the venerable craft of making watches run accurately in many positions. We focus on vintage watches, especially American wristwatches and pocket watches from roughly 1880 to 1960.
Surprisingly little information on adjusting watches is on the web, and it is scattered around dozens of web pages and hundreds of forum posts. This blog will teach you how to adjust your watch, from start to finish. We’ll review the basic principles of adjustment, describe essential tools, and demonstrate watches being adjusted.
We’ll focus on positional timing—adjusting a watch so that it is equally accurate in more than one position—but we’ll occasionally consider adjustments for temperature and isochronism.
I assume that you know some basic watchmaking and can already clean and oil a watch. This blog takes the next step of showing how to adjust your watch to keep accurate time across several positions.
If you’re new to adjusting, start with the “Dynamic Poising How-To” series. Otherwise, just use the search feature to find what you need.
This blog is a non-commercial academic and educational project devoted to the craft and history of watchmaking. It has no ads, sponsors, or affiliate links.
About Me
I’m Paul, college professor and writer by day, watch adjuster by evening and weekend. If you have questions, comments, corrections, or ideas for posts, I’d love to hear them. You can get in touch with the contact form below.