Quartz Conversions
Have your mechanical watch converted to quartz – professionally!
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Is your mechanical (wind-up or automatic) watch beyond repair eg parts are not available or the movement is rusty...or the repair is very expensive
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Are you tired of winding your old watch every day
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Are you looking for reliable timekeeping from your old watch?
Then, perhaps replacing the mechanical watch movement with a good quality quartz movement is the answer - we only use Swiss movements or metal Japanese or French movements (never plastic!).
Advantages
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Accurate timekeeping
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No need to wind watch – standard watch batteries are used which will need replacing every 2-3 years, can be done by any quality jewellers
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More robust – much less likely to be damaged by a fall
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No change in external appearance - original hands and winding crown kept in over 90% of cases
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The original movement is returned to you and can be re-fitted anytime and your watch restored to original state required in the future for any reason.
Our experience in having personally converted several hundred watches including Rotary, Tissot, Omega and many others results in us very rarely having to return a watch as unsuitable for conversion – this can happen where dials are very curved rather than flat, or the depth and/or shape of the watch case means we just can’t convert the watch successfully.
In some cases, the conversion to quartz will devalue the watch, but we will always advise you of this at time of estimate and leave you freely to make the ultimate decision.
We are proud of our experience and reputation and know you will be delighted with the end result, ie your original looking watch, keeping perfect time and the timepiece you want to enjoy wearing with confidence again.
How we carry out the watch conversion
First, we carefully remove the mechanical movement from the case of the watch by removing the winder and any special retaining screws/plates.
We will then lightly polish the case and bracelet (if fitted) as well as polish the glass, or indeed replace this if requested. The case (and bracelet) will then be cleaned in our ultrasonic cleaner.
Back at the movement, we carefully remove the hands and dial leaving the mechanical movement on its own which returned to you in a protected box. We always try and use the existing winding crown with the new quartz movement – if we cannot for any reason, then we will fit the nearest equivalent style.
We then compare the space available in the watch case and old movement dimension and select the most appropriate movement from our knowledge of currently available quartz movements.
If the original movement has a date (or day and date), we try and find a quartz movement that is compatible – if none is available, then we remove the original date ring and cement under the dial at a specific date (eg birthday).
We then secure the dial to the new movement with special stickers and cement and fit/adjust the original hands to the movement. Occasionally, we are forced to use new hands and try to keep this looking as near as possible to the original hands. The second hand is carefully aligned to be positioned inline with ‘seconds’ marked on the dial.
The new movement with dial and hands is then securely positioned in the watch case using the original or available spacers to take up any slack – if required, we will modify or make our own spacer so the movement will fit securely in its case.
Finally, we try to fit the original crown to the new quartz winding stem, using stem conversions if necessary.
The watch is then ready for a 3 phase testing programme which we carry out over a week:-
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Test in static position
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Test in our automatic watch winder
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Test on a special vibrating test unit
We carry out this to ensure the watch is operating perfectly under typical wear conditions.
If required, we can carry our waterproof testing to a minimum of 50m (sufficient for showering and general swimming).
When we are happy, we are then ready to send the watch back to you, giving a full 12 month guarantee.
How to Proceed
Please feel free to contact us by email (info@winskisofkinross.co.uk) with any queries or to inform me you are sending up a watch for an estimate of the actual conversion to be carried out.
We will always contact you by phone or email to let you know we have your watch and inform you of the cost to convert and the expected timescale for the repair - we always like to do this within 3 working days.
Normal turn-round is about 3 weeks, unless there is difficulty in obtaining an appropriate movement or during holiday periods.
Terms of Business
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All conversions are guaranteed for 1 year, subject to the usual exceptions of external damage or excess water ingress – a formal Guarantee will be enclosed along with receipt of payment
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Full payment will be required prior to posting the watch back to you, either by cheque (7 working days clearance is required) or by credit/debit card over the phone.
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All watches will be posted by ‘Special Delivery’ insured postage
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‘Quartz Conversions’ is protected by public and service liability insurance
Experience
I formally started in the family business in 1977, (Winski Bros, established in 1948) keenly learning the trade from my father and uncle in their successful jewellery businesses. There, I concentrated on watch repair and attended one of the earliest quartz watch repair courses run by the British Horological Institute (BHI) in 1978.
Although I pursued a career in the electronics industry for the next 20 years or so, I attended an updated BHI course on Quartz Watch Repair in 1995 and an Advanced Quartz Watch Repair course in 2002.
I re-established the family jewellers and watch repair business formally in 2001 at A J Winski Jewellers (see website www.winskisofkinross.co.uk) where I repaired mechanical and quartz watches for over 10 years. Within the first few months of opening the shop, we were asked to convert failed mechanical watches where it was either impossible or economically impractical to repair and developed our extensive knowledge and experience over 10 years in that business.
Since then, I opened up a new business called ‘Winski’s of Kinross’, specialising in watch and jewellery repair as well as custom-made jewellery and stocking pre-owned watches etc (see www.winskisofkinross.co.uk)
Setting up ‘Quartz Conversions’ has been a natural extension to this business where we have a separate workbench dedicated to the conversion of mechanical watches to quartz.