Customer Reviews

Watchmaking

5 star:		(9)
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This book contains the complete details of making a George Daniels watch, including the methods of fabricating and finishing every single part in the watch. George Daniels is thought by many to be the premier watchmaker in the world today, and in this book he details the methods he uses to make each component of his watches. Also included is a detailed description of the operation of gear trains, complications, and escapements, including the Daniels co-axial escapement. If you have any aspirations to watchmaking or just want to see how the absolute best are made, this is the definitive book. Wonderful color plates and technical drawings.

George Daniels, residing on the Isle of Man, (UK) is not only one of a handfull of people alive today who regularly make one-of-a-kind watches completly from strach by themselves (including dial, case, movement, hands etc), but he unquestionably is the most creative of the few who are truely "watchmakers" (rather than watch repaireres or workers in a watch factory.

The republishing of "Watchmaking", after it has been out of print for many years must be one of the outstanding events of this year in horological book publishing. Every serious watch collector around the world, who had been lusting for his own copy after seeing copies of older watchcollecting friends can now aford to buy his or her own copy, rather than pay the outrageous prices at antiquarian booksellers.

The book is undoubtedly the most important volume in currently in print (was promised for Jan 1999, finally first copies delivered in April 1999)for horologists and enthusiasts about craftsman made watches anywhere.

A "must" for anybody interested in watchmaking techniques and watchmaking technology.

Fortunat F. Mueller-Maerki Publisher of HOROLOGY - The Index

This is without a doubt the most technically complete book on *any* subject I have ever seen. Every design calculation is included; every tool used is drawn in clear precise line drawings; every motion of every tool used in every one of thousands of steps is succinctly, but completely, described. My god! When did he have time to make his watches?

And the motherlode: color photos of every important watch he has made AND hundreds upon hundreds of detail photos of various sections of the watches AND color photos of every piece of every movement! Just a cursory glance at just the unusual or beautiful photos takes hours!

I bought it because I thought it might help me get a start at cutting my own wheels (I want to build my own movement). But what I got was everything just short of George coming to my house and holding my hand. Unbelievable.

Buy this book if you want to work on watches. Buy this book if you want to look at pretty watches. Buy this book if you want to see the pinacle of engineering documentation. Buy this book!

This book is amazing. I have just received the latest edition, and cannot believe the wealth of detail and knowledge presented by George Daniels. This book is a masterwork, by a master of his art.

It's not just for watchmakers; anyone interested in any kind of precision fabrication, metalworking, metal finishing, or tool making will find much of value in this book. Mr. Daniel's writing style is straight forward and to the point, no wasted words. You will feel as if he is watching over your shoulder, patiently instructing you in exactly what to do, how to do it, and why you are doing it.

The book provides a level of detail that is stunning in its completeness, from making your own precision tools and using them, machining the parts, making your own polishing and grinding compounds, all the way to engraving and finishing, and finishing with constructing and using apparatus to test the accuracy of a watch.

This is an extremely detailed and thorough treatise on how to design, fabricate, decorate, and test a watch. The only way to get a better education at watch fabrication would be to apprentice yourself to George Daniels.

Highly, I say again, HIGHLY recommended.

All I can say is that this is a very well done book. It goes over almost anything that you would want to know about watchmaking from tools to turning and making small parts to escapement construction. While I am not a master watchmaker (in any way shape or form), I think it covers movement design in a very nice way. I very much like the chapter on the balance and spring. All and all this is a fine book that is worth having if you want to learn more about watchmaking and is a must have if you plan to put together a watch.

Even if you are not into watchmaking yourself, this book can make a very interesting and beautiful coffee table book. Numerous illustrations throughout the book with great precision and detail.

This is a pure horology book in technical level, providing comprehensive and illustrated steps, tools, methods of making every part and component in a watch, from screw to case. Complicated function components such as Tourbillon, Sesame Chain etc are included.
The wonderful masterpiece is a bible for horology technicians, watch fans. I will store it in my bookshelf forever, and read it for the whole life!
Which is certain is that it's not about an introduction and review to watch brands and types with interesting stories and color beautiful pictures. Say again: it's a PURE technical BIBLE!

This is arguably the last word in watchmaking, generously and clearly written and illustrated to provide just about every practical piece of information you need.

I have owned the Third Edition for some time, and was very excited to see an update, especially in the wake of Mr. Daniels' passing in October 2011. I was disappointed to find that the only updates seem to be two color photos of Mr. Daniels, eight small photos of his shop from 2010, and the changing of "fifty years" to "sixty years" in the Acknowledgements. The Preface is still called "Preface to the Third Edition." The table of contents and index are also identical.

So, if you are one of those lucky ones who already own the Third Edition, you're probably better off saving your money. If you weren't able to obtain one, and are somehow living without this amazing tome, you owe it to yourself to buy it now.

So, you were looking for a popular science book that explains to you how watches work. Bad luck, this is the wrong book. This book is really really technical. I mean, it has technical drawings of all the tools used to make a watch, plus of different parts of a watch. This book really wants to teach you how to make a watch. Is not a popular science book, and is not a book that tells you how to assemble a watch or where to buy the components from. Is not a textbook because it doesn't have formulae and exercises, but otherwise it feels like a textbook.

In general the book is printed on really beautiful paper and is very heavy. Most likely you'll waste the money on it, since it is impossible to read. At least you can see that watchmaking is complicated and you can have some fun showing it to some friends that come over.

I can't give it less than 5 stars because the author put so much effort into writing it, and is a serious book. Is also the only book around that explains something about watches.