I'm lucky enough to have a guy who specializes in vintage watches near me but he's pretty much out of the repair side now and has a guy who is basically an advanced collector doing the actual work. He's good but needs direction. They've been talking about closing the shop for a couple years now and if they do I'm not sure what I'll do. There's another guy in town who is a master watchmaker but his prices will take your breath away.

I had this old Waltham from the late 1800s and it wasn't working too good so I took it in and we pulled out the staff and balance assembly and it was obvious the staff had broken at some point and someone took a fine nail and ground it down and used that for a staff. Even in the old days when guys were competent plenty of jury rigging was done on these watches.