I bought the 2813 movement from Amazon to continue my journey in practicing watch disassembly and reassembly. In my previous blog, I shared how I got my first movement as a birthday gift, along with the tools to dive into this fascinating hobby. I’ve successfully disassembled and reassembled that initial movement multiple times, which gave me the confidence to try something new. While I’m not yet ready to tackle a damaged watch from eBay and attempt a resurrection, I felt confident enough to try my hand at a different movement—something cheap, accessible, and slightly more advanced.
That’s how I ended up with the 2813 movement. Surprisingly, it was significantly smaller than my first movement, which was 37mm. This one measured just 25.8mm. Not only was it smaller, but unlike my first movement, which came with a detailed YouTube tutorial, the online resources for this one were less helpful.
Now, let me make something clear: I love watches. I love this hobby. I dream of having all the watchmaking tools available and a dedicated workspace at home for my passion. But despite this enthusiasm, it took me two and a half months to gather the courage to tackle the 2813 movement. I wanted to build my confidence with the larger, simpler mechanism first. My first movement was a basic time-only mechanism without an automatic winding system—perfect for a beginner. The 2813, on the other hand, featured hours, minutes, seconds, a date wheel, and an automatic winding mechanism. Watching countless videos of others handling similar movements didn’t prepare me for the reality of doing it myself.
The first challenge I faced was the movement’s design. Unlike my initial movement, which had three separate bridges—one for the barrel, one for the escapement, and one for the gear train—this smaller movement had a single bridge for everything: the escapement, gear train, barrel, and automatic winding mechanism. This meant I had to align five pivot points under one bridge, a task far more complex than anything I’d done before.
Some of you might wonder why aligning these pivot points is so crucial. Without proper alignment, the gears won’t turn. In a gear train, each gear interacts with the next, so if even one is out of alignment, the entire train can jam. Similarly, if the barrel isn’t aligned with the winding gear, the watch won’t wind. While this concept is easy to explain, executing it on this particular movement is incredibly frustrating.
And here was my Achilles’ heel. For three days, I struggled to align those pivot points. On the first two days, I managed to align one or two points, but on the third day, I thought I was making progress. I aligned three points, then four—but as I moved my hand to secure the bridge, everything slipped, collapsing in a frustrating heap.
For those wondering after seeing the photo above—yes, I didn’t fully disassemble the movement. My initial plan was simply to remove the automatic winding mechanism and reattach it, unaware of the complexity waiting beneath. I planned to tackle this project step by step: first, remove and reattach the automatic winding mechanism; then move on to the dial side and reassemble it; and finally, completely disassemble and reassemble the entire movement, ensuring it worked perfectly.
My final attempt came as the evening shadows fell. I was tired, my patience was waning, and I mistakenly applied too much pressure to one of the wheels, bending it. Without the tools to fix it, I made the tough decision to disassemble the movement completely and store it for parts. My toolkit includes a small box for sorting spare parts, and now I have screws and components that might come in handy for future projects.
At one point during this ordeal, I wondered if my setup and tools were to blame for my struggles. I work at a simple desk, not a proper watchmaker’s bench like those featured in YouTube videos. While I use a Horotec watchmaker’s loupe, it didn’t seem powerful enough for this particular movement. For context, the YouTubers assembling this movement all used microscopes. That said, it’s often said that a bad craftsman blames their tools, so I won’t fall into that trap. The responsibility lies with me.
Despite this setback, I’m not giving up. The movement was cheap—it’s not an ETA, Sellita, or Seiko mechanism. I can afford to buy another and try again. Alternatively, I might challenge myself with a cheap Seiko movement. Either way, I’m determined to improve. I believe I understand what went wrong, and I want a second chance to get it right. After all, I’ve seen others successfully disassemble and reassemble this movement, so I know it’s possible. I ought to do it at least once.
In fact, when I shared my frustration on Reddit, a fellow watch enthusiast responded simply: “Keep calm and try again—it’s possible.” I suspect what he meant was: “Stop being a bitch and get back to it.” Fortunately, others’ comments were more understanding: “I did it once. Never again, I’d just buy a replacement” and “Been doing it recently on my late uncle’s watch, putting the train bridge drove me to insanity. Started wondering if 20$ was worth saving or not”. Both amusing and a little tragic at the same time.
Watchmaking is a labor of love, and even this fiasco hasn’t deterred me.
I love watchmaking.
Kindly,
Olaaf
