Greetings all;

My name is Julie. I have been collecting Omega watches and ephemera since the 1990s. At the time I worked for Apple. My expertise is in the postscript printing language. I was what they called a 'Postscript Guru.'

My real interest is in the Jaquet-Droz automatons. Which I have extensively studied and am building a replica. I was also a member of the NAWCC during the 1990s and secretary of the San Francisco chapter. I have a complete watch shop which I collected. Sadly I was told I was to old (when in my 30s) for WOSTEP. So I never got any formal training.

After I aged out of the tech industry at 40, I took up working on pipe organs. specifically fairground organs. I use my watch bench to work on microelectronics. What are called microcontrollers. I design and repair relay systems for theater pipe organs. Some of this involves scanning the old paper rolls (and books) which are then converted to MIDI.

I have not done much with my watches in the last 15 to 18 years. Recently I was invited to Bern to give a lecture on piano roll scanning with postscript at the Hochshule der Kunst. I did not have time to get to Bienne, but last a last minute change of plan did get me a day trip to Neuchâtel.

Part of the reason I stopped working on watches was I needed a mainspring for a caliber 650. The recent trip revived interest in my Omega collection which is comprehensive. I have been watching you tube repair videos and am considering updating some tools and getting back into watchmaking. Sadly I have lost the click for the 650. I found a movement on ebay - so we will see how that goes.

I never liked any watch stuff online, as the first spammers used watches as goats to attract attention. However I have been checking this forum out for a bit. What I would really like to find is a safe way to swap and trade like the old NAWCC marts were before the my friends died and e-Bay ruined the fun of watch collecting.

I did get my collection out of storage and to some quick pix of it and some of the spares I have.



I did look up the speedmaster and it is a 105.012, One of my favorites. The seamaster chronostop is my everyday watch (I put it here for completeness.) Fount a T17 when I was reading these forums. Might be a fun one to see if I can find more parts for it and clean it up. The 650 is not shown as that is on the bench.

I also have other drawers in the benches full of 'generic' Swiss watches and parts. The one thing I do not have and avoided like the plague is a brand that starts with 'R.' At the end I was mostly focusing on complications from the Valle de Joux, which gave the name of my website delectra (dot com) the full name is actually Delectra Jouets and Cie which is really bad french grammar for the 'delightful toy company..

Doubt I will post much. More of a lurker. I have projects enough for 500 years and hardly any time to work on any of them.

-j

 

Welcome. What an interesting career - and it is nice to have another female member. I guess I am not the only OF member reading your post who thought "How nice it would be to sort through that collection!"

 

A first post of more than one sentence, and not demanding anything, how refreshing to see.
Welcome to our forum and even though you may not post much in the future, I'm sure it will be interesting.

Cheers
Jim

 

Most interesting introduction I've read in a long time. Welcome to OF. By participating in this virtual community, I've definitely developed relationships that rival those that I have with my NAWCC friends. Very knowledgeable and diverse group here.

 

You’ll make friends here. Welcome new friend!

 

Welcome to the forum! I would love to see some better higher resolution pictures of your collection. I think you will be happy here. We do have collectors of the R brand, but you don't really see snobbery of any sort from anyone here.

 

Nice feedback, and so quick. I tend to be a bit wordy in my posts.

I think I found a decent avatar. Was going to use an omega desk clock but it is a bit too dark.

The incablc sales demo I find quite amusing It is about 9cm in diameter and comes apart. It even has a pivot stored under the arm to show how the jewels move under shock.

I have only been reading these forums for a week, but if feels longer...

-j

 

Welcome to the Forum! It would be great to hear the stories behind some of the items in those bins!

 

Wow, very interesting career. I would love to hear stories about pipe organs in the near future. Welcome!

 

Perhaps I might make 200 posts. More likely I will make 2000 word posts. Most forums I rarely get above 50 posts and that over many years. I certainly do have watches and stories. Way too many interests. Somehow the thread lead back to the Jaquet-Droz automatons. One tends to accidentally become a sort of polymath learning about these 18th century robots.

The doll I am most interested in is from 1773 and plays a small pipe organ. Unlike most robots she is more akin to watchwork than clockwork. (something the Hugo film missed but that film is a mess anyway.) A friend of mine and mentor used to go on feild trips with Henry Fried. Once they went to russia to see what was in the basement of the Hermitage. My friend brought back blurry photographs of interesting things.

I then found he was going with Henry to a trip that included the Basel fair and a private performance of the dolls. I did not want blurry photographs and he had intentionally left out the registration form for me to use. So I went. I took a 3D camera (this was around 1994/1995) Where I was able to shot as many images as I wanted of the doll. I have always had a lifelong interest in 3D photography.

A few years later this group was making another Basel fair visit. This time I took a first generation digital camera. Neuchâtel was not on the itinerary but the group was delayed and we stopped for lunch and the museum was open. More photographs using the macro lens of the doll.

I see there are photography threads here, so it is interesting how one can go from watches to photographing watches. Suffice to say I sometimes skip technologies. In this case it was APS film photography. About three months ago I discovered this horrible marketing disaster. Still I had to take one of these obsolete cameras to Bern to photograph the Zyglogge. An unexpected change of plan and I was able to go to Neucâtel on a day the Museum was open. The APS film was bad, but I got an interesting result on the last frame.


I also took the 3D camera and got more images some 28 years after the firs ones. So I may have stuff of interest for the photography sections. Curiously I found these forums searching for information on cleaning up some old Canon Film FT cameras I found on eBay and used the watch tools to restore. I then caught a bad case of auctionitis and now have a collection of EOS cameras as the same lens can work with 35mm SLR, APS film, dSLR(EOS) and mirorless (EOS-M) we also found some Nikon stuff in the closet, which will work on this system with adapters. Not sure why giggle started serving up watch repair videos with the camera repair ones, But I found that elusive 650 mainspring and somehow these forums ...

I also do a lot of historical costume (I am Dickens obsessed.) So I sometimes would dress up in 18th or 19th century clothing on these trips. Another fallout of studying these dolls. Of course the pipe organ she plays lead me to my current part time work with pipe organs. Which are also a passion.

-j

 

A totally nice first post and a pleasure to read. A big welcome!!

 

Very happy to see an awesome new member, especially one with such a nice first post. Welcome to the best watch forum there is!

 

Wonderful introduction and welcome to the forum! Great to see another member with a Chronostop, it was my Chronostop driver's version that brough me to the forum. Welcome again and happy reading/posting!

 

Welcome ..it was the best presentation i read on the forum.. Regards.

 

Assume you've been to see the Engle clock at the NWCC Museum in PA? If not, sounds like you'd enjoy it.

 

Welcome Julie, a very nice post indeed- seeing your bench I initially thought you were a watchmaker !
If you’re interested in automatons, you should make sure some day you visit the Patek Philippe Museum in Geneva, and the MIH - Musee international de l’Horlogerie in La Chaux de Fonds. As a matter of fact they are both highly recommended to any watch enthusiast.

 

One of my favorites. I have a vintage 3D post cart of it. A lot of my organ junk came from an estate in PA so I had time to go over and see it in person. (did not have my 3d camera at the time, but I did get some early digital shots of it.)
There is a book my Charles Dickens sometime Collaberator Wilkie Collens called "Armadale" In it a retired british major makes such a clock. Of course it goes al haywire (like the plot of the book.) In the english editions there is a wonderful illustration where the soldier dolls have fallen out of the clock and cross over to the next page.

-j

 

I have been to them multiple times. I was not able to fit these in when I was in Swizerland in June of this year. Was able with a last minute change of plan to visit Nuechâtel and the nearly 150 year old dolls.
-j

 

Welcome!

 

Just read this Julie and your thread is big fun. Your accumulated posted contributions to the Forum already improve the Forum content as well as the tone of the place. Thanks for joining us!