Loupe power

Quality is not the key, at least for me. These things look bulky and uncomfortable to wear for an entire day at the bench - remember even something that feels lightweight to you, gets pretty heavy after being strapped to your head for 10 hours. Even if they are not as bad as they look, they do put me personally at a big disadvantage. And given the age of the average watchmaker, I'm sure I'm not alone.

Here is what I use for general assembly work - a 4X Behr loupe attached to a pair of reading glasses:



This is what I use for probably 95% of the work I do on a watch, and I have zero problems with depth perception when working with it. I need the reading glasses to see things on the bench, to enable me to look at the timing machine while I am assembling a movement (often assembling one movement while timing another), to enable me to see parts I'm picking up with my tweezers to assemble the movement I'm working on, etc., etc., etc...

If I used one of these large head mounted things like you are suggesting, then wearing the glasses at the same time is not possible, so I would be constantly (and I mean constantly) removing the Optivisor and putting my glasses on, then switching back to the Optivisor. With my current set-up I either flip the loupe up out of the way, which takes a fraction of a second, or I just look using my left eye to do what I need to do. This might not seem like a big deal, but using one of these would make a significant negative impact on my productivity and therefore my livelihood (not to mention my waiting list!).

Again, unless you understand what it's like to do this day in and day out to make your living, I'm not sure you can claim that there is no disadvantage with using something like this. Something that impedes my productivity, feels heavy and uncomfortable to wear (when compared with a pair of reading glasses) and offers no advantage to me doing my job is certainly not an improvement.

Cheers, Al

Okay last post in reply to you for me then I'm done. I am not imposing anything on anyone, or making conclusions on their behalf - my last post was specifically about my situation. I am simply sharing my experience at the bench, and with the others I have met who are professionals. And by professionals, yes I mean people with formal training, who repair watches for a living as their primary means of income to put a very specific definition on it for you.

Regarding the estimating depth comments I made, that was in response to your insistence that these things provide some sort of advantage, and for me and many others that is simply not the case. Estimating depth or depth perception (whatever you want to call it) is simply a non-issue for someone who uses a single eye loupe every day for hours on end. I actually said that people who don't have the experience of a professional watchmaker would find these helpful, so if they work for you, that's great I'm happy for you!

And as I have said repeatedly and clearly, I have never met a professional watchmaker that uses this type of head gear for working on watch movements. I never said or claimed that I have met every watchmaker in the GTA or the world, but I have met a lot of other professional watchmakers. No one uses these things that I have ever seen, not at the Swatch service center in NJ where I went for training (I would say there are 40 watchmakers there), not in any of the factories I have been through in Switzerland that I mentioned in a previous post (too many to count), not in any continuing education class I have taken (many courses with probably 20 watchmakers in each course), and not at any watchmakers convention I have been to where we all get together and talk about our profession.

And as I have said, there certainly could be someone out there who uses them, but they would certainly be outside the norm in my experience. And my experience goes far beyond the GTA.

Oh, and based on the guy's bench in that thread, and his comments, I doubt he is a professional watchmaker.

Cheers, Al

If you saw my sorry excuse for a bench you would get a good belly laugh. I use reading (1.75) glasses with a set of 3.5 glasses on the same nose just a bit lower. LOL. It works for me. My friend who used to work for Rolex uses 2 flip down loupes on his reading glasses. In fact he wears them everywhere. My dentist has those really cool surgical stereo glasses. I inquired about buying a used pair of his. NOT FOR SALE.

dude. At least move to the kitchen table 😉
Screws are a bitch to find in shag unless you have a killer magnet. Then you'll have a hard time getting them off your screwdriver.

If you don't have a watchmaker's bench, use a piece of paper and slightly roll up the edges. Nothing will roll off.