I was browsing a recent acquisition and found this in the introduction. It seems that you could simply identify parts you need from the catalog of hundreds of watch brands and models. Send the order to one of three options and sit back and wait. Ahh, those were the good old days.
I love the last line on "Where to send Orders" "...to the Swiss Factory making the movement..." Yea, right...try that today... How times have changed, and not for the better. Rob
Not much has changed with the parts ordering process in terms of the information you provide. You still order by caliber and part number, and number of jewels if needed. I'm not sure what the difference is between the options listed that are "materials dealers" and "wholesalers" but as discussed in other threads there are tons of material dealers around still, although not as many as there used to be. Of course the parts they can provide has changed certainly... Parts are still ordered directly from the factory - I do it at least 2 times a week as thousands of other watchmakers around the world do. Once key difference is that the process is actually much faster now. I have a number of old material envelopes full of random parts I've picked up as part of auction lots. Many of these envelopes have notes on them like "Please provide replacement per sample" written by the watchmaker, who disassembled a watch and then sent the broken or damaged part off by mail to the parts supplier he dealt with. They would get the sample part, figure out what it was, and send back a replacement by mail. Now I look parts up on a computer, send and email or make a phone call (usually email) and I can have the parts at my door the next day in most cases. I'm not sure if this book is part of a "system" like Bestfit, Marshall, or the countless others that were out there years ago for replacement parts. Sometimes these books can be quite valuable for looking up obscure parts and movement details. Cheers, Al