Don't kill the messenger!
Funny how people respond to advice and constructive criticism, when they really want attention and admiration. Not to mention platitudes.
If one reads the room here, this is not the place for self promotion.
Most of us who have been collecting for decades already have the reference books and data sheets.
The search terms mentioned are all marketing fluff and of minimal use. Especially as this is designed to monetize and profit from the work of others.
To be useful the search needs to be parametric and graphical. Ideally able to take a photo and identify a part. Yes lift angles are useful, but there are easy to find charts of these.
here is a photo of some parts I got online recently:
This is how many parts were packaged.
Note that the circle is the shape of the movement 1:1. Which in this case is round. The numbers are measurements. The silhouette shows the setworks, which are the fingerprint of the base caliber. The name of the caliber is below.
Now what is in the box is something else. In this case a bunch of hands and screws. These may or may not be from Enicar watches.
I offer these observations as I do feel there is a good need for some modern tools for parts searches. Better yet would be to provide a secure insured reliable fast shipping service.
Material houses are full of boxes like the one above. Stocks of spare parts what are enough to cover hundreds of years of service and support. Of course the popular stuff is picked over.
There is already a good foundation in the old hard to use thing like the bestfit catalog. All I am suggesting is to buld upon it. The data is there for someone to parametize it. Much of it is in easy machine readable format. Byproduct of a day where index cards and phone directories were the main way databases were accessed.
What is really needed is an app what can search material houses. Which like OFrei have horrible search results. Paylak (watchmaterial.com) is almost as bad. Always returning the same 1700 results for Omega searches. There is no way to do sub searches. I have a window with 4 tabs in the background with the 4 or 5 major material houses open. Usually the only way to find a part is to call them with specifics. And even then they do not like going into the dusty stacks and look through 1000s of drawers. Some even request you send the inquiry by email which is really easy to ignore.
When such places fail, the stuff is either dumped on ebay, or simply carted off to the landfill or metal recycler.
My mentor said post 1940s watches could last 500 years or more. I am reading a book
Revolution in time by David Landis. I have not read this in 25 or 30 years, but some of the subject has stayed with me. This is a book on economics. A bit depressing as it is about companies, countries and other things what have failed after dozens if not hundreds of years of success. The book was written in the 1980s during the quartz crisis. Probably to address some of the economic failings happening in places like Switzerland. A lot of the ideas now seem dated.
Watchmaking is about high volume. Since the 17th century watches have been produced in the 10,s 100s and millions of units per year. The book seems to imply that mechanical watches will be of no value since quartz was better. Yet the numbers of mechanical watches produced remained high. Here 40 years later, mechanical watches have the same appeal they did in the 18th century, and for the same reasons.
10,000 (why is it always 10,000) is a mere drop in the bucket of what has been made in the last 3 or 400 years. And cell phones are pocket watches providing the same functionality.
99 or more percent of people could not care about all the defunct and failed brands. The brands what do have 'history.' go to great lengths to obfuscate the real details. Vis. the Longines thread here? Did the OP even read that. Comment on it. Ask questions? they even have not taken the time to create an avatar.
Yes the app might be useful, to the same person who likes watching You tube tear down videos. On the other hand as soon as subscriptions or free trials become involved. Then we are in the same place as a carnival clip show. Which is no different than a man eating chicken. Which was where the term Geek comes from. This was the person who bit the heads off live chickens. Except it was a stage illusion. A magicians misdirect.
Currently dive watches are popular. Chronographs still retain some interest. Trends shift. Between the 1930s and the 1970s it was illegal for US citizens to own gold specie. So the value was put into things like watch cases. I had to look up the word
specie. Landes uses that word a lot in trade deals. The main reason people will search for obscure watches is to see if it is
the watch which is equivelent to winning a lottery. Ironically Landes says to get around trade restrictions many watch companies turned to subscription draw lots to shift excess inventory.
I also think in this day and age of constant tracking. Users want anominity. The ability to not have to 'like and subscribe' or create yet another set of login tracking credentials.
This is intended as
Constructive critsism. Tough love in a way. There is no easy way to any of this, or else it would be popular and many people would be doing it.
