I'm looking to learn my way around mechanical watches. If somebody here has one or more cheap pocket watches they would be willing to par with please let me know. A mechanical wristwatch with a large simple mechanism would do as well.

 

I think you'd be better off getting something where parts are still available as you are sure to lose/graunch some parts.

Parts for old PWs can be hard to find.

Either go the Seiko 7S26A route, or one of the Chinese Seagulls.

 

At first I'm aiming for a large mechanical movement to take apart and put back together over and over again. Once i get the familiarity, manual dexterity, and work flow down, I plan on doing the same with a smaller wrist watch mechanism.

 

Soviet. Plenty on eBay.

Tom

 

Some essential tools for PW are not the same for wrist watches. Do you intend to collect tools?

 

There is a reason many horology schools use the ETA 6497 for students to learn on. I would suggest that you find one of these, or an Asian clone of this movement to start with. The ETA version will have parts readily available for it, and the Asian versions are cheap enough you could buy a few for spare parts.

Start with just a movement first, then move to dials, hands, and casing. If the movement survives, case, dial, and hand options are plentiful for these movements so you can carry on and make work wearable watch out of it if you like.

I certainly don't recommend using any automatic to start with, and US made pocket watches are different enough that they are not a good choice if you plan to eventually work on Swiss wrist watches.

Cheers, Al

 

I love Unitas 6325 movements .They are really simple to service .Plenty of parts . You can find a nice watch with an Unitas 6325 on Ebay .