The Grey NATO - Ep 52 - Watchmaker Q&A // Jason Gallop (Roldorf & Co)

Published on Tue, 06 Feb 2018 09:43:28 -0500

Synopsis

This podcast features a chat and Q&A with watchmaker Jason Gallop of Vancouver's Rolled Orphan Co. Jason shares his background and journey into watchmaking, which began in London and took him to Switzerland for further training. He moved to Vancouver and initially worked for Rolex before eventually starting his own business. The conversation covers a wide range of topics related to watchmaking, including watch servicing, parts and movement types, recommended service intervals, and tips for watch owners. Jason provides detailed insights and advice based on his extensive experience.

Transcript

Speaker
Podcast Host Hello and welcome to a special episode of the Graynado. The following is a chat and Q&A with real-life watchmaker Jason Gallop of Vancouver's Rolled Orphan Co. We recorded this chat in Jason's Land Rover on Cypress Mountain in Vancouver, and Jason was kind enough to share his watchmaking story and answer a bunch of your questions. For those that sent questions in, please know that we had far too many questions for just one chat, and we'll be sure to have Jason on again soon for a second round of Q&A, so if we didn't get to your question, just sit tight. You can find out more about Jason and his watch retail and service business at roldorf.co on the web, or you can go to Instagram and follow him at roldorf. But without further delay, let's tune into the Land Rover. Jason, how's it going? It's going really well. Thanks for being back on the show. We had you a while back with Merlin. I think I've been promising people for a while that we'd have this chat with a watchmaker and that watchmaker is of course you. And it's something that I've been very keen on doing because I get, we get a lot of emails asking sort of watch service related questions. And, and I think it's going to be, fun to answer some of those questions. And also you have a what I think is a very interesting story. And then on top of that story, it's a diverse story, but it's also a very TGN sort of story, your interests, as you and I've got to know each other, our interests have like repeated overlaps, which I've always liked. So so in brief, you today run and operate roldorf and co the watch store and service provider in Vancouver, but if you could, could you give us kind of an origin story where you came from and how you got all the way to a watch store on the West Coast?
Jason Gallop Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, it's kind of a long story. It starts when I was 17 and a half, I guess. I didn't quite know what to do with my life. My father was a goldsmith, so I'd had the industry around me, but a very heavily weighted towards goldsmithing kind of experience, which is not something I really wanted to do. I was the kind of kid that built Meccano and Lego when I was a kid. I was just fascinated by mechanical things and that. So my dad suggested watchmaking to me, I think primarily because he had a partner that was a German watchmaker that had a store below his workshop. And I used to sit with him during the summer where I couldn't stand being up in the workshop with my dad because it's hot, sweaty, goldsmithing type workshop. And I was just fascinated. I was fascinated by the size of things, how things were small. So, yeah, I went into the British Horological Institute. They were operating out of a school in East London in a place called Hackney. And, um, I went in there and met with some, some incredible people. It was a two and a half year program, um, covering everything from, you know, watches to clocks, manufacturing, uh, to repair. Um, and, uh, it was, it was a great, a really great experience. In the, uh, in the late eighties, there wasn't any internet and, uh, travel was a little different then. So. Especially coming from an island place like England, if you're just a regular person, travel was a big deal. Even just to the coast was a big deal. So actually having the opportunity to go out to Switzerland and study out there was incredible. So my high school French wasn't too bad, so that was lucky. got out at the beginning of 1988 to Wasstep in Neuchâtel with Antoine Simonnet being the instructor and director of the school then.
Podcast Host How long was that program at Wasstep at the time?
Jason Gallop At that time it was almost six months, five and a half months. So they were taking students that already had prior experience one way or another. Um, whether it be through places like the British Horological Institute and, uh, those types of watchmaking school or those people that are, that are apprenticed in companies, or you'd just been a, an independent and we're just working away, but wanted to get some more, more knowledge, a deeper knowledge. Yeah. So I spent the winter of 88 out in, uh, Neuchatel doing a little bit of, uh, skiing as well and, uh, and stuff like that.
Podcast Host And you had some notable classmates as well.
Jason Gallop Yeah, I guess so. Yeah, Stephen Forsey was in my class, and Peter Speak, Peter Speak Marin, as well. And then Stephen and I actually went to Wastep together. So we were there together, and that's where I met Currie Wilter-Leinen, who was a student there as well. So that's quite the roster these days. Yeah. There must've been just, I think there just must've been something in the water. Yeah, exactly. You have to remember too, that this was a very strange time for the, uh, for the Swiss watch industry. Um, it had just gone through, uh, what most would, would consider Armageddon, uh, in the early, in the early eighties and was just really starting to, to recover. So, uh, and there was a renewed interest, I think, on the Swiss side. And that's where it became really interesting. And I think that's why many of us had wanted to either teach or produce our own thing. I know I left there certainly with the aspiration to be making my own watch, just even as an exercise to go through that. Or I ended up in Vancouver, but the thoughts of starting up a watch school here Because this felt, Vancouver felt very much like an outpost at that time. Right. It was very, very far away from the industry. Super remote, yeah. Yeah. And most of my friends and classmates were kind of shaking, shaking their head going, what, what's really going on here? Why would you do that?
Podcast Host And you came to Vancouver in 88 right after Wolstead?
Jason Gallop Yeah. It was kind of, it was kind of, it wasn't really planned to be Vancouver. It was supposed to be, it was supposed to be Toronto.
Podcast Host Okay.
Jason Gallop I was working for Rolex at the time and I was very lucky enough to get a transfer over to Rolex in Toronto, but right at the last minute my parents decided to move to Vancouver instead. I think it's that East Coast weather, you know, my dad flew out while I was at Wastep to Toronto and he came back and he was like, there is no way we are going to live down that. That's crazy. So he came back to London, kind of disheartened, and spoke to the immigration officer we were working with. And he said, no, Vancouver's the place for you. British Columbia, why not? So my dad went, yeah, sure, OK, we'll do that. And we came out his site unseen.
Podcast Host And you've been here ever since?
Jason Gallop Yeah, I was drop shipped, ultimately. I went to Toronto for a short period of time. But I kept getting calls from my dad saying, why are you doing this? You should just come back. Let's start a business together. Sure. And so I did come back, but never actually ended up working with my dad directly, as most sons probably can attest to. It's not easy working with a parent.
Podcast Host No, certainly not. I think you're either too much alike or too different, or both at the same time, right?
Jason Gallop Yeah. You know, you both have very, very high aspirations, and your ideas maybe step on the other person's ideas. You're the young whippersnapper,
Podcast Host And then with today's chat, we've driven up to the Cypress ski area, and you were saying on our drive up, you know, I figured we, you know, it's nice to be able to get out and do these recordings in a scene that feels fitting for the topic and all that sort of thing. And you've got this lovely Defender 90 that we're out in and that you picked up just earlier. Well, I guess we're now in 2018, so mid-2017. Yeah. And there's a fun story that goes along with that, too, a real pilgrimage. Yeah. Also coming west. But you were saying that you, when you first came out here, you know, there's a bit of snow on the hills today and a few of the, a few of the lifts are open at Cyprus. But you were saying you were skiing one time in Switzerland and then your next skiing was out here.
Jason Gallop Yeah. In the same, in the same year, it was, it was, it was pretty amazing. When you think back to 1988 and stuff like that, I never even really heard of Vancouver that much. But then to actually be here and there be skiing here, which was fantastic, because I did a little bit of skiing in Switzerland while I was over there. I had to get on snow because I'd learnt the year before to ski in the south of England on a dry slope, which was brushes. So my first experience in snow was in Switzerland. I arrived here and I didn't want to just sit on my laurels. I needed to work at something. And I just thought, hey, what better than to actually get out and work at a place where skiing was going to be free for me. So I worked up here that first season.
Podcast Host And Vancouver would have been obviously massively different. That was just after Expo 86. And then, of course, long before things like the Olympics and the better road to get up to Whistler and all these sorts of things that are all really, like, only predate my time in the city by a very little couple of years.
Jason Gallop Yeah, well, I grew up in London, and it's a very big, busy, bustling city. And I arrived in Vancouver, and it felt like a village. Nobody was out after 9 or 10 o'clock at night. You know, drive down Georgia Street at 10 o'clock No one. It's like, what's going on? But, uh, certainly is nice up here. That's for sure. I love the mountains here.
Podcast Host It's fantastic. So after making it to Vancouver, uh, you departed the watch scene briefly or?
Jason Gallop Well, I stayed in it up until, um, 97. Um, uh, one way or another, I was, I, I worked for a company here, um, as a Rolex watch, uh, watchmaker, uh, within a company called Berks. Um,
Podcast Host Canadian phone numbers.
Jason Gallop Yeah, it's a very big Canadian company. This is while it was still family owned and stuff like that. So I saw that company go bankrupt and lose its Rolex agency. And then I went certainly independent from there. That's when I decided I was going to take on a few brands that weren't around town. So Zodiac was one of those brands. Jean D'oeuvre was another. And then I also had some pre-owned watches that I kind of dealt a little bit with, which was really fun, but had my workshop in a shop on Howell Street that was another Brit that started up a jewellery shop. Yeah, it was a good time, but then I decided that I wanted to make a change. I love change. It's part of my DNA coming out coming out here doing something adventurous like that. And, uh, I got, I got a, uh, I had a, uh, an opportunity to work for a high tech company out here called, uh, Creo. Um, not many people in the watch industry would know that name, but, uh, certainly in the printing industry. So I was doing quite a bit in the way of, uh, micro mechanical engineering, uh, working with, uh, lasers and optics, micro optics. And, uh, in, in research and development. And that was with, uh, with a very, very modern tech company that was on the bleeding edge of, um, uh, organizational behavior, being able to work when you felt most, uh, productive and not coming in, um, when, when you didn't think you were going to get much done. Um, so that kind of flexibility, which I had never seen before, and I saw the benefits of it. It was quite incredible. So yeah, so I worked with them until they were taken over and systematically broken down by Kodak. And I took my severance, decided to go to university, do an MBA, so I could put some education behind the practical experience that I actually had. And it was really, really fantastic. And during this whole period of time, I was doing other really cool things. scuba diving and things like that.
Podcast Host Yeah, because you're an instructor level with BASC, right?
Jason Gallop Yeah, actually with PADI.
Podcast Host Oh, okay. I don't know why I thought BASC.
Jason Gallop Yeah, it's just because I'm British. Yeah. But also I was an instructor with the International Association of Nitrox and Technical Divers way back in the day when a few of us were dabbling with oxygen-rich mixes, where people thought, you know, that was just crazy. It's a little crazy. So yeah, definitely on the fringe of the scuba side. So it was one of those things that, you know, when I start something, I kind of get into it and started off just by doing an open water course here in the frigid waters of British Columbia.
Podcast Host It's the best place to learn.
Jason Gallop Yeah. Oh, yeah. And then sort of just taking course after course to getting up to Divemaster and then going, well, hey, if I've come this far, I might as well go the whole hog and try and become an instructor just for fun. And it was a challenge.
Podcast Host Yeah, for sure. And then what brought you back to what you're into today with Rolldorf and Caring Brands and actively servicing?
Jason Gallop Well, coming back to it in a full-time way. I had, before that, I'd always sort of had my hand in the industry, one way or another. I love photography ever since, like all my friends will remember me, especially back at, that knew me at Rolex in Bexley and at Wastep, that I had this passion for photography. So even when I was working outside of the industry, doing some photography for another local small brand called Momentum.
Podcast Host Yeah, of course. They were Samaritz.
Jason Gallop Samaritz. So I did some of their product and feature photography for a couple of years. Cool. So then after Samaritz, while I was doing my MBA, my papers always tended to go back to my experiences in the watch industry. It's a thing that I grew up on. A lot of my team members and cohort members were like, why aren't you getting back into it? It's such a cool thing. It's so unique. So the passion was still very, very much alive in me, no matter what I did. For sure. My dad had a store in Vancouver. I think this year it will be its 25th year. When he passed away, I had to make a decision. Do I carry on his store? Um, or do I close it down? So my brother and I, um, went back and forth and struggled with, with that choice. Um, and that's when I realized that all roads were leading back into the industry for me. And, uh, and I really wanted to do it, but I wanted, I needed it to be, I needed it to be my version of a, of a store for sure. Um, and so that's why. I changed it from being mostly goldsmithing and light watches into very much watch focused and watch community and being able to offer that to people in Vancouver. You know, because that's the thing, it's people that love watches. They tend to stick together and talk to each other and there really wasn't a place at that time where it was easy going to be able to do that. And so that's what I wanted to create. So that's why we put a bench in the middle of the shop so that anybody at any time could just come along and take a look and see the cool stuff that was, uh, that was on the bench, you know, take photographs and stuff like that.
Podcast Host For sure. I would definitely say it's the least intimidating watch store I've ever been into. You know, it's not huge and, uh, there's no like perceivable back room where someone's going to go and stack a bunch of papers and have a conversation with their manager about what kind of discount you're gonna, like, it just doesn't really feel like you're in a normal retail space. No. There's a few, you know, spots where you've got display cases and things like that, a spot to sit down. And then this big, open, glassed-in area where you can watch yourself or Howie actually dismantle or repair or service or whatever you're doing with various watches. And, uh, and yeah, it's, it's a great space. And certainly I didn't know your dad. I never met your dad, but I can't tell you the number of times I've been in the store. sitting chatting with you and somebody comes in and asks like, Oh, I, you know, are you so-and-so son? And you'll be like, yeah, of course. And he must've had quite a reputation and left quite a legacy. Cause he gets compliments every time I'm in that store. Yeah, absolutely. You know, customers are coming back, you know, he put a battery in this watch for me 15 years ago or something like that. And then they, and that's how they know the store. And that seems to be how it works.
Jason Gallop Absolutely. That was a, a, a big legacy that, uh, that he had left and that's a piece of him. And that was something that, that, that, um, I was very conscious of when changing the store around. It's a very odd thing to actually take over a store that was your parents and then to change it significantly enough so that it doesn't look like that store that it was. But to be able to create an environment that was very, very similar to the environment that he started, that's very much him. And that was something I grew up with, with him. I knew innately what he was trying to do with his customers in the way of transparency and things like that. And that's why everything with regard to the store is glass. I want people to be able to see in. I don't want there to be secrets. There's no need for it because it's a passion. And people that are passionate about things like to share. No, there isn't any better way than to let people come up and close to be able to see the things that you're doing. And then be able to choose some brands that meant something to me. And that's the other nice thing about being independent, was having that control over making the decision as to, yeah, maybe I'll take on this brand because there's something I like about it. I feel connected.
Podcast Host Right. And so, I guess before we just bury the lead and end up putting all the store information at the end of what might be a fairly long episode, what brands do you carry and what's the normal way that you describe how to find the store? Because it's in the Bentall Center underground. Yeah. Kind of near Joey's on Burrard.
Jason Gallop Yeah. So, independent brands. We started off basically with Speak Marin. Yep. And Autodromo. We now have Larco, we have Nomos, and yeah, we have, I brought in some other quirky little things. Mr. Jones watches from London, has a bit of a cult following, just for fun. And Bremont, that's the big thing.
Podcast Host The most recent one.
Jason Gallop Yeah, the most recent one, which sort of ties in with the adventure I had in the Defender last year.
Podcast Host For sure. So you bought this as a right-hand drive. What year is this, mid-90s? This is 2000. Oh, it's a 2000. Okay. So a 2000 Defender 90. Yep. And you bought it in the UK, had it shipped over to the east coast of Canada. Yeah. And for those of you who are listening who maybe aren't sure, I mean, like there's a huge distance between the east coast of Canada and the west coast of Canada. It's arguably, it probably is wider than the breadth of the United States. Yeah. by some miles and you, I think, originally had planned to have the Defender on a train, which is, you know, I've moved a car from Ontario to BC on a train. It's a pain. Yeah, yeah. But it can be done, but you're really leaving your vehicle at the whim of some fairly crazy scenarios as for how long it will sit on the train and what kind of weather it will experience and all that kind of thing. Yeah. And why don't you kind of pick it up from there in a summary.
Jason Gallop So, yeah, so, um, it was one of those things where I had a, uh, a series three, uh, 1979 series three that I loved. Um, but I, uh, I had to sell it, um, for one reason or another. And, um, I'd always wanted another one. Now, when I, um, was talking to Bremont about bringing Bremont in, I was thinking about. how to market them best. And they're a very, very British brand. It's something that is just their DNA. And I was thinking, yeah, well, I really want to get my Land Rover back. How perfect would it be to actually sort of incorporate that into into Bremont for us somehow? And so Yeah, I picked the car up in, actually not too far away from, from where I used to live. And, uh, it was driven up to, uh, Liverpool taken on a roll on roll off ferry. And, uh, it landed in, uh, Halifax or was offloaded in Halifax. So I drove it from Halifax to Vancouver, which ended up on the, uh, on the, uh, odometer as being, uh, 4,343 miles. Okay. It's an easy number to remember. And 10 days.
Podcast Host Okay. And a good adventure. I mean, you'd put it on Instagram and you got a tent on the roof and kind of got some overland equipment in the vehicle and you made it all the way home in time for, just not by a wide margin, in time for the launch of the Bremont stuff at the store.
Jason Gallop That's right. So that was the key thing, was the timing for the launch. Um, I, I initially thought that I would have it, uh, brought around to Vancouver by, um, container. The timelines were too, were too short for that. And then I thought, well, maybe I'll train it from Halifax. But, uh, again, there were no guarantees there. So, um, I, I just, the decision was there and it really was ultimately the thing that I really wanted to do in the first place. truth be told here I just it was a challenge another challenge right to actually drive to drive a car for such a distance and I remember very very vividly just being the first day of driving just outside of Halifax and it suddenly hit me that it was the furthest away from home I'd ever been in a car where I actually had to drive home crazy
Podcast Host Yeah, for sure. And certainly a great trip. And, uh, and you know, my brothers made that trip, um, more on more than one occasion to, uh, to come from Ontario to, uh, to BC, uh, by way of Alberta, I guess. And, uh, and it's always, it's always been kind of in my mind that I'm not sure you're really a Canadian until you've seen, until you've done the spine, right. One side to one side. So someday I'd like to do it. Maybe when my girls are a little older.
Jason Gallop Yeah. And you know, that's, that's the thing, seeing the country like that on the ground, um, driving town to town, town to town and camping along the way. And that was, that was the key thing. I, I, um, dipped down into the U S into Vermont really quickly to, to be able to get the, uh, rooftop tent on the vehicle. Uh, so that I could just do that. Um, just camp all the way across. So as soon as I felt tired, pull the car over to the side of the road in a nice spot. pop up
Podcast Host I think probably a few times on the show and then again on Instagram about a week ago for questions. So I've collected as many of the questions as I could. And in some cases, if your question was dropped, it was only because it was doubled up. There's one that we had already gotten. So let's get to some of these because I'm excited to check some of these out. So they vary pretty considerably. So first one, listener Patrick wrote in to ask, I have several automatic watches and I like to keep them running so I don't have to reset them when I put on a different watch. So I wind them daily. Is it okay to regularly wind automatic watches? Does it depend on the movement? Am I putting undue wear and tear on my watches?
Jason Gallop No. Yeah, it's absolutely fine to wind your watch. In fact, it's, it's good to wind your watch. You're keeping everything moving. So that lubrication is, is traveling around where it needs to go. It's, it's a very, very good thing. I hear this a lot with regard to watch winders as well. You know, I, I'm thinking about buying a watch winder. What do you think I've heard? Yeah, we have that question as well. But no, actually being in touch with your watch like that is a very personal thing too, to actually feel the mechanism. You can, after a while, you'll tend to notice changes and that's a good indication to you if things are starting to stiffen up, that it really is time for a service at that time. Yeah, exactly. So depending on what you've got, yeah, absolutely. Wind away.
Podcast Host So we can follow up pretty quickly with Mr. Parakeet Wrist who DMed with the following, what's Jason's opinion on watch winders? Too much constant wear and tear or no big deal?
Jason Gallop Yeah. Well, there is a big deal for sure. And it's just an awareness thing, really. You don't want to be constantly winding your watch. you know, having it in a machine that is turning it all the time will put a lot of wear and tear very quickly onto the winding mechanism. It's kind of like, you know, thinking about driving your car, you know, for a long distance or idling all the time, you know. You want to be able to set up your watch winders so that it winds it only enough so that it will maintain it. and then stop so that it can actually start to wind down and run and then wind back up again. Otherwise, yeah, you are putting a lot of wear and tear onto the winding mechanism.
Podcast Host So when looking at a watch winder, this is, I'm editorializing the question here, but when looking at a watch winder, I've read, obviously, you want to make sure that the winder itself is protected in some way from magnetism. Now, my question for a winder and how to use them is, if it's a watch that you wear, frequently, then why would the winder make much difference? It's just going to keep it going. But would it be smart, like if you had an automatic watch that you wear once a month to leave on a winder the other 28, 29 days a month? Or is it probably best just woken up when it's time to wear it?
Jason Gallop It depends very much on your habits and what you really want. If you want to be able just to pick up a watch and run with it, then the winder really is that tool that can enable that for you. You know, I use a watch winder once in a while, but typically I'll have, uh, I don't have a large collection of watches, but, uh, I'll, I'll have watches just in a watch roll or something like that, just ready to go. And if I know that, that, uh, I'm going to be wearing it, I'll pop it on a winder and, uh, you know, wake it up and do that or just wind it really quickly. I like, you know, I like setting, I like setting my watches, um, you know, listening to, uh, I'm
Podcast Host Yeah, absolutely. Like I had a Wolf Series 3 winder, a couple of them actually, and they had the ability to change the amount of winding, which direction or both, and the amount of time between on and off winding. Yeah, and that's very, very important.
Jason Gallop It's pretty clever and easy to use. Yeah, that's very, very important to choose a winder that you can configure like that. You brought up another really good question about winders and magnetism. I'm focusing on the magnetism part because this is something that was once in the collective consciousness of watch wearers back in the 40s, 50s, 60s, and even into the 70s, but somehow has got lost since sort of the quartz revolution and people wearing more quartz watches. Now that some people are going back to mechanical watches, They've forgotten about the fact that even watches that are stamped anti-magnetic are not truly anti-magnetic. You get them next to a strong enough source, and it will affect the running of the watch significantly. So this is where, if you do notice time differences, that typically is a fairly common thing. You just need to find a watchmaker that can demagnetize it. It's a very, very quick process.
Podcast Host They should be able to put it on a timer, see how badly it's running, demag it, put it back on the timer and it should be set.
Jason Gallop Yeah. Yeah. And that's just a customer service thing that you should be able to do just over the counter.
Podcast Host Yeah. And I mean, I've seen places like, uh, like I had, I've had people write in before saying that, you know, they have a friends or whatever, have a watch that's suddenly gaining. many minutes and your mainspring's probably magnetized and sticking to itself. So sometimes it's very tight and other times it's very, it's just not, there's no plan or rhyme or reason to it. And they went and either bought the $5 DMAG tool on eBay and watched the video on how to use it and boom, you're done. Or took it into a store and the guys wanted 10 bucks or something to look at it and they were back to normal.
Jason Gallop Yeah. And there are other things with the watch that can exhibit sort of the feel of magnetism and that's just having a sticky hairspring you know if a watch wasn't cleaned properly in the last service or oil has drifted and somehow been able to get onto the hairspring the tines of the hairspring will stick together then you'll have a massively racing watch so yeah those are those are things to look out for yeah okay and then moving on we have three questions from William
Podcast Host Uh, his first one is independent watchmaker versus manufacturer servicing pros and cons between who services the watches. And what is the issue with some independent watchmakers not being able to get OEM parts from certain brands like Rolex, Omega, or Breitling?
Jason Gallop Well, that's a, that's a, that's a lot. Uh, that's a lot in, uh, that's only one of his three. So independent versus, um, uh, manufacturer, uh, after sales service. My first thought on that is its preference. Preference and availability. So if you can find an independent watchmaker that you can trust, that's comfortable working on your watch, why not use that person? The reason why I say that is because then you can build up a relationship with the watchmaker, and the watchmaker builds a relationship with your watch because they're working on it. So they know the watch's idiosyncrasies. So if you can do that, I'm an independent watchmaker. So I would say come see an independent because you're going to build that relationship and it's a good thing to have.
Podcast Host And you can probably be more specific about what's done to the watch. If you send your watch into an OEM, they might polish it despite your request. They might replace a hand despite your request. They might refinish a dial. And that some people will care and others won't. And that's all very personal preference sort of stuff. But the personal preference is what you would get by walking into a store and talking to somebody. Yeah. Or even if you sent it to some of these guys on the internet that are very popular in the Seiko community and such, that they would respond to your emails and they have a lot of experience with enthusiasts. If you send your watch to your Rolex AD, those people were just Rolex buyers, enthusiasts or otherwise. Yeah. And there'll be a difference in the way that they understand and can maybe even follow the request.
Jason Gallop Certainly. Yeah, absolutely. And I think that, you know, you're going to get a great service sending your watch into an authorized dealer and getting it sent back. But you bring up a very, very good point, is that when you send a watch into a service center, an authorized service center, they do have a standard. And if a watch does not meet that standard, before they'll do anything to it, they want to make sure that it is going to go back to that standard. And so that may mean things that you don't necessarily want changed would need to be changed. And an independent watchmaker, you've got the ability then to choose what you actually really want done. Also, you've got the ability to talk to the watchmaker. So the watchmaker can actually tell you when you watch truly need servicing. And that's a key thing because you can state industry standards, three to five years for most brands, but is three years too aggressive? In most cases, yes. So it all depends on the watch and how the watch has been treated. And the watchmaker, the independent watchmaker, will be able to tell you that when you go in to talk to them about your watch.
Podcast Host And then with the issue of independent watchmakers not being able to get OEM parts, we could talk about that for a really long time. Yeah, that's an episode in itself. Yeah, exactly. If you could probably just... the very basic answer for that.
Jason Gallop The very basic answer is it is very difficult for independent watchmakers that don't have an affiliation with a particular brand to get parts. Even when it comes down to ETA movements, sort of an Abolsh movement that many brands use, it's over time been very, very prevalent. Parts houses typically have a good source of parts, so in most cases you can sort that. For more specialty things, for in-house movements and stuff like that, it can be very, very difficult. And a lot of time is spent trying to source parts necessarily.
Podcast Host From back channels or third party owners, things like that.
Jason Gallop And anyone that's browsed eBay will notice that, right? For sure. That they're out there, but they're expensive too.
Podcast Host And then as a continuation of that, William's second question is OEM versus generic parts. Does it devalue your watch or affect the performance?
Jason Gallop Yeah. So again, that's a very long topic question because there's so many factors to that. You and I were just talking this morning about a particular watch that had never been serviced before. It was a vintage piece. It had a lot of value because it was pristine. It had never been serviced. Everything was in the same condition other than the fact that it had been worn. But then what are you going to do? As soon as you start to see some of the luminous material that's coming loose or potentially will come loose, What do you do? It has to be changed from a mechanical point of view. Those things have to be fixed.
Podcast Host And so that's not even a question of OEM versus replacement parts. That's a question of like, if you service it, you will devalue the watch. Because like in servicing something like the loom plots on a 30 or 40 year old watch, especially in the hands, moving that hand outside of the environment in which it's existed for those decades, will destroy the loan, like potentially very high value to the point where you'd have to tell that you have to tell the person like, yeah, absolutely.
Jason Gallop This is a serious risk. Exactly. But then you send that watch into a after sales service with the brand and they would be changing that anyway. Right. Because it's not serviceable unless, unless it has been. So yeah, it's a, that's a, that's a whole other, that's a whole other thing. However, Talking about parts and aftermarket parts and things like that.
Podcast Host I mean the safe answer is an OEM versus generic parts, does it devalue your watch? Probably, if you use a generic part in a watch that its value is based on originality.
Jason Gallop And certainly it depends very much on the part itself.
Podcast Host And its quality and who made it and how long ago and is it a gasket that's the right size but it's too old like there's a lot there's a lot of ifs and buts in that and then of course does it affect performance it's kind of the same question where hopefully no it wouldn't it'd be the same part or a part that's so vastly similar that it would work the same but it depends on where you got it from and who installed it for you and yeah exactly now i want to i want to go back a little bit historically with regard to parts and things like that you have to remember that there are certain parts within within a watch that are fairly generic right
Jason Gallop Mainsprings are a very good example of that. Gaskets are another. For the watchmakers out there, they'll know this term best fit. There's a catalog that you can go to, see which movement you have, and find the best fit part for that watch. Because in some cases, some of the parts are actually shared between calibers. So if you don't have the exact caliber, there is a part that is identical that would have been used in another caliber that you could use for that. Mainsprings. They are coils measured by the length, the height, and the thickness. And you can order mainsprings by that. So that's basically it. That's been something watchmakers have been doing long before I was born.
Podcast Host Right. And that kind of solution exists outside the idea of preserving brand integrity and simply looking at the watch as a as a mechanical object. Absolutely. Identifying the part that isn't working and running again. And then of course you can find analogies to that in the car industry where like you open the hood on a 2000s Aston V8 Vantage and you'll find lots of Volvo parts. And if the fuel pump goes, it's probably the same one from like a Ford F-150 or a 250 or something like that. Like there's whole, there's whole charts online of connecting the parts that say Aston Martin or some other brand, the expensive brand on them with the exact same OEM part that was just made for a different brand. And certainly when you have these structures that are used all across the industry, there's going to be parts similarities. Will it affect the cost of your movement if you have the wrong main? So I don't know anybody who's ever bought a quote unquote original watch, taken it to their watchmaker and said, Hey, is that mainspring or Rolex mainspring? Like, I'm not sure, is it kind of like the battery in your car? Does it really matter what the brand of the battery in your car is regardless of the car?
Jason Gallop Yeah, that's a thing. I mean, the after-sales service centers have their parts all packaged up and ready to go. Where were the parts manufactured in the first place? Depends from brand to brand. It's really hard to say. Things like mainsprings are fairly generic and there are certain numbers of producers. just like for watch jewels and things like that. So those things you can put in by size and as long as you've got the knowledge behind you and you're making sure you're putting exactly the right thing into it in the way of a mainspring, then it's good. And sometimes the same could be said for gaskets and things like that. But the key there is making sure that you've got exactly what Yeah, but then again, then that goes down to the skill of the watchmaker to be able to make repairs.
Podcast Host Which is a fluid factor in almost all of these questions, is are we talking about the average watchmaker, a good watchmaker, the closest watchmaker to your house? Because those could be three different calibers. Absolutely. Just like with a garage or a mechanic, something like that.
Jason Gallop Yeah, you've got to look into the background and that's where I say it's building that relationship. Sure.
Podcast Host And William's last question, you touched on it briefly, but recommended service interval, you would say it comes down to the watch. It shouldn't be something that's necessarily a blanket statement unless you're protecting a warranty.
Jason Gallop Yeah, exactly. So for most brands, like I said, it's three to five years. You can have a watchmaker look at it three years or so. But as soon as the wearer starts to notice some changes in the watch,
Podcast Host So like 10 to 15 years for a Seiko. Yeah. They didn't keep great time to begin with. You know, I had that, you serviced my SKX007, which is now keeping beautiful time far better than it did from the factory. Uh, but you know, I, I only noticed it when like, I wore it maybe three days in a row and then it was off by like well over a minute. And I was like, well, it's probably been nine years or something I should probably have this thing find its first service.
Jason Gallop I can't tell you the number of people that will bring in a watch to me, like a Rolex or something like that, and say, you know, I've noticed something strange with my watch. Can you take a quick look at it? And you go back to them and say, well, when was the last time you actually had it serviced? Knowing, having just looked at the watch, how long you think it's been. And sometimes they'll come back with, But hang on a second. It's a Rolex. It shouldn't need servicing, right? And those are the funny stories, right? You've got to explain to somebody that, yeah, things do need servicing. And it really does depend on how you're wearing the watch and how hard you are on it. So bring it in to a watchmaker that you know and can trust. have a look.
Podcast Host any major, uh, you know, kind of attention right now. And I, and I think that's kind of what you would hope to get from somebody else, especially if you're, if you have a relationship with somebody where you could bring them a secondhand piece and be able to know, you know, am I buying something that has a $500 repair in its near future? Or am I going to get many years out of this before I have to kind of walk my way back to the store?
Jason Gallop Yeah, absolutely. It's, uh, it's just that transparency again. Sure. So you know where you are and, and, uh, and, and you know that, you know, you're not being taken for a ride or, um, you know, get the watch fixed when, when it needs to be.
Podcast Host For sure. Yeah. And then next up, we've got Clark who asks, uh, what's a common mistake or an annoying mistake that you've made over and over with tolerance is so small. It's not like you can just hammer a part in to make it work. Yeah. It's not like fixing a defender.
Jason Gallop No, the easiest place for, for mistakes to happen, uh, is in ultimately in the lubrication. Um, of a watch. And then also looking at being able to attain the field that's required to know the tolerances, to be able to feel small end shakes and side shakes. That comes with experience and time, you know, and you develop it and everyone is different for that. But yeah, it's certainly Oiling a watch, lubricating a watch is very, very tricky and you can't be slapdash about it. Too much oil, too little oil, making sure that you've cleaned the watch properly. These are all things that you develop the sight for, the feel for, and the intuition for, where you can actually put a watch on a timing machine, see the rate, see the amplitude, and then start to figure out, okay, so there's a problem here, or there's a problem there. But I think that's ultimately it. There's that strange myth going around that a watchmaker would take a watch apart and then put it all back together again, and there's a piece left over, and it's just like, oh, well, it seems to be running fine. We don't need that anyway, right? It's not exactly ideal. It's not really true, no.
Podcast Host Okay. And next up we've got Sam. Hey Sam, who asks, it seems a lot of watchmaking schools are directed towards after-sales service. Are there schools that teach finishing and movement design?
Jason Gallop Yeah, I think a lot more than there used to be now. I think that finishing is certainly at the forefront of the industry at the moment, especially with the emergence of some of the independents that are doing such an incredible job, an artistic job at finishing by hand watch parts. So yes, there are schools that do a really good job at that.
Podcast Host And that would be building kind of like a base level, and then maybe if you ended up working for a forsy or somebody like that, then you would start to learn the more artisan traditional finishing?
Jason Gallop Yeah, absolutely. Or it's you just get more practice at it at that point. Unless you're actually making a watch for yourself and you're going through numerous iterations of particular parts for finishing. But that was a key component of... When I was at school, the BHI, as part of the manufacturing, was learning finishing techniques. But then those would be developed afterwards. That's just the, here it is. This is the primer for it, and then you really get the experience when you're out in the field.
Podcast Host Okay. And then with Matt, who's at Holy City Watches on Instagram, so he asks, what are some basic things someone should look for and ask when choosing a watchmaker for their watch?
Jason Gallop Referrals? I guess, yeah. Ask your friends, maybe? You know, one of the things that's very common now are people writing reviews. So I think that you can get a good sense of what really is going on with a particular watchmaker or watch shop by looking at their reviews. If they don't have any reviews, then you don't really know what's going on. You know, there's a space there, there's a blank. But I think that is a very good start. Asking them about their story, you know, that's another thing.
Podcast Host Establish a background.
Jason Gallop Establish that background because every watchmaker's got a story. Right. And it doesn't take long for them, for you to be able to see their passion and to get a sense of where they've come from. Okay. So that's, yeah.
Podcast Host And so Matt's got a second question and he says, I would ask for myself about the dynamic poise. How is it done and what is the benefit on the average movement?
Jason Gallop There's two types of poising, static poising and dynamic poising. Static poising is done directly after you've changed the balance stuff. Think of it as akin to balancing a tire. It's the same thing. You don't want a heavy spot in any one particular place on a balance wheel. You want it to be equally weighted all the way around, because otherwise you're going to start creeping into what's called positional error. So when you change the position of the watch, it can be crowned down to dial up, dial down, you know, there'll be differences in the rate of the watch. And that's basically because there could potentially be a heavy spot. And that heavy spot may not necessarily be so heavy because you're talking about a very, very light balance. So dynamic poising is where you would use the timing machine to actually understand where that heavy spot is when the watch is running under certain conditions. And then what you do is you take a little bit of weight off of the balance or you adjust a screw in that place where there's a weight discrepancy. And that way you're getting a very, very fine adjustment on positional error. So yeah, two techniques that are attempting to do the same thing to get rid of positional error.
Podcast Host Okay. And then Emil in Sweden asks, if there are any movement that should be avoided or bought with caution due to high service costs? His example is an Omega 321. He's read some rumors that the 321s are getting more and more expensive as parts become harder to find. Maybe this is the same for some older Valjoux movements, etc. That really depend movement to movement.
Jason Gallop It really, really does. And it brings up A very good point about service life of a watch and its parts. Every company, every movement manufacturer will promise to hold a stock of parts for a certain period of time while that watch is in manufacture and the moment it becomes end of life for manufacture. As time goes on, parts will be fewer and fewer. And that's when people will then have to start to become creative and use modern technology to be able to look after those things. That's where having the ability to be able to manufacture things as an independent is key to moving forward. I wouldn't necessarily say there's any particular movements that should be avoided. It's just understanding the age of the movement and what you're going to be getting yourself into based on age. I mean, you can very, very quickly just start calling around to find out what basic things you might need. Balance staffs being one of them. If a balance staff breaks, what are you going to do then if you can't replace the staff? Well, it would have to be made, right? So you need to find a watchmaker that has the ability to be able to do that. There are some movements that I would say, as long as you're not worried about the timekeeping of them, just stay away from them, and that's pin palette movements, where they're not actually using jewels for the palettes. I'm
Podcast Host Should I expect from a watchmaker after opening the case back of 150 meter used Tudor Heritage Ranger for an appraisal? One, or A, should the watchmaker tell the customer to go ahead and trust the rating of 150 meters, presumably untested? Eric didn't put untested. That's me saying he doesn't mention. B, should the watchmaker offer to do a test and thus give the customer more confidence in the 150 meter rating? Or C, should the watchmaker say nothing? So that basically we have somebody bringing a watch in that's a used watch. They don't know that necessarily the history of the case back is being opened and it's a higher water resistance sort of watch. So you, um, at 150 meters, that's not inconsiderable. Is there a burden on the watchmaker to establish the liability of the, of the water resistance now that the case has been opened?
Jason Gallop Yeah. Okay. So, um, I'll put it, I'll put it in. into our frame of reference because we see a lot of people that come in that have purchased watches online or whatever and they ask me or Howie to take a look at it and just see what's going on. The very first thing that we will do especially if it's a watch that is supposed to be water resistant to a certain degree is to actually test it to see if it actually is before we even open it. So at least there's you know, a baseline there to go with. So if it fails test, then, you know, the, the owner can then know that it's, it's actually failed the test. We can then pop it open. And, and if, if that's the case, and then just see what's going on, the condition of the movement, and then see why it's failing the test. Uh, sometimes, uh, that can be very easy. That can be a visual thing. gaskets missing, gaskets really worn, that kind of stuff. It's in tatters, yeah. Or there's a nice big crack in the crystal. All those things are very visual. If it becomes a bit more complicated and you can't quite see where it is, then you'd need to take the movement out and actually do a water test on it so you can watch for bubbles.
Podcast Host Right. Now, the basic test, the first test, not the water test, for those who maybe don't know what's involved and haven't taken their watch in and haven't seen the machine, What kind of cost is presented to you, the watchmaker, for running a pressure test?
Jason Gallop The machinery for it is very expensive.
Podcast Host But in terms of, once you have the machine, let's say, in terms of your time and maybe what you might ask of the customer, is it $50? Is it free in the service? How does that work? What should somebody expect if they walk in off the street somewhere and say, hey, are you able to test the water resistance of a watch? And they say yes, what should their expectations be?
Jason Gallop Yeah. I guess that's going to depend shop to shop. Sure. I mean, there are some days where we can fit it in where we won't even charge somebody. Right. Because that's just something we will do. It's a customer service thing. If it's going to require a bit more time, we need to fit it in, then there'll be a small charge for it.
Podcast Host Right. But it's not something where asking to have your watch pressure tested is going to be $100 or $200 or something at any reasonable shop.
Jason Gallop Absolutely not.
Podcast Host And certainly if you take a vintage watch in to get it serviced and they do things like replacing the gaskets, it's not unreasonable to ask them to do a pressure test.
Jason Gallop No, absolutely. And you should be able to see a printout from the pressure tester if they're using a modern electronic tester for that. Because then you can actually, you know, the watchmaker can then actually show you exactly what's going on with the watch. and talk to you about the tests that that watch has actually gone through. There are a couple of basic tests that the water-resistancy checker will actually do. One is a pressure test, the other is a reduced pressure test or a vacuum test, to test two different sides of whether the watch is heavy. Low and high pressure, yeah.
Podcast Host Yeah. And so I would say, judging from what you said, your answer is probably something closer to B, where you would at least offer, we're doing this, would you like to also have the Yeah. Watch pressure tested, obviously, and a lot of your answer revolved around the idea of educating a customer about what they were doing with the watch. Totally. So definitely C is out of the question. Yeah, absolutely. Just saying nothing and giving them the watch back.
Jason Gallop Oh my God, that's, yeah.
Podcast Host But if you opened a dive watch, you would start to consider, especially a dive watch where the person didn't know the history, like it wasn't bought yesterday or something, you would add that to the list of things you do. Yeah, absolutely.
Jason Gallop Absolutely, yeah. Okay. Yeah, especially being a diver.
Podcast Host Yeah, for certain. Because you know. And people buy these watches because they have that 150 meters water resistance or 200 or 500 or whatever it is. Yeah. And then you could test for it. It's not like it's not a hugely, like a water test is a much more arduous process certainly, but the vacuum test is not as crazy. So our next question comes from Jonathan Fair of Brew Watches, the brew brand of watches. Is there a way to design and build watches that would extend the life and make the watch more serviceable or efficient in the future? And if so, how would you like to see that done?
Jason Gallop To make it more serviceable, simplicity comes into play. Just because we have them anyway, I'd like to bring up Nomos for that because they're producing a beautiful watch that will last more than a lifetime. And, uh, and they're simple, right? So when you're looking at a watch and you're, you're looking at owning a watch or whether you're looking at the watch, uh, an idea and wanting to, to create it, keep that, keep that in mind, that simplicity, because the more simple it is and the more, the more serviceable it's actually going to be. We'll keep the price of, of, uh, service low for the owner. And then hopefully it will, it will, mean that that watch will run trouble-free because there's less complication to it. And again, you can draw that back to the car industry, too, with electronics. The more complicated a car becomes, the more expensive the service is ultimately going to be on it. The more troubles you're going to bump into along the way as the car ages, like motors for windows and stuff like that breaking down. You know, and so simplicity is, I think, the key.
Podcast Host Jonathan, I hope that covers it. If not, feel free to obviously ping me and anyone that has any other questions for Jason or for the Graynado in general, thegraynadoatgmail.com. We've got one final question. It's kind of an interesting one from a gentleman named Caleb who wrote in. I've always wondered how the ratio of automatic movement rotor turns to mainspring winding is selected. Is it selected to prevent overwinding over the course of a normal workday, excessive rotor or gear torque, space constraints? I imagine that with a simple change in gear ratio, you could design a movement that would be automatically fully wound in significantly less time, thus enabling the wear to more easily keep multiple watches running through wear alone. Yeah. Caleb with a deep one.
Jason Gallop Yeah, that is a deep one there. The thing there is about, well, what's your power reserve going to be and how can you achieve full wind in the shortest period of time? That will depend on many different factors. And I think most watch companies bear that in mind when they're manufacturing their watches. The nice thing about automatics, though, is the fact that as you're wearing it, it is winding. the mainspring will never overwind. It will just, it will slip at a certain tension and then just continue, continue to wind.
Podcast Host So, uh, yeah, it's... And then from a, from a user standpoint, there's also a thing to consider where if you have an automatic watch, this obviously is not all movements. There's some from Seiko that don't have hand winding or there's some movements that don't have hand winding. But if you have an automatic watch that also provides the option of hand winding, then you essentially have two gears. Two gears, yeah. You can wear it and it will recharge as it can, or you can wind it. And I certainly know people who take their automatic off at the end of the day and give it 10 turns and put it down. And certainly if you've ever seen a watch with a power reserve, the reserve moves quite a bit faster when you're turning the crown versus just kind of, you know, errantly shaking your wrist around, hoping that you're spinning the weight fast enough.
Jason Gallop Yeah, and when you think about wear and things like that, especially on the inside of a barrel, having a watch where you're requiring a minimum number of turns on the rotor weight to actually wind it to full capacity means that while you're wearing it, that mainspring is going to be slipping I'm
Podcast Host Fair enough. I think that pretty much wraps up the questions that were sent in to us. So thanks everyone for sending those in and thank you, Jason, for being able to answer those. You're very welcome. I have a few others that I would like to pose if I can keep you for a few more minutes. It's quite windy. Yeah, it's picked up. We're moving. So we're shaking this very aerodynamic shape. What would you say the oil change of the watch service is? What's the thing that people should be able to do at home? I'm not saying open a case and do something, but is it like everyone should learn to change their own bracelets or size a bracelet. Would you leave that to somebody or do you think it's best brought to the store? What's the, what's the, or the driveway oil change of watch ownership, that kind of first level of car service or watch service?
Jason Gallop Yeah. Um, in order to get the most enjoyment out of a watch, the most obvious thing to me is for somebody to be able to change the strap on their watch quickly. And I think that, uh, that, is becoming more and more the case now. We're certainly seeing, as you well know, more and more people switching out straps, depending on what they're wearing for that day. I know I do it all of the time. So having a small watch kit to be able to do those things, typically to change, to take out links and things like that, you would only really do that once when you first purchased a watch. You typically wouldn't necessarily need to have the ability to do that. But one thing that is good to have is a set of screwdrivers, especially if any of your watches have screws for the links, because the screws will tend to loosen over time. And if you don't want to lose a screw that's going to be hard to find,
Podcast Host or have the bracelet open up on you. I have looked down and seen the head of a screw, you know, having backed itself out of a bracelet and you're like, what?
Jason Gallop Yeah. And if you don't have a set of screws that are that small to be able to do it up, then you know, you're going to be bringing it in. And I think, you know, that kind of a care kit is, is very, very important.
Podcast Host So a decent set of, like, you know, a 0.4, a 0.6, a 0.8, those sorts of screwdriver sizes, and then a spring bar tool.
Jason Gallop Yeah, absolutely. And then, you know, a microfiber cloth just to keep the case clean, that type of thing. That leads me to a second part of this, is quartz watches. There's a lot of people that have quartz watches that need to have battery changes. Right. And I see this a lot. People go, well, it's just a battery change. You know, I can do that myself. Sure enough, you know, with enough vigor, anybody can get their way into a case of a war. The caseback scratches are just incredible sometimes. Yeah, absolutely. But you see, it's not so much... It can be hard getting casebacks off, and most people can find some kind of a tool to do that. But the problem is, is that if it's going to be tough coming off, it will be difficult getting back on. And I see this a lot. Customers will bring in a watch with the case back off. They pull it out of their pocket with the case, handing me the watch and then fishing the case back out afterwards. Watch full of lint. A watch full of lint and everything else. And they've lost the concept of the fact that, you know, even the smallest piece of dust is like gravel to any kind of a movement. Um, so if you are going to change, um, change the battery and take the back off, just make sure that before you do that, that you have the ability to be able to push it back on again. Uh, and that doesn't mean hold up pushing a watch up against a wall, you know, because, uh, you know, regardless, you might put a bit of a dent in your wall, um, damage the washer. Um, I don't know which one you'd be more upset about. But yeah, you don't want to expose the watch movement to contaminants.
Podcast Host All in the hopes of saving $10 or $15 or something like that for a battery change. Really.
Jason Gallop And if you're really adamant about it, then get the right tool to be able to do that, especially to be able to open up the case and put it back together again. Because the last thing you want to do on a threaded case back is to open it up and then The only one I would add to that is a nice soft bristle toothbrush.
Podcast Host Uh, because every now and then you're sitting at your desk or you're not really doing that much and you could, you don't have to do it that frequently. I like to do it quite often, but just give the watch a little brush down. There's a lot of little metal crevices on the back of a watch and they get really gunked up. And certainly you guys have Instagram some really terrible stuff. Oh, uh, you know, as they, as they, you know, as you guys clean or need to open a watch in the area around the case back is just, I mean, it looks like it's done 4,800 miles across Canada. Yeah. So yeah, keep the watch nice and clean. And then in situations with a bracelet and such, those can be ultrasonically cleaned and do a really great job, either at a store or at a personal level, if you're into that.
Jason Gallop Absolutely. And I just put a caution out there about toothbrushes. I would use something that's a horsehair bristle or something like that. You can get, Cape Cod has them. They're not very expensive. That's a great thing to have. I'm going to have a little bit of Cape Cod, you know, for any polished watches. Yeah, because you don't want to put that on any satin-finished or straight grain-finished surfaces, but for any highly polished surfaces, that does a fantastic job. We use it a lot in the workshop as a quick clean.
Podcast Host Clean up a buff or a scratch.
Jason Gallop Yeah, and it's not like putting it polishing a case on a motor, right? It's, it's doing it by hand and you can, you know, take, take light scratches out very, very easily. Another thing is to have in that kit, poly watch. It's, uh, if you've got any watches that have acrylic plastic crystals, uh, just to have a little bit of that because you can get out, uh, surface scratches, um, with that very, very easily. And again, it's not very expensive, but, uh, you
Podcast Host I think we've covered quite a lot of questions. Is there anything that you get quite commonly that you wish people knew when they were either buying a watch or getting a watch service that we haven't already covered? Just on any basis you feel we've left kind of exposed.
Jason Gallop No, I think we've covered a lot. I think there's buyer beware when you're buying a watch, sight unseen. You want to make sure that you've got a watchmaker somewhere around that knows their stuff, that can help you with that. because I've seen it often where, you know, something's not quite right. Someone's bugged about something with a watch. They want to see it. So just watch out there. But I think, yeah, everything else, I think we've done a fairly good job of covering.
Podcast Host So, yeah, I think we did a pretty decent job. And thanks again for everyone who sent in the questions. And if anyone has any follow-up questions for you, what's the best way for them to reach out?
Jason Gallop You can direct message me through Instagram, at Rolled Orph. The other thing you can do is pop along to our website, www.roldorf.co, and you'll be able to find us there. Perfect.
Podcast Host And then for the store, you're at the corner of Burrard and West Pender. And just right down the escalators in the Burrard Centre, walk straight and you'll see the glass, the watches and the smiling faces. Absolutely. All right, perfect. Well, thanks so much for being on the show. I really appreciate the time. Thank you very much for having me. And the detail of the answers I think people are really going to like. And hopefully we can do a follow-up sometime soon. Yeah, you bet. I'd love to. All right. Thanks a bunch. And that about wraps it up for this special episode of The Grey Nato. Please show Jason some love on Instagram, and if you're in Vancouver, swing by his store and say hi. He was kind enough to offer up his time for your questions, and it looks like we may well do another round soon for any leftover and new questions. Should you have any questions, Watchmaker or otherwise, feel free to email TheGreyNato at gmail.com. Music Throat is Siesta by Jazzar via the Free Music Archive, and Mr. Heaton and I will chat to you again in two weeks.