Watchmaking Hardcover – May 3, 2011

There are a few books in existence that cover their subject well enough to be an industry standard and yet fit in your lap. This is one of em. It is highest quality in it's making. The subject is watch making and the writer shows evidence through pictures that his work appears impossible to do but the text takes you through it in an organized and clear fashion giving the basic steps so, if you ever wanted to, you too could do it. (Its like any art form, the skill is learned with lots of practice) It shows how to make little tiny parts out of high carbon steel for an exact purpose and the reason of each process. The other book in this class is Gordon Cornell's book on model airplane engines.

George Daniels wanted to write a book about hand made high quality watches and how to build them. This book covers every aspect of that process. If you could only have one book on the subject, this would be it. The mechanical drawings, some in color, plus the photographic plates of assembled and disassembled watches are excellent. Another aspect of this book deals with the watchmaker's workshop and what tools, machines and skills are needed to accomplish this difficult, to say the least, task.Clearly Daniels was a master of this craft and he also had a world view of the watchmaking industry. You learn that the expensive high quality mechanical watches from Switzerland are still made in batches (series) where the parts are mass produced. Daniels' approach reverts to the one of a kind, hand made watch where every part is produced by hand. There is no mass production.Concerning the various subsystems that make up a watch, Daniels goes through all of them, explaining how they work and their advantages and disadvantages. On the topic of movements (escapements) he starts with the primitive verge escapement and takes it from there through the standard lever designs to his modern invention known as the coaxial escapement. He provides much detail in how these movements actually work. Daniels clearly had a great knowledge of the past great watchmakers such a Breguet and Arnold to name a few. And it is also clear that Daniels was guided but not a copier of these classic mechanical watch designs. He completely understood their mechanisms and used that knowledge to innovate and make significant design improvements and breakthroughs such as his coaxial escapement.Daniels understands the interplay between the watch consumer and the watchmaker/watchmaking industry. The fact that we still have a thriving industry in mechanical watches in a world were an electronic quartz watch can be more accurate and cost much less, shows that there is still a viable market for those who value a high quality, high priced, mechanical timepieces.Daniels' timepieces required thousands of hours to complete and because of their quality and function, he was able to keep this art form alive appealing to connoisseurs who are willing to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars to own one of these unique timepieces.I think that Daniels wrote this book because he wanted to leave a legacy to future generations about his work and unique accomplishments that might otherwise be forgotten as the world continues to move from a real representation of things to a digitally contrived artificial representation. Hopefully, the fascination and appreciation of fine mechanical timepieces will continue and this book will continue to be a source for building or at least deciphering them.

I love everything about this book, now once I understand it all I will be happy. This is a book you purchase to use over your lifetime. There seems to be several lifetimes of information in this book but one man did it all in one lifetime and that just blows me away. He builds on the past like everyone else but Daniels has some fantastic watches and fantastic ideas for watchmaking. This isn't about taking a watch apart and putting it back together, its about building everything from scratch everything even the screws and springs. Its fantastic I just hope to be able to do a few of the techniques described in this book.

Purchased for horology loving family member. He loved this book he was very haooy with this book.

Truly one of the great texts on watchmaking. As an amateur, I don't deign myself proficient enough to truly take advantage of the majority of the knowledge here. However, Daniels was nothing if not a great teacher, if this book is any indication. Being smart or extremely proficient in a subject does not at all have any bearing on your ability to pass that knowledge to another. Often, I'd argue, those that operate on the highest levels become incapable of explaining things to those on their way up. Any of you who have taken more advanced specialized physics/math/science classes will know exactly what I mean - that professor who was a genius but clearly was not capable of phrasing things in a way you were able to comprehend. Daniels clearly has no such problems and almost seems to remove the veil of complexity that surrounds many of the advanced watchmaking topics. His ability to teach is immediately apparent from the get-go.Daniels makes things beyond simple, despite their apparent complexity. While I am far from putting, as I said, the majority of the book into practice, I understand conceptually how every single thing in this book works on a mechanical level after about 3 complete reads. I have put a lot of what I've learned into use in my own watchmaking, and it shows. Daniels truly is one of the most important figures ever to touch the art of horology. Even just as a casual coffee table book, this one is a gem. The diagrams and explanations are beyond compare. If you are an engineer or mechanically inclined person of any field, you will delight in reading this. One of the best books I have ever had the privilege of reading.

The amount of information contained within the pages of this volume are so absolutely astounding, both so immaculately in depth on aspects of watchmaking unknown to me and just as much an intimate recollection of a lifetime spent mastering a craft. For watch enthusiasts and collectors and repairers alike, this is a wonderfully invaluable tome not just for one to keep but the perfect gift as well.