Hi,
I have already committed myself to an engineering university and a
degree of the same, thus any extended course at a school of horology is
an impossibility. A week or fortnight-long course for enthusiasts is a
possibility for the future, although out of my budget as an entering
college freshman.

Neverthless, I am interested in horology and would like to learn
more, and in time, maybe one could even become quite accomplished at
making one's own mechanical watches as a serious avocation even if not
a full-time career.

But I must start somewhere. Do you have specific recommendations of
the best books on watch making, covering all aspects? First I must
read. I have many interests, and only time to carry a select few to a
degree of professionalism; is horology one of them?

If in reading the available literature on making watches, I am
increasingly drawn in, the next step is to begin. In a related book
the library was able to obtain for me, a short passage implied that the
machinery associated with horology was small enough that a basic
machine shop may be able to produce it. Is this the case: on a
student's budget but with a fully-featured college machine shop at my
disposal, might I be able to make some of my own equipment if I decide
that I wish to take the next step? Secondly, where would you recommend
one to begin? Buy an inexpensive seiko automatic and make my own face,
then my own case, then my own band, and finally a movement itself...?
I am also at least equally interested, if not more so, in engraving and
guilloche and other means to embellish a custom timepiece, and I will
exercise these arts separately What is an ideal sequence in which to
learn to make watches? But first, of course, what books should I have
the library order for me to pour over :-)


thanks for your time and advice!
-Bernard Arnest