The Walt Odets Archive
A curated index of his essential writing on watches, movements and mechanical watchmaking
You can visit the source of course. Unfortunately Timezone’s repository of Walt Odet’s work is sometimes incomplete, certainly jumbled and poorly captured by search engines. There are also his wider writings.*
Fresh collectors often ask me, “What can I read? Where can I start?” Right here. So, I have curated his articles into themes and also added some Wayback links and recovered lost links where the original is missing.
Walt Odets. Picture Credit: NY Times
How a Mechanical Watch Works
The Inventory of a Simple Watch
Function of the Escapement in Detail
The Pursuit of Center Seconds – Part 1
The Pursuit of Center Seconds – Part 2
Timing, Regulation and Adjustment
Timing Results on Five High-Grade Watches
Tweaking the Mark XII – Part 1 Odets’s most complete practical series on timing, positional adjustment and escapement refinement.
Tweaking the Mark XII: Part 2.1
Tweaking the Mark XII: Part 2.2 – Part 1
Tweaking the Mark XII: Part 2.2 – Part 2
Tweaking the Mark XII: Part 2.3 – Part 1
Tweaking the Mark XII: Part 2.3 – Part 2
Important Movements and Mechanisms
Automatic and hand-wound movements
La Grande Dame des Automatiques Suisse: The Patek Caliber 27-460
Patek 240 long review. MIA*
What in the World is a Jelly Fish 344527460?
Patek Philippe’s Bread and Butter: The caliber 215
The Most Exclusive Automatic: The Vacheron Caliber 1120 A detailed study of the ultra-thin JLC 920 architecture used by Audemars Piguet, Patek Philippe and Vacheron Constantin.
From the House of Happy Diamonds: The Chopard L.U.C. Caliber 1.96 An early assessment of this modern calibre that combined industrial production with unusually serious movement architecture.
The Jaeger Le Coultre Master Ultra Thin
The IWC Portugeiser Automatic Ref. 3531
A Comparison of the Keyless Works in a Patek and a Lange
Chronographs
The Valjoux 7750 Chronograph – Part 1
The Valjoux 7750 Chronograph – Part2
Those Wonderful Piguet Chronographs – Part 1
Those Wonderful Piguet Chronographs – Part 2
Zenith Chronograph Cal. 410 – Part 1
Zenith Chronograph Cal. 410 – Part 2
Escapements and unusual technologies
The Omega DeVille Co-Axial – Part 1 A four-part examination of the first industrial implementation of George Daniels’s escapement, including Odets’s concerns about lubrication.
The Omega DeVille Co-Axial – Part 2
The Omega DeVille Co-Axial – Part 3
The Omega DeVille Co-Axial – Part 4
Direct Drive: The Remarkable Bulova Accutron Caliber 214
Complications
The Patek Annual Calendar Mechanism
The IWC Perpetual Calendar Mechanism
The Audemars Piguet Caliber 2870 – Part 1
Audemars Piguet Caliber 2870 – Part 2
The Lange 1815 Up and Down: The Caliber L942.1 – Part 1
The Lange 1815 Up and Down: The Caliber L942.1 – Part 2
The Patek Philippe Light-Wound Clock
Complete Watch Studies
The Rolex Explorer Ref. 14270 – Part 1 Odets’s most famous and controversial examination: strong chronometric performance contrasted with unexpectedly indifferent internal execution.
The Rolex Explorer Ref. 14270 – Part 2
Making a Case for the Royal Oak – Part 1
Making a Case for the Royal Oak – Part 2
Form Follows Form: The Cartier Tank Basculante – Part 1
Form Follows Form: The Cartier Tank Basculante – Part 2
A Most Unusual Hamilton Rutledge
Purely Personal Musings on a Lange Saxonia
Workshop, Restoration and Modification
Lovely Blancpain 1106 Gets A New Back – Part 1
Lovely Blancpain 1106 Gets A New Back – Part 2
To Buddy From Fritzi: A Gruen VeriThin
Affordable, Unusual and Personal Watches
Anatomy of an $85.00 Watch: The Swatch Automatic
Don’t Ask Me Why They Call it a Time Cube
Basel ’99 Sneak-Preview Highlights
Others
*Hey old timer: If you can find this or know of any other Walt Classics or have a favourite worth recording via a wayback link or other, let me know..
Thank you for compiling this. I used to avidly read Walt's articles back in the day. In fact it was his articles on the Omega Co-axial (along with reading George Daniels's Watchmaking from cover to cover) that pushed me into buying one of the early ruthenium dialled ones. It's a purchase I've never regretted.
This is a fine gesture and adds significant value to scholarship in our hobby. It has been difficult to access a lot of Walt’s writing, due to broken links and other internet shortcomings. Thanks for making the effort!