A book about reading watches, from a bench of forty-one years.

$19 · PDF · instant download

Ray Dunlap
Watchmaker, retired · Cincinnati

A book about reading watches

A shoebox of watches and nobody knows what they are.

Forty-one years at a repair bench. This is what I would tell you if you set the box down in front of me.

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125 pages · 11 chapters · PDF, instant download

Front cover of The Case Back Book by Ray Dunlap: a watch case back stamped Stainless Steel Swiss Made resting on a workshop drawing

Why the box sits there

The watches came to you with the paperwork and the furniture. A few names you half recognize. Some of them run. Most don't.

So you type the name on the dial into eBay. One listing is twelve dollars. The next is two thousand four hundred. Same watch, as far as you can tell.

That is where most people stop, and the box goes back on the shelf for another year.

Ray Dunlap at his repair bench under a task lamp, loupe on his head, working on a watch movement

Who I am

Ray Dunlap. Forty-one years at the bench in the back room of a family jewelry store in Cincinnati. The back room, not the sales floor. I never sold anybody anything.

I opened cases, cleaned movements, and said what was true, which was usually that the repair cost more than the watch. The book is that same conversation, written down.

What is inside

Eleven chapters, in the order you would need them.

  1. 01The Ugly Watch RuleWhy the plainest watch in the box is often the one worth a second look.
  2. 02Do Not Clean ItThe fastest way to take value off a watch is to make it shiny. Leave it alone.
  3. 03The Five Information ZonesEvery watch tells you what it is in five places. Where they are and what order to read them in.
  4. 04Reading the Case BackMarks, codes, stampings, and the ones people mistake for a serial number.
  5. 05Case Construction and AgeScrew back, snap back, gold filled, solid. What the case says about when it was made.
  6. 06Country of OriginSwiss, American, Japanese, or assembled from parts, and why it matters more than the name on the dial.
  7. 07Identifying the MovementGetting the caliber number without a loupe and without taking anything apart.
  8. 08The Eight Value DestroyersThe eight things that quietly turn a good watch into a common one. Most of them happen after the owner dies.
  9. 09How to Actually Look Up the NumbersWhere to search, what to type, and how to read a result page that shows twelve dollars and two thousand four hundred dollars for the same watch.
  10. 10Scripts for the Jewelry CounterWhat to say, what not to say, and what to do when the answer you get is too quick.
  11. 11The Final DecisionWear it, keep it, sell it, or have it serviced. How to choose and be done thinking about it.

If you would rather read it than keep wondering, that is the whole pitch.

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Who this is not for

If you collect watches, you already know everything in here and you should keep your money.

This is not a price guide. There are no values in it. Anyone who gives you a number over the internet is guessing.

What it does is let you look at a watch, understand what you are holding, and decide what to do next without handing that decision to a stranger.

The Case Back Book

How To Read A Watch Before Somebody Reads It For You. 125 pages, eleven chapters.

$19

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The Case Back Book cover