Watchmaker Opens Movement and Discovers Previous Repairman Left Apology Note Inside

Master watchmaker Rene Fallet discovered a handwritten apology note inside a client's Jaeger-LeCoultre Reverso on Monday, apparently left by a previous repair technician who had, in Fallet's professional assessment, 'committed crimes against this movement that I will spend the next three weeks correcting.' The note, written on a piece of paper approximately 4mm by 6mm and wedged between the balance cock and the mainplate, reads simply: 'I'm sorry. I tried. — D.' 'I have opened thousands of movements,' Fallet said, examining the note under a loupe. 'I have found dust, fragments of previous watchmakers' tools, and once a very small spider. But I have never found remorse.' The movement's condition, which Fallet documented in a 14-page report he described as 'more autopsy than assessment,' included a replacement balance staff of incorrect diameter, mainspring grease applied with what appears to have been a finger rather than a precision oiler, and three screws that Fallet identified as 'from a different watch entirely — possibly not even a watch. Possibly from a pair of eyeglasses.' 'Whoever D is, they knew they were in over their head,' Fallet said. 'The note is actually quite touching. It takes a certain humility to admit defeat inside a watch case where no one will find your confession for years.' Fallet has restored the movement to factory specifications and returned the apology note to the client, mounted in a small frame. The client, who purchased the watch at a flea market in Lyon, says he has 'no idea who D is' but plans to hang the framed note in his study as 'a monument to honest self-assessment.' Fallet has since begun checking all incoming movements for hidden correspondence. He has found none, though he reports that 'the silence inside most watches is somehow more unsettling now.'