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How Ranfft database got integrated into The Watchmakers App

As many of you know, Dr. Roland Ranfft spent years building an incredible archive of watch movements on ranfft.de. Soon after his death, his website went down, and several projects emerged using his data - some fairly popular like ranfft.org or EmmyWatch, and at least three or four others less known. While ranfft.org claims "The data and tools from his original site were completely deleted, with no backup remaining.", that isn’t true.

Watch movements databases in 2025

There are several watch movements databases around. From first sight it looks like they are quite similar and contain the same information and it doesn't matter which to use. But is it so?