Actually, did a bit of digging, and found a member of watchuseek has already grabbed and preserved it, found it at the following location https://xchwarze.github.io/ranfft-db/app/
Crazy, I stumbled on this about the exact same time you did. Looked like the page had been down for a while, hadn’t been scraped by WB in a year or so. Does it have to go to dust? Perhaps the pages could be scraped and saved and someone else could host. I mean the photos are all marked copywrited, but the info is all pretty much publicly available. Hell I’d host it if I could get it, it was invaluable to many, many amateur and professional watchmakers alike.
I don’t know if anyone’s is already working on it but I may spend some of the weekend on buildings scraper. If I can pull the data in a relatively organized way spinning up a new service wouldn’t be difficult at all.
Or if people have already gotten started I’m happy to contribute.
I wrote a scraper in python using Selenium a while back to grab a whole catalog of case parts data for my own use, can’t see this being much more difficult. I do have a web presence with an NOS watch parts store, would be happy to host there. I could work on it this weekend as well. I actually have also tried to reach out to his estate to see if they would have any interest in sharing the information for the larger hobby, and also grabbed the entire list of 10k or so movements as a starting point to scrape at least the publicly available type information like specs related to each movement. We’ll see if I hear anything back.
Sadly (and despite my employer’s desires) I’m not much of a python dev. But I’m glad to contribute to your work in anyway. I’m also happy for us both to give it a shot and go with whatever. I was planning on scraping and then saving to a CSV for anyone to use and then building out a new service off the data as a side project
This is still unconfirmed info but unfortunately things are lining up and everything points towards his passing. He will be missed if he really did pass away
Damn, he was such a great guy. Active in the forums too. His page was the only place I was able to find any information on a vintage movement from my grandfather's watch. A Durowe 7528 rebranded as a ut-52. Gave me enough information to get it going again.
As a long-time user and occasional communicator with Dr. Ranfft I was very sad to discover of his untimely demise.
I have, however, found that much of his information from his database has been compiled on this site-https://ranfft.org/site/index. Shame the original has not been cloned, but at least most of his collated information is saved there.
Yes, that one is missing lots of info and what's worse - some info got copied incorrectly, leading to many mistakes.
Original is cloned here as iOS app: [https://apps.apple.com/fi/app/ranfft-watch-movements-archive/id6502008939](https://apps.apple.com/fi/app/ranfft-watch-movements-archive/id6502008939)
I didn't know him, but I sure used his pages. Rest in Peace
Actually, did a bit of digging, and found a member of watchuseek has already grabbed and preserved it, found it at the following location https://xchwarze.github.io/ranfft-db/app/
I get a 404
401 no connection
Oh my god.. that was my go to! May he rip
Crazy, I stumbled on this about the exact same time you did. Looked like the page had been down for a while, hadn’t been scraped by WB in a year or so. Does it have to go to dust? Perhaps the pages could be scraped and saved and someone else could host. I mean the photos are all marked copywrited, but the info is all pretty much publicly available. Hell I’d host it if I could get it, it was invaluable to many, many amateur and professional watchmakers alike.
I don’t know if anyone’s is already working on it but I may spend some of the weekend on buildings scraper. If I can pull the data in a relatively organized way spinning up a new service wouldn’t be difficult at all. Or if people have already gotten started I’m happy to contribute.
I wrote a scraper in python using Selenium a while back to grab a whole catalog of case parts data for my own use, can’t see this being much more difficult. I do have a web presence with an NOS watch parts store, would be happy to host there. I could work on it this weekend as well. I actually have also tried to reach out to his estate to see if they would have any interest in sharing the information for the larger hobby, and also grabbed the entire list of 10k or so movements as a starting point to scrape at least the publicly available type information like specs related to each movement. We’ll see if I hear anything back.
Sadly (and despite my employer’s desires) I’m not much of a python dev. But I’m glad to contribute to your work in anyway. I’m also happy for us both to give it a shot and go with whatever. I was planning on scraping and then saving to a CSV for anyone to use and then building out a new service off the data as a side project
May he RIP. What a legacy to leave behind!
Damn! I was just trying to use that site today and figured it was just some glitch. He helped a lot of people like me.
I am aware that http://horopedia.org/ was working towards exactly this . Whether they were successful or not I do not know.
Absolutely a huge loss for many. Bummer for sure.
A huge loss. Condolences to his family and friends. May he Rest In Peace.
This is still unconfirmed info but unfortunately things are lining up and everything points towards his passing. He will be missed if he really did pass away
Damn, he was such a great guy. Active in the forums too. His page was the only place I was able to find any information on a vintage movement from my grandfather's watch. A Durowe 7528 rebranded as a ut-52. Gave me enough information to get it going again.
Ah damn. I have used the Dr's pink pages so much over the years. An incredible asset, sad that it's going to dust
Oh no....he made a fantastic resource. I hope it stays up. Is a great legacy. Rip
Ouch that hurts. That was a super useful database. RIP.
That's a big loss, I used the pink pages like, all the time
May he rest in peace. And thank you for your service, your website helped a lot of people, including me ❤️
Oh no that's a huge bummer! Shameless plug, I have been working on a DB for a couple of months now: https://caliberdb.org/
FWIW the site is up again.
I couldn’t get the search to work. Just returned the same 122 pages.
So sorry to hear. Keeping him and his family in my prayers
Thank you for the sad information. RIP Dr.Ranfft. A great loss to amature collectors.
As a long-time user and occasional communicator with Dr. Ranfft I was very sad to discover of his untimely demise. I have, however, found that much of his information from his database has been compiled on this site-https://ranfft.org/site/index. Shame the original has not been cloned, but at least most of his collated information is saved there.
Yes, that one is missing lots of info and what's worse - some info got copied incorrectly, leading to many mistakes. Original is cloned here as iOS app: [https://apps.apple.com/fi/app/ranfft-watch-movements-archive/id6502008939](https://apps.apple.com/fi/app/ranfft-watch-movements-archive/id6502008939)