Frost is creeping up

 Welcome back, another week in Le Locle past. 

Jaewon is getting aquatinted with the lathe. Looks like he’s building some gym equipment. 

The junior students, Gary, Phillip, Chris and Jaewon are working hard with the machines in the school, to finish up all their tools and move on to hand turning. 

Mill man Chris

Chris is doing some experiments on the lathe, trying to see the deepest cone he can make with a graver.

The lather Gary

In the meanwhile Gary has also been putting Chris’ new furnace to work in some enamel experiments. With some trial and error he found the ideal material for the enamel base and a good temperature. Here he is trying different colours to see the end result.

Fresh mint

Here we got Louis grinding hard and having made his first balance staff!

Look at that baby

Craig, always ahead, has now moved on to timing and adjustments, the heart of horology. He started timing the balances, making adjustments to the position and clearance of the regulating pins, and performing dynamic poising to bring the timekeeping into tolerance for 5 positions and at full and half winding.

Before 

After

Cesar and Bernd have happily finished with their pivot gauges, having completed their exams this week. But out of frying pan and into the fire, for balance staffs are next!

Thank you once again for reading. Until next time.

Rainy Days

 

   Week 39

And with a sudden shift in weather, the days have gone from warm and sunny to cold, rainy, and dreary. Everyone in the school felt it too, and sometimes there are just weeks where you try your best, but glass breaks, polishing scratches, and hairsprings don't bend right. Still we persist.

The best weather all week and still no sun

STUDENT HIGHLIGHTS

Workshop A

Students:
    Art, Bernd, Cesar, Joan, Louis Lu, Mun, Nine

     In spite of the melancholic weather, Cesar made some nice progress on his set of pivot gauges, completing several with sharp shoulders and smooth domes.

The small reflected ring of light from a polished dome tip

Workshop B

Students:
    Christiaan, Craig, Gary, Jaewon, Philippe, Sense    

 

Christiaan, Gary, and Philippe were introduced to the watchmaker's lathe, a small 8mm version used for hand-turning small components. They now work through a set of practice pieces, getting used to finding the right position of the graver and the feel of a smooth cut.

 

Craig joined Art in shaping of the outer coils of the hairspring. Attaching the stud via a brass pin, gently adjusting the outer coil so that the curve always sits in the middle of the two regulating pins regardless of their position, adding a double-bend so that the collet aligns centered with the pivot jewel, and tweaking everything so that the coil sits flat - this is the final step of constructing the balance. Following this, only adjustments to poise and timing remain.

All the pieces of a balance and the complete assembly

Thank you for reading!

Hope to see you again next week

(Here's hoping the weather improves) 

 

Fairs and events

Another week another dollar. 

Everybody is keeping busy. Art is almost done with his technician course (2nd year) This week he was practicing the skills with the hairspring. Here he centred and flattened the hairspring, he also bent the regulating curve under the bridge! 

Delectable 

Jae won is here using the band saw to dice up chunks of brass. No hand sawing when it comes to an 8mm plate of brass.

Cuts like butter

Gary is on the lathe with a 3 jaw chuck rectifying a case. Using a dial gauge to measure its concentricity. 

Joan hand turning pivot gauges 

Some of the senior students have started vibrating balance wheel. This is when you oscillate the wheel while comparing its vibration to a reference wheel of a known frequency. This allows you to clip the hair spring at different locations to find the correct length for the spring.

Craig using his magic 

The balance wheel and the reference wheel

On Thursday some students went to the Gaia awards show in the international watch museum in La chaux de Fonds, Congratulations to Roger Smith won the Gaia award. Very lucky some students for the opportunity to meet him and congratulate him on this special night.

Lastly on Friday Chris brought his little watchmaking assistant to watch over his work.

That’s it for this week.

Until next time 

Pierre Pays a Visit

 

   Week 37

This week the school received a visit from Pierre, a former student and veteran of the independent watchmaking industry. He spent time catching up with Henrik and Michael as well as talking with the current students about life beyond graduation.

Pierre explaining his method for enlarging a hole while maintaining center.

  

STUDENT HIGHLIGHTS

Workshop A

Students:
    Art, Bernd, Cesar, Joan, Louis Lu, Mun, Nine

     Cesar is nearing completion of his brass anvil; all machining work completed so now all it needs is a nice finish.

Joan knocked out another mandatory tool: polishing tripod complete!

Using the boring attachment on the jig borer to make the hole for the pin vise

Finished product

Workshop B

Students:
    Christiaan, Craig, Gary, Jaewon, Philippe, Sense    

 

Christiaan completed his nose vise, with Phillippe close behind. 

Christiaan's vise, and the remains of the brass stock it was machined from

 

Phillippe adjusting the angle of the workpiece on the milling machine

 

Christiaan also endeavored some very fine work on his tourbillion cage, with a hole only 0.3mm in diameter.

And it's still too big????

Jaewon continued his introduction to filing. His project this week was the interior angles of the brass truing guide (not an easy thing to get sharp!).

 

Checking test angles in the profile projector

Thank you for reading!

Hope to see you again next week

Watches and Geneva

 Eventful week, starting off with Henric teaching our senior students. Here he is teaching the more senior students how to attach a hairspring to a collet. Bending the spring, inserting the stud and cutting the stud. 

Bending the hairspring 

Inserting the collet

Jaewon our new student is now starting to learn the basic machinery. Here he had started to work on his press fit plate. Chris is using the 3D printer to make himself tracer for the pantograph to mill out parts for a tourbillon cage.

Now let’s get to Friday! A long day, met a lot of people and saw a lot of watches. The school travelled to Geneva to attend Geneva watch days and some appointments with watchmakers.

The boys

We were lucky enough to get a chance to speak to Bernhard Lederer about his creation and get some hands on experience with his lovely watch.

At the old town we sat down with Cyrano Devanthe from Oscillon and got to hear about his colour carrer as a watchmaker. With his watches in hand he broke down his philosophy behind his craft of making a watch completely handmade without the aid of a CNC at any step. He enthusiastically showed us photos on his phone of technical production methods which make it possible for his team and him to master every facet of horology. 

Look at the dial

The evening is not over yet, the team over at Urwerk were super kind to slot us in between appointments with buyers to look at their new pieces. Everyone was welcoming and happy to spend their time talking about their unique watches. Every watch we handled was unlike any other, both aesthetically and technically. 

That’s it’s for this week. Thank you for reading. Until next time!

We’re in the news!

It’s getting nippy

 Summer might be making its way out the door here in Le Locle. But the students here are still on fire with their work. 

Starting off with Craig, having finished off his engraving and surface finishing for the polishing tripod.

Looking clean

Moving on to Garry, he’s reaching the final steps of his watch case. Here he used the 3D printer to make a 45 degree polishing jig for consistent finishing.

Jig at work

Bernd finished his last mandatory tool, the pallet fork platform. This tool is used on a heating plate in order to hold down a pallet fork while its pallet jewels get replaced. The tool was made from materials found in the school’s scrap metal box and from an old main spring. The spring was blued after reshaping it. Recycling at its best!

Henrik has started to teach static poising to the senior students. Two of them are quickly approaching their finals exam!

That ladies and gentlemen is the face of concentration 

Henrik met with a student alumni who is back in Switzerland and now working in Audermars Piguet!

New student from Korea! Jaewon

That’s it’s for now, until next time!

Hard at Work

   Week 34

Louis Lu and Craig working on the lathe

STUDENT HIGHLIGHTS

Workshop A

Students:
    Art, Bernd, Cesar, Joan, Louis Lu, Mun, Nine

     This week Bernd modified a Käfer J12 pocket thickness gauge for the use with a watchmaker’s lathe. He replaced its flat contact points with two hardened and blued steel blades. He also finished his second to the last mandatory tool, the brass anvil. One more to go!

The Brass Anvil, an exercise in precision-milling different shapes

 

Joan worked on one of his mandatory tools: the v-slotted poising plate.

Workshop B

Students:
    Christiaan, Craig, Gary, Philippe, Sense    

 

Christiaan, Gary, and Philippe continued their machining education, learning how to use the milling attachment on the lathe. Gary quickly put this skill to use by machining some new screws for one of the other workshop machines.

 

Milling the slot in the screw

Philippe passed his first exam with two expertly-filed brass blocks.

Perfect fit, made by hand

  

Craig and Sense joined Art and Nine in learning how to properly assemble and disassemble a balance wheel. They practiced removing a broken balance staff, tightening a roller table, and riveting the balance staff to the balance wheel.

Art making sure the staking tool is centered

Extracting the roller table and safety roller from the balance staff

 

Sense riveting a balance wheel together with the staking set

Craig also reached a significant milestone in the construction of his watch: machining out and assembling all of the bridges and plates. All made from scratch and of his own design. Well done!

Plates fit together and awaiting finish

Thank you for reading!

Watchmaker memes, courtesy of Art

Hope to see you again next week