K&H Watchmaking Competence Centre: Vintage Chronograph Valjoux 22/23 Chronograph Course

WEEK 10: EVERYONE IS AWAY 😆

Harman left to meet with his parents in Sweden! Markus also left to attend a wedding. In the meantime, the workshop was bustling with activity as Jack from AWCI came for the Chronograph course.

Harman Wadhwa

Origin : New Delhi, India

Age : 28

Watchmaking class : Not available

Pierre Aubert

Origin : Toulouse, France

Age : 22

Watchmaking class : 2Y Fullskill Program

Current mood: I had such a great week!! I spent the week working on my tools during school time and have really pushed the hours after school to make progress on my school watch! For clarity purposes I will let you have a look at the pictures and their respective description down below! It should be easier to understand the process :) Again, if you have any questions do not hesitate to ask them!! Have a great week-end and see you next week!

Markus Mc Donald

Origin : Stockholm, Sweden

Age: 20

STEP 1: SCHOOL WATCH

I finished filing the Yoke last Sunday, it is now fully functional: it allows smooth setting action and winding. I will bring its spring to final dimensions later. In fact, I have dedicated this week to the making of my setting lever spring (or jumper for Jack 😉). The first step was to design the spring according to the travel of the setting lever in between the setting and winding positions (inherently determined by the shape-size of my Yoke!).

Once I figured out the appropriate design, I prepared my sequence of operations for using the Jig Borer! And that is when the fun start 😆

In fact, I had to start over three times:
#1 The drill broke halfway through the process, rendering the piece useless. (Bottom right in the picture above)
#2 Everything went well except that I messed up my milling operation calculations at the last minute 😂 and was left with a full hole rather than a nicely milled area around my previously drilled hole(Bottom right)
#3 Finally got there!! 😎 (Bottom left). It is actually a lot of fun to go through all these mistakes..!! Why? I simply LEARN A LOT..!! and I really enjoy improving the way I do things every time I have to re-do them!! Next step: sawing my piece out of the steel plate.

After I sawed it, I hardened it and tempered it. It was now ready for grinding! The goal: use a lathe on which is mounted a diamond cutting wheel to grind a rather rough piece, and bring it closer to its final dimensions.

The peg wood sticks allowed me to precisely move the spring into the wheel in order to remove material. I will now use diamond files to give it its final shape and make it functional!

HENRIK'S WORDS

This week was very fun and motivating, Jack from the United States came over for a specialized course on the Vintage Chronograph. We went through all the theory and analyzing of the function as well as made a functioning hammer for one of the Valjoux 22 movements, we also had time to modify a screwdriver to be extra short so that Jack can adjust the eccentric's directly in the microscope as well as making a column wheel key to be able to check the timing of all the levers operating with the column wheel, below I put some highlights form the course, not in any particular order. Pierre did very well and progressed on his school watch with his setting lever spring, Harman had time to do one more practice exam before he went a short stint over to Sweden, Markus continued working on his tools until he also left on Friday to attend a marriage. Have to run now, but see you next week and have a great weekend!!