Masterclass!

  Week 47

This week Henrik gave a masterclass on how to re-lume hands in the event that it is damaged or if someone asks for it.

 

The super luminova in a mixing bowl under UV light.

Close up of the hour hand without lume.

The hour hand after filling with super luminova paint.

The lume under UV light before final cleaning.

STUDENT HIGHLIGHTS

Workshop B

Students:

Dean, Faris, Ivan, Louis, Tetsu, Varun

    This week Ivan worked on an Audemars Piguet case for a client.

    This week Dean, Faris, and Tetsu learn how to use the leak finder as well as learning how to check watches for water resistance in general. 

Dean and Tetsu also worked on their own movements for repair points.

Dean is showing Faris how the Molfres balance staff extraction machine works.

GUEST STARRING

Workshop A

Students:

Amer, Dunham, Daniel, David, Harold, Miguel 

    This week, Daniel, David and Miguel learned how to do complete restoration of barrels. Which includes how to close and open the end shake and side shake of manual and automatic barrels. They also learned how to rivet the bridle of the mainspring. 

    This week David practiced turning a rivet from blue steel and riveting a mainspring.

The rivet made from blue steel.

The bridle riveted back onto the mainspring.

 

    This week Dunham learned to do hand turning on the 8mm lathe and how to file squares by hand.

 

 

COMING UP NEXT

Next week we have another bench tester from Taiwan!

 

 

Thank you for reading!

Hope to see you next week!

Another Bench Test!

 Week 46

This week we had another bench tester! Sheikh Ibrahim from Singapore!

 

Here he is assembling a 6498!

STUDENT HIGHLIGHTS

Workshop A

Students:
Amer, Dunham, Daniel, David, Harold, Miguel 

    This week Daniel, David and Miguel continued working on oiling the winding and setting of their 7 movements and also learned how to clean and oil the barrel of manual and automatic watches.

    Daniel has been finding the best size for a minute wheel restoration, unfortunately the current wheel just a bit too big.

    Daniel also needed to make custom Horia pushers for a bridge restoration.

The new pusher

New minute wheel in brass

 

    This week Miguel also finished his barrel closing tool.

It is larger than the standard tool from Bergeon to accomodate larger watch barrels.

It was also polished to be more transparent than the standard so you could see the barrel you are working on.

Here you can see a barrel that is being oiled.

The tool is clear enough that you can see the drops of oil for lubricating from the top.

    This week Harold redid and reviewed the disassembly, cleaning and assembly of three types of Incablocs, practiced on how to fix mislocking, and worked on the movements.

    This week Dunny was very busy! He finished his Steel angle rule, polishing tripod, and pointed nose vise ready for finishing, serviced his 8mm lathe, sharpened 4 gravers and started hand turning.

GUEST STARRING

Workshop B

Students:
Dean, Faris, Ivan, Louis, Tetsu, Varun

    This week, Varun made a winding stem for a vintage LeCoultre movement and also continued working on his polishing tripod.

    This week Faris started learning about balance staff and hairsprings.

    This week Dean worked on making a hairspring collet for a vintage Rolex movement.  This required the drilling of the pallet staff hole to 0.2 mm and the hairspring hole to 0.15 mm.

 

 

Thank you for reading!

Hope to see you next week!

Bench Test!

 

Week 45 

Last weekend we had a nice surprise, Theren and Tomas who are both alumni of the school, and their friend Mike came to visit!

Left to right: Tomas, Theren, Henrik, Mike and Michael.

  This week we had another bench tester! Art from Kazakhstan!

Here he is trying to assemble an ETA 6498 movement.

 

STUDENT HIGHLIGHTS

Workshop B

Students:
Dean, Faris, Ivan, Louis, Tetsu, Varun

    This week Dean and Tetsu are working on their own personal projects while patiently waiting for the results of their final exam.

    Faris completed and passed his escapement exam!

    Varun completed and passed his winding stem exam!

    Ivan and Louis worked on several personal projects.

GUEST STARRING

Workshop A

Students:
Amer, Dunham, Daniel, David, Harold, Miguel 

    This week Daniel, David and Miguel began their 2nd year technician course.

    They learned how to sharpen and modify their screwdrivers, reshape their tweezers, they each had to disassemble and properly oil 30 incablocs, and they learned how to oil the winding and setting mechanism.

A disassembled Incabloc

 

An assembled, cleaned and oiled Incabloc.

Miguel is oiling and putting together a 6498 movement.

David is cleaning the parts of his 6498 prior to oiling.

Thank you for reading!

 Hope to see you next week! 

Meeting New Friends!

 

Week 44

    This week we had a nice surprise when Henry Ly came to visit! He was one of Henrik's previous students and we got to talk about the industry and get to know each other over dinner.

STUDENT HIGHLIGHTS

 

Workshop A

Students:
Amer, Dunham, Daniel, David, Harold, Miguel 

    This week Daniel, took his pivot gauge and hour wheel exams. He also started minute wheel restoration on an old detent pocket watch.

The watch disassembled into a parts tray.

    Daniel also made a tool to remove the roller table from the balance wheel.

This week David made several bushings for a Peseux 7001 and an ETA 6498 movement.

The red arrow is pointing to the jewel bushing that David made.

 

This is a threaded bushing for the P 7001.

 

This week Miguel finished his polishing tripod.

Here it is straight grained, beveled, and plated in white rodium.

 

    This week Harold learned and relearned the terms, theories, and mathematics on how the escapement works, and was working on the movements.

 

 

GUEST STARRING

 

Workshop B

Students:
Dean, Faris, Ivan, Louis, Tetsu, Varun

    This week Dean and Tetsu finished their final exam!

    Ivan is in the process of making a new barrel bridge for an old pocket watch.

The bridge has been made and he is now modifying it to accommodate the balance bridge.

    Louis made a new jumper and pusher spring for his split second chronograph.

A: The new jumper spring that Louis made on the pantographe
B: The base of the old jumper spring

A: The old pusher spring with a broken tail
B: The new pusher spring that Louis made on the pantographe

    This week Varun finished his winding stem practice exam in preparation for the real exam next week!

 

Thank you for reading!

Hope to see you again next week!