Watches and cars

 Starting this week strong. Our professor, Michael along with his student, Bernd returned from Andermatt. Michael lead a week-long interactive horology program in The Chedi, for members of the Bentley Mulliner drive experience. Michael’s program involved a variety of basic watchmaking skills as well as some history of horology and motor sports. A presentation was given on the relationship between Bentley and Breitling, discussing the uses of chronographs in the world of cars.  

Michael leading the class, next to Bernd

Bernd, serving as Michael’s assistant, demonstrated the process of hand turning with a watchmakers lathe to make winding stems. Showing the amount of work need to make a simple part by hand.

Bernd demonstrating some hand turning 

Michael testing the student’s watches in the timegrapher 

Back to Le Locle, the students are keeping busy. Craig is making progress on his school watch. Using the lathe to make the base plate for his calibre. It is shaping up to quite a beauty.

Voila

Cesar (myself) is prototyping some dial possibilities with brass. A task much harder than expected, for every process a jig needs to be made, and for every jig another jig has to be made. But we’re making progress.

Prototyping 

As for the new students, they are now learning to operate one of the many machines in our school, the drilling machine. Chris has also been having some fun with the school new 3D printer and made himself a screwdriver holder. 

Myself again, update from last week. This week I finished the restoration of a Bergeon pallet fork tool. Not a quick job.

Kept the steel blue 

That’s it for this week. Thank you for reading and until next time.

Artemy bids your a good weekend

Summertime

 Week 24

The warm weather of summer has arrived! Long pants are exchanged for shorts and workshop windows are flung open.

 This week, the school welcomes another new student: Gary from Canada. He is starting the 2-year Fullskill course and already has many ambitious plans.

STUDENT HIGHLIGHTS

Workshop A

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

    Art and Nine continue their progress in the technician course, working on aligning the pallet jewels in the escapement to achieve the minimum locking that is still fully safe.

 

A tooth of the escape wheel secured against the locking plane of the pallet fork entry jewel

Art is nearly complete with the work; preparing now for the Escapement exam.

 

Cesar also spent this week working in the field of pallet alignment, but rather than the pallets themselves he repaired  the tool used to measure and depth the jewels.

 

The broken jaw and its replacement

 

Workshop B

Students:
    Craig, Christiaan, Gary, Philippe, Sense

    

This week Christiaan, Gary, and Philippe learned how to use the profile projector to take very accurate measurements of work pieces.

Christiaan has a look at the image displayed on the projector

Craig also began work on adjusting pallet fork jewels, but found time to practice polishing the 0.1mm bevels for his watch dial.

Clean and sharp, even under magnification

Thank you for reading!

Hope to see you again next week!

New era

 This week at KHWCC, two new students started their full-skills programme. They joined at a good week since on Wednesday the school took a trip to Geneva to visit the EPHJ fair. 

Our two new students 

Saw a bunch new technologies for manufacturing and measuring. Got a chance to have some hands on experience with the latest watchmaking tools and see tools which are not yet out.

Display bench by Bergeon 

Microscope which can superimpose technical drawings 

Some of our students taking a stroll through the stalls

Our professor Henrik constructed a gear train model based on a vintage 30mm calibre in Fusion360 to 3D print. This is used as a teaching material to let students better understand the inner workings in a watch.

Voila

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

Until next time.

Graduation

 

 Week 21

This week we celebrated the graduation of four students: Ivan Berets, Louis Stein, and Varun Kumar from the 2-year Fullskill course and Sheikh Bamadhaj from the 1-year Technician course. Congratulations to all of them!

Preparing for the party at the school

Ivan Berets

Varun Kumar

Louis Stein

Sheikh Bamadhaj

Going out to dinner to celebrate

Ivan, Louis, and Varun all went above and beyond the requirements of the Fullskill course, and the three of them already have jobs waiting for them with independent watchmaking companies. We will no doubt be seeing great things from them in the future.

STUDENT HIGHLIGHTS

Workshop A

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

    Even with the celebrations, work doesn't stop for the students. Bernd passed his winding stem exam this week, and Art and Nine worked on pallet fork adjustments. Joan prepared for his own winding stems by making slot gravers, sharpened to a fine point.

 

Cesar spent his time this week learning how to make snailing finish. 

 

Workshop B

Students:
    Craig, Ivan, Louis, Sense, Sheikh, Varun

    

Before graduation, Ivan, Louis, Sheikh, and Varun got in one last lesson on servicing quartz movements.

 

Louis measuring for isolation between contacts

Craig continued work on his school watch, making sure the bridges were properly aligned to the mainplate.

Piece by piece....

Thank you for reading!

Hope to see you again next week!

The cows have arrived

 

The cattle of wisdom have come to informs us that summer is soon upon us.

This is a big week for KHWCC, after a week of examinations, four students have finished their final tests. Their movements will be assessed over the weekend and their graduation will be next week. Soon we will have a new batch of students starting their journey.

Game faces on

As for the other students, they have been busy too. Art polished a cracked pallet fork jewel, wasn’t an easy job.

Cracked jewel

Voila

The students making their way through the micro mechanics course are still mastering hand turning winding stems, getting ready to take their exams soon.

Joan’s threads 

Cesar’s tempered stem

We celebrated Craig’s birthday this week by devouring the chicken pot pies he baked for us. Looking forward to the next one.

Happy birthday Craig!

That’s it for this week, until next time!

Calm before the storm

 Some good weather came to wish us a good weekend in the end!

View from the workshop 

Concentrations sharpen as 4 senior students prepare for their week long practical exams next week. This Friday they say their theory exam and spoken exam with the professor.

Ivan has also been producing multiple ETA 7750 movement holders this week with the school’s new 3D printer.

The finished product 

Craig has been making progress on his school watch and this week he has been working on the great train bridges. Milling out the general shape and drilling through holes.

Coming along 

Art constructed a small jig to hold pallet fork jewels to be polished on a tin plate. The jig can be attached to the polishing tripod he made.

Jewel polisher 

The students on the micro mechanics course are currently working on hand turning winding stems. Learning all the skills from turning, hardening and tempering with polishing.

Slot making practice 

Hand turning the winding stem pivots 

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

Tempus Fugit

 Week 17

The school has a new student: Sense from Thailand. He started work on the Technician course last week and is showing great progress.

STUDENT HIGHLIGHTS

Workshop A

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

    Joan spent this week working on the pointed nose vise, delayed by the tragedy of glue separating while the piece is still in work.

 

Workshop B

Students:
    Craig, Ivan, Louis, Sense, Sheikh, Varun

    

Craig moved on from the dial of his watch to the mechanism itself, milling out the dial side keyless works based on the design of the ETA 7001.

The pieces fit!

 Louis has assembled his watch - a detent movement of his own design made entirely from scratch, and it is tantalizingly close to working. It ticks with help, but there remains a power delivery issue to troubleshoot.

Louis, Ivan, Sheikh, and Varun have also been spending time preparing for their final exam, which is fast approaching....

Thank you for reading!

Hope to see you again next week!