Clouds on the horizon

Stormy week over here in Le Locle, signs points to an end of winter but we will not get our hopes up yet. 

This week the workshop 1 students; Bernd, Louis and myself have started learning the ever exciting and frustrating topic of hairsprings. Slowly hypnotising our selves in the spirals. We learnt the assembly of a balance wheel, attaching the spring to the collet and the stud, flattening and centring the spring. Still a lot more content to cover next week.

Joan took and passed his gear train exam this week, now being a step closer to finishing up the course content.

I took apart an old pocket watch for restoration and found a very bizarre pallet fork. We assumed it was some bad restoration job done in the past. The pallet fork has no axel but sounds around in a fixed post.

Jae won is working on his brass anvil and making quick progress.

We are joining up two weeks of content this time. A lot has been happening these last few days. We’ll start with the most important, Craig started his final exam! Yesterday he took his theory exams and today he filled in the scratch sheet and more. Next week he will start servicing and off he goes. 

The other senior students have finished up learning all the content of servicing a watch up to the timing. Learning to assemble the entire balance wheel, use the vibrating tool, static and dynamic poising along with hair spring manipulation. All very exciting stuff.

Disassembled balance 

Chris, Phill and Gary are figuring out how to burnish pivot gauges, a sensitive skill where a small sneeze can ruin hours of work. 

Chris’ pivot

Jaewon has done some very nice grattage on his brass anvil, came out very nicely.

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

Exams Passed and Future

 

   Week 6

The snow and ice are starting to melt; the hope for warmer days is around the corner.

The view from the workshop Friday afternoon

STUDENT HIGHLIGHTS

Workshop A

Students:

    Bernd, Caio, Cesar, Guilherme, Joan, Louis Lu

     Caio and Guilherme have passed their first exam! The filing milestone reached, they now move on to the lathe, learning proper operation and how to sharpen the gravers on the diamond disk.

 

Cesar continued his cannon pinion restoration, polishing the sides of the tube.

 

 

Workshop B

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

 

Craig has officially completed all requirements to take the final exam. All that remains now is practice and more practice.

A practice movement disassembled to look for broken parts and prepare for cleaning

 

Gary is working on making his own enamel dial. He has made the copper blank and coated the back with counter-enamel. The front surface has been treated, and is ready for the fire.

 

 

 

Jaewon finished his and-turning exercises and now has a shiny collection of cylinders.

 

 

Philippe spent the week on the lathe, first taking (and passing) the hour wheel exam, then making his own barrel closing tool.

 

 

 

Thank you for reading!

Hope to see you again next week

First month is over

 Hello everyone, time is flying by! Our new students have already been here for a month and are quickly learning how to use all the machinery in our school. Soon they will take their first filling exam.  On the topic of exams, Bernd took his escarpment adjustment exam and did very well, now he only has one more exam to take before his final test.

Here is view of the chilly walk to school in the morning.

Jaewon had taken upon himself to start a very interesting restoration project. He is restoring a vintage JLC Memovox with an alarm complication, this watch has many pieces missing and will not be an easy job. Here we can see the alarm function at work. 

Here is also some of his hand turning practices.

Joan started to restore a mysterious little pocket with a solid golden case and a cylinder escapement. The winding stem was rusted solid into the case, but some a lot of work it came loose and is ready for a deep clean.

Old beauty 

 

Ready for cleaning 

That’s it for this week, hoping for less snow on the weekend.

Until next time!

Cenic Visit

   Week 4

This Friday, the school made a trip to Cenic Watches to peruse their shelves and shelves of watch tools and selection of movements. The owners were helpful as ever, and the visit was full of tempting purchases.

 

STUDENT HIGHLIGHTS

Workshop A

Students:

    Bernd, Caio, Cesar, Guilherme, Joan, Louis Lu

     This week Cesar tried his hand at restoring a cannon pinion from an old pocket watch. The thin walls of the original tube had torn, so he press-fit a new tube into the pinion and turned it to the correct shape.

 

 

Joan continued the technician course, using the jewel pusher to adjust the divisions and endshakes of the geartrain. 

Pressing the center wheel jewel to the correct height

 

Workshop B

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

 

Christiaan and Gary started their introduction fine micromechanics with exercises of turning between centers. This is a method of using the watchmaker's lathe to achieve near-perfect concentricity. They will need to be practiced in this method to make accurate pivots.

 

 

 

Last week, Craig took a short break from his final exam preparations and used the Geneva Stripe setup to make a new variant he devised: Pinwheel Stripes! We may be seeing these on future projects of his...

 

Jaewon began hand-turning on the watchmaker's lathe, finishing one shallow female cone and one deep one.

 

Thank you for reading!

Hope to see you again next week

Warming up

 All of our students are warming up. The new students are picking up better techniques for filling and shaping that brass. Slowly going insane filling square after square. The senior students are working on pallet fork adjustment. A fun new skill with a lot of time spent under the microscope.

Henrik gave us a class on Geneva stripes and different techniques used to make it. 

Here is Chris taking a shot at the stripes

Jaewon is once again having fun and making chess pieces in the lathe. 

Gary over here made a custom graver handle to take care of his fingers.

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

New Year: Start!

   Week 2

Here's hoping everyone had joyous holidays and a restful vacation, because now it's time to get back to work!

This week the school welcomes two new students for its fullskill program: Guilherme and Caio. The world of horology awaits them. 

Guilherme (left) and Caio (right) getting settled into their workbenches

 

STUDENT HIGHLIGHTS

Workshop A

Students:

    Bernd, Cesar, Caio, Guilherme, Joan, Louis Lu

     Bernd, Cesar, Joan, and Louis Lu got right back into the technician course with lessons on the escapement. There's plenty to learn here, from the proper clearance for the safety features to the method for adjusting the pallet jewels for proper lock.

 

Joan also used some of his time this week to work on barrel adjustments. 

 

Lubricating a mainspring

Adding braking grease to the rim of an automatic barrel

Workshop B

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

 

Christiaan spent this week on the lathe, cutting and polishing hour wheels.

 

 

 Jaewon put his had to some woodworking; making a graver handle to make hand-turning a little more comfortable.

Thank you for reading!

Hope to see you again next week