running out of time

Tomas burnishing his escape wheel

This week we had a taster course scheduled for Dr. Tao, a Chinese molecular biologist working currently in Denmark.  He fell into watchmaking from reading online blogs and quickly built interest into this beautiful profession.  Through the 5 day taster course, he learned what watchmakers actually did and got a taste of what skill sets a watchmaker requires.

A bit larger than molecular biology

This is the last week Simone, Tomas, and Theren will be working on their school watches during the school hours since they will have to start preparing for their finals in mid March.  Tomas assembled his tourbillon and made adjustments and added small details to his complication, such as the banking pins and studding up of the hairspring.  Simone did final adjustments to his chronograph mechanism and started to do final finishing of the components.  Theren started assembling his main movement, also making adjustments to endshakes and the escapement.

Theren enlarging a jewel hole with diamond paste

Eddie cutting a pinion

Shuai taking measurements for his school watch

Simone focused on his chronograph adjustments

Eddie started making wheels and pinions to test out his design.  Shuai continues to design his school watch, starting to prepare the making of the mainplate.

Henrik made finals questions in Trivial Pursuit form to help the students study for the final

A Necessary Evil

Simone's finished bridges

Tomas cutting his pallet fork angles on beryllium copper

Shuai taking down measurements for his school watch design

Eddie using the microscope for precision oiling

Theren and Tomas machining out their school watch

Throughout the week the students continue to work on their school watches.  Shuai and Eddie have started on their designs, Eddie has even started to make some prototype parts such as the barrel cover and drum.  Shuai has been taking down measurements and designing his watch, still undecided on some specifics of the movement.
Tomas begun production of his pallet fork and milled out the spokes for his tourbillon.  Theren finished his balance bridge and pallet fork bridge and is focusing on the completion of the main movement now.  Simone finished all the finishing on his school watch and will start to assemble and adjust the chronograph next week.

The Witschi Q1 is extremely powerful

Theren trying out quartz analysis

Although the school is focused on classical watchmaking, quartz is still something the students will need to know for their future careers in watchmaking.  The students learned how the quartz watches work and how to analyze them for the different types of errors that may occur in the quartz and what they can do about it.  By using the Witschi Analyzer Q1 we are able to see very detailed information about the workings of the quartz watch.  In the end, quartz watches are also very interesting and have their own appeals.

Breguet!

The Breguet template with the Breguet terminal curve

Theren trying out bending of the Breguet

Eddie giving the Breguet a try

This week the students learned how to bend the long awaited Breguet Overcoil.  The Phillips Terminal Curve and Breguet Overcoil is used to overcome the Caspari effect, which is one characteristic that affects isochronism.  It is considered a higher skill to be able to bend an overcoil since it is not so easy and it affects time keeping greatly.

students working hard

Tomas centering a hole from his Tourbillion cage

Geneva stripes testing on the Aciera F1

Shuai turning the chronograph seconds hand tube

Besides learning about the Breguet hairsprings the students continued to work on their seperate projects.  Shuai finished the restoration of a Valjoux 72 and is now working on a second one.  This time he had to make a new chronograph seconds hand tube.  Eddie continued on the design of his school watch while finishing some timing exercises at the same time.  Theren made some bridges for his jumping second mechanism and is now starting to make the pallet fork bridge and balance bridge.  Simone tested out different types of finishing in preparation of decorating his school watch mainplate.  He has tried circular graining and côtes de Genève and will continue to test in the following week.  Tomas made the fixed fourth wheel for his tourbillion and is getting ready to make the pallet fork next week.

School watches and Restoration

Theren making a small bridge

Tomas centering the microscope for his tourbillion bridge holes

Shuai bending the chronograph runner pivot back straight

The students kept working on their individual projects this week.  Eddie continued to design his school watch this week, almost finishing his Inventor drawing.  He has been reading a lot of books for research on different ways of designing the movement.  Shuai is working on a client's Valjoux 72 chronograph, doing restoration work including polishing down a chipped jewel on the pallet fork.  Tomas is making incredible progress on his tourbillion, making the tourbillion cage spin today.  Simone finished adjusting the main movement for his school watch and has started beveling and decorating the mainplate and bridges.  Theren worked on the winding and setting of his school watch all week, finishing the ratchet, crown, and winding pinion.

Eddie making the design of his school watch, taking the omega 265 as his base 

Simone trying out perlage on his school watch

Chipped pallet fork jewel

Polished and restored

Next week the students will learn the theory behind the Breguet haisrping and how to bend them.  Everyone is looking forward to it! 

SIHH

Trivial Pursuit for watchmaking lovers

Simone enters another world

It was the first time the SIHH was open to the public last Friday, so even though the students are all swamped with their personal projects, they had to go check it out.  SIHH, sort of like Basel World is a platform where brands introduce their new products of the year and allows visitors to get a closer look at them.  It is much smaller than Basel World, thus wasn't overwhelming.  The students really enjoyed their trip, being able to see some of their favorite brands such as Lange & Sohne, Vacheron, and of course Voutilainen.

Theren marking the cuts for his jumping second wheel

Simone checking the measurements to his axle

Shuai making pallet jewel adjustments

Tomas reaming open jewel holes for the perfect fit

Theren learns how to use the topping tool to remove burrs from his freshly cut 4th wheel

A different kind of gear cutting setup

After SIHH the students came back home refreshed and continued with their separate projects.  Theren finished his pinions and started working on his jumping second mechanism for his school watch.  Tomas finished all his bridges and is now making adjustments on the wheels and pinions.  Simone finished turning a new pallet fork axle for his school watch.  Eddie finished his first personal repair, which was a vintage pocket watch.  Shuai worked all week on a client's chronograph restoration, having to reshape a pallet jewel in the process.

Chiming time!

Simone following the steps to check the minute repeater

The single most complex classical complication is no doubt the Minute repeater, and this week the students had the chance to get some hands-on experience on understanding how the mechanisms function and how to check that everything is as they should, within their tolerances.  There was a lot of bings and bongs going around the classroom this week, and the students utterly enjoyed it.

Eddie working on his personal pocket watch

Tomas finishing his repairs

Shuai doing fine adjustments on his school repairs

Theren burnishing some pivots for his pinion

The students continued to work on their respective projects.  Tomas finished his tourbillion bridge for his school watch and will now start working on the tourbillion cage!  Simone is working on his school watch chronograph, making the final adjustments so that he can start decorating the movement.  Theren is working on his school watch gear train, making pinions and the barrel arbor.  Eddie and Shuai are working on their personal repairs at the moment, and simultaneously finishing their timing exercises.  

Theren checking the engagement on his pinion with the depthing tool

Completed center pinion

The school will be travelling to the SIHH in a few and hope to see a lot of interesting watches and people, possibly you! 

School's in session

Lauri showing the students his company's products

Hope everyone had a great winter holiday, cause we sure did!  The students all went home to their respective countries for the holidays to enjoy some time with family and friends along with some much needed rest.  After three short weeks, the students are back for the final push until graduation in March.  They still have a lot of work and different projects to finish before final exams (looks like they have to power through a lot of work in the coming months).

Theren back to pinion cutting

Theren trying out a new macro lens

Tomas finishing up his watch repairs

Eddie taking measurements for his repairs

Shuai beveling a pocket watch bridge

Simone adjusting his chronograph

We had a product presentation from Rataspari, a relatively new Finnish company making high tech horological machines.  Lauri showed the students their newest product, the digital hairspring vibration counter, which is basically a digital version of the vibrating tool the students used during their hairspring course.  It is great to see an innovative company making new generation watch tools.

Lauri demonstrating how the digital vibrating tool is used

Very sleek design for a vibrating tool

Another product is the precision heat plate