SURPRISE WEEK!

 WEEK 111

Willy, Yuriy, Alex, Michael

Origin : Singapore, Canada, Taiwan, Malaysia 

Watchmaking class: Technician & Fullskill 

Current mood: It is another busy week. Michael and Alex are working on the 7 movements for the final timing as well as full assembly including all the complications. A very interesting process to say the least. In the mean time, Willy and Yuriy takes on the final exam. Fingers crossed that they pass with flying colors!!

Renato & David

Origin: Zug, Zürich, Switzerland

Watchmaking class: Fullskill

Current mood: David worked on the female cone and finished all other press fit parts. Later on he worked on the poising plate tool and finished the V shaped cut. I had a milling week this week. Did a test piece to practice the milling to be done on the 8mm brass anvil tool. Did it later on on the real piece and it turned out fine. Many steps involved and having an exact milling plan upfront is highly recommended to avoid any mistakes. Especially on this piece that contains many steps, manual ones, milling, jig boring... very easy to make a mistake on the milling machine or in the calculation. Also milled a deep hole through Yuriy's Bergeon 3007 collet reaming tool, so he has full visibility from the bottom of it. Plenty of milling, cool week!

Name: Markus McDonald.
Origin: Stockholm, Sweden. 
Course: 2 years full skill course.
Current mode: This week I worked on two things, firstly the poise error for the 6498 to improve the timing. Secondly the 7750 specically three stages. Initaly assembly and disasembly, this went well being different than the other calibers due to the chronograph module, then oiling initally just the chronograph section and then the entire watch and lastly repeating the whole process several times to improve and also improving small details and quality such as the approach to disasembly, oiling and cleaning.

This went well as my understanding and skill for the 7750 improved a lot making it an intense week but also good.

STEP 1:  OMEGA! (ALL) 

Amazing visit! a must for anyone interested in watches!

STEP 2:  BOOKS & DVD's! (RENATO) 

HENRIK's WORDS:

 

Still raining off and on! Same as last week. However, this week had some pleasant surprises!  First of all, we went to Herrli in Bienne ones again and as always got really good stuff, I got a monster case-back opener which is extremely stable and rigid, have never seen anything on this level before! I cleaned it and tried it out on a very hard to open titanium case, it opened the case-back without a struggle whatsoever and made no mark at all! I also got a very rare antique handmade Breguet double bend tweezer and a bunch of NIVAROX 2 quality hairsprings for my stock, I got all of it for a very friendly price, Thank you Maurizio! As a surprise one of my former students dropped in as well, we go way back to the olden and golden WOSTEP times, probably around 2005-2006 or so, I had him in the refresher course and have not seen him for a couple of years or so, he now works in Omega, and recommended us to visit the Omega Museum as we were only 10 minutes’ walk away, what a great idea! it was surely a surprise high light of the day, especially for me who never visited before and Omega is also one of my favourite all-round Swiss watch brand as I used to work a lot with their watches in the past which is always a joy and happen to still work with their vintage movements today! Enjoy the pics from the museum visit! I highly recommend anyone to visit it, it’s really nice!! As a bonus I also got my movement with a really nice, almost mint porcelain dial which I love the vivid colours of, will probably make it into an interesting project as the movement is really nice! Will post some pics of it ones I get time. Willy and Yuriy finished their final exams for the technician course, we hope they will both pass! Really super week it was!! Have a great weekend everyone!

STEP 3:  TWEEZERS! (HENRIK) 

Got these really cool Breguet tweezers from Herrli in Bienne among many other things, Thank you Maurizio!!

DELTA 1

  WEEK 110

Willy, Yuriy, Alex, Michael

Origin : Singapore, Canada, Taiwan, Malaysia 

Watchmaking class: Technician & Fullskill 

Current mood: Alex and Michael did very well in their real hairspring exam this week! All of us had a chronograph demonstration regarding how to fix the chronograph column function, understanding the mechanism and solve problems or errors in any possible scenarios. It was an interesting week. All the best to Yuriy and Willy for their technician final exams next week. By the way, we are going to Herrli again this weekend.

Renato & David

Origin: Zug, Zürich, Switzerland

Watchmaking class: Fullskill

Current mood: David worked on the press fit test piece and produced several pieces to find the right tolerance for the perfect fit. Then he started working on the actual press fit tool. I spent several days on practicing hand cutting the female cones (also one of the press fit pieces) on the lathe. Tried all kinds of techniques. Doing the depth at first, then remove other material. Doing the cone first, then go to right depth. Using different cutters, one for clockwise, the other for counter-clockwise rotation cutting. At the end, getting the center pointy and precise, without male cone and scratches, is the hardest and most time consuming part. Figured it out eventually, but basically it is still somewhat tricky. Using the straight cutter side to have the cone sides straight is recommended. Also the quality of the cone can be judged by the light reflected in it. Should be a fine continuous line going straight and sharp to the center. Nice job and routine this was, that can be used elsewhere when hand cutting!   

Name: Markus McDonald.
Origin: Stockholm, Sweden. 
Course: 2 years full skill course.
Current mode: This week I worked on a number of different things adjusting and timing of the 7750, making alterations and  dynamic poising. Additionally I also worked on the chinese chronograph which although was lacking in good material was very classically built making it perfect for adjustmemts to learn the foundamentals of the chronograph. 

These went well and I was able to learn a lot and make improvments with the work in preperation for next week.

STEP 1:  DELTA 1! (MICHAEL) 

On Saturday after some more tweaking Michael beat his own record and got 1 second delta! Very well done!

STEP 2:  BOOKS! (RENATO) 

Very good book for research purpose primarily about Arnold and Frodsham.

Very high quality photos!

Interesting!

HENRIK's WORDS:

Still raining! Similar to last week. The weeks for me are getting even busier as we are getting closer to the technician final examinations, sort of grinding work! other than that nothing really new except for checking of the timing of the different levers interacting with the column wheel. Alex and Michael have completed their hairspring and timing course both passing the exam! Yuriy, David and Renato went to Mr. Simonin to pick up some books. Tomorrow we will once again visit Herrli that will be fun again as I also need to stock up on some watch material! I am also eagerly awaiting an interesting calibre that I got all the way from Florida! All in all not so special week but soon some to come! Have a great weekend everyone!  

MILLING!

 WEEK 109

Willy, Yuriy, Alex, Michael

Origin : Singapore, Canada, Taiwan, Malaysia 

Watchmaking class: Technician & Fullskill 

Current mood: Rainy day, gloomy day, trial exams are taking place, hope we survive the judgement day, will be seeing you, until the next Friday.

Renato & David

Origin: Zug, Zürich, Switzerland

Watchmaking class: Fullskill

Current mood: This week we continued to work on the brass tools. We worked on the press fit tool. Looking to see what dimension fits perfectly into the holes that we drilled. We learned how to set up the milling machine. We did our first test piece. We tried hand cutting on the lathe and spotting the center. Sometimes we missed the center, but eventually figured it out. 

Name: Markus McDonald.
Origin: Stockholm, Sweden. 
Course: 2 years full skill course.
Current mode: This week I focused on both timing and balance staff exercises. specially assembly and adjusting of the balance and then the timing, focusing on making various large and micro adjustments to the balance, hairspring and additionally the pallet fork to achieve good timing with the beat, second delta and amplitude. 

This went well being a lot smoother than previous exercises but additionally also being intensive.

STEP 1:  MILLING! (RENATO & DAVID) 

Renato and David learning to square up the vice before trying out milling with the Aciera F1 manual watchmakers milling machine. 

Setting zero with the centring microscope! 

First passes with the milling machine. 

STEP 2:  CHRONOGRAPHS! (TECHNICIAN)

The technicians got introduced to the classical column wheel chronograph, they will work more with Chronographs next week. 

STEP 3:  BOOKS! (RENATO)

Very clear pictures in the chronograph book! Seems useful for anyone working on or collecting vintage chronographs.

STEP 4:  TIMING! (MICHAEL)

Getting good timing 

HENRIK's WORDS:

It got even colder this week! and still raining! however at least it should be warmer and some sunshine this weekend before it gets colder again! Everyone are very busy at the moment Markus working on timing some of his movements! David and Renato got introduced to the manual milling machine. Alex and Michael had another 2 hairspring trial exams. Yuriy and Willy continued with timing and hairsprings and got introduced to the chronograph movement! All in all a very nice week!  Have a great weekend everyone!