End of an era

 Alas, two years have come and gone for myself and my class mates, Joan, Bernd and Louis. Today is our graduation! We are all very happy and proud, with what we accomplished in our time here and look forward to seeing what the next generations will accomplish. Now we are all splitting of to different corners. Louis is heading back to Taiwan, Joan is staying in Switzerland, Bernd has opened his workshop and I will be going to Berlin. 

Just this week I finished my school watch project. For this I made the bridges for a La Joux Perret double barrel caliber. Making them out of a German silver. The bar was cut in the band saw, screw holes were drilled on the jig borer. Then the gear train hole was done on the lathe by spot centering the base plate holes and screwing on the bridges. The holes were the bored to give clearance for the wheels, the slots for the click and winding stem were milled on the lathe and the bridges were engraved and finished.

This was much harder than originally thought and took a lot longer, but we got there. And this is how it started.

David also finished his pallet fork holding tool, he came up with a very interesting design. 

Chris, Gary, Phil and Jaewon have started the hair spring course. The final chapter yet the hardest. Now learning how to rivet the balance staff to the hair spring. Such brutal action for such a delicate part.

This being my last day, it will also be my last entry, feel free to keep up with my horological journey on Instagram under Clockwie.1999. I’ll take the opportunity to give a huge thanks for Henrik and Michael for leading us along this quest in the mountains. We wish them the best of luck in the times to come and will stay in touch. And of course, thank you for reading.

Fall

 This week Bernd finished his final practical exams! Congratulations!

I have been restoring a WW2 bomber pocket watch, the Hamilton 4992B. A excellently made watch. 

Meanwhile in the other workshop, Nick is practicing the slot cutting of blue steel. This is done by hand turning in a 8mm lathe, this is skill is crucial to making a winding stem. 

Our newsy student David has been decorating his tools.  Starting with the handle for his graver holder, for hand turning.

Here he presents his finished polishing tripod, a lot of work was putting into making it his own.

Moving on to some finer machining, Jaewon is making a balanced staff in the lathe. Attempting to do all the turning in one go.

Ending the week with a special visit from Keyence. One of their representatives came to show us their latest precision measuring device. A marvel of technology, certainly bringing a lot of new convenience to watchmaking.

Until next time!

Time for theory

 Exam season is yet upon us. This Friday us four senior students took our theory exams. These exams consist of a written test followed by a spoken exam. These test consists of a very wide variety of topics, touching on every field we e explored in the last two years. We are all feeling well after the exam but still need to await the results.

But that’s not all, today Bernd has begun his practical exam, which will go on through all of next week. Best of luck to him. 

Jaewon has completed his 0.08mm pivot gauge, much smaller than a strand of hair. 

Caio, having finished his first year is now putting all his tools up on display for us.

Gui has got his first school watch up for us to see. He bought a seagull movement and completely re finished it. He did his own Geneva stripes with a jig on the milling machine, plates the bridges with white rhodium, did frosting and black polishing.

He also got a manufacture to make his dial out of stone with pad printing.

Very nice.

Wish us all luck in the coming days.

Until next time!

Very long week

 Myself and Louis have finished our final exam today! Yet too soon to celebrate, but we are glad. Now cheering for Joan and Bernd who will take their exam shortly.

On some other news, restoring an old Omega caliber I found a very kinky Breguet over coil. Was my first time doing any king of work on such a thing, but mission was successful. 

Gui and Caio are having an early start to their technician course. Starting with classic cap jewel oiling. Before this they were both deep into their side quests. Caio is drawing his own caliber design on Fusion, while Gui has been machining away to make a case. 

Mid case almost complete 

In the other workshop, David and Nick have both completed their pin nose vice, looking sharp!

Chris has made a 3d printed tourbillion cage for a watch he will be working on in the future.

Gary is making solid progress on his case and dials. Fire and steel.

That’s it for now, until next time!

Final exams

 Cesar and Louis began their final exams, good luck to them! Gary had his exam on the escapement and freed up some time to work on his private projects. David and Nick worked a lot with the milling machine and jig boring machine to work on their tripods, pointed nose vice and brass anvils. Gui was busy milling his school watch case and Chris made some tools for escappement work. All in all a very busy week!

Gui working on his case

Chris did a pusher and anvil for adjusting pallet staffs.

He also finished his pallet fork holder.

SCIENCE

 We’ll start off strong with Gui doing some serious science experiments. Like Tony Stark he is trying to forge his suit out of titanium. After a lot of labour he managed to part a slice of grade 2 titanium, not an easy task. He then bought some equipment and formulated a contraption for anodizing.

At work 

Contraption 

Lovely titanium

Meanwhile Louis and I took our practice test for the final exam. 5 days of examination, a very tiring week. Afterwards I started some work on a lovely vintage Omega watch with a 267 caliber. They just don’t make it like they use to.

Our newest addition David is making good headway on his brass tools. 

Balance bridge holder

Press fit plate 

Henrik used this week to give Nick and David a comprehensive lesson on using the jig borer and milling machine. Very dangerous and expensive machinery, so it is crucial they are well introduced to its uses, keeping themselves and the machines safe.

Much machining

Last but not least we have Jaewon. Using the profile projector to make some drawings and designs on the 6498.

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

Stripes & Dials

Gui experimented a lot with finishing bridges. David was learning the lathe and also how to grind gravers, Gary was continuing his experients with different colored enamel for dials.

Gui made some nice circular stripes.

Gary made a copper sink for enamel filling.

Filled with enamel powder ready for melting.

Molten enamel on copper sink ready for further machining.

David turned a male cone.