Friday, December 13, 2019

Seasonal Cleaning, Fondue Evening!


WEEK 36
Seasonal Cleaning, Fondue Evening!

Harman Wadhwa 
Origin : New Delhi, India
Age : 28
Watchmaking class : 8 month Service & Technician course
Current mood : I had a beautiful 8 month journey at KHWCC! The course was intense and fun! I would like to thank both Henrik and Svenja for providing great education and memorable times in the school. I am going to miss everything about it. For the last time. 
Good bye everyone

Pierre Aubert
Origin : Toulouse, France
Age : 23
Watchmaking class : 2Y Fullskill Program
Current mood: Last week before the Christmas break! We had very little time to move forward with the regular work since we started the school inventory and cleaning on Thursday. I used these 3 days to make tools for Harman and I since he is leaving...!! I will miss him and our discussions very much..! Also, I finalized some personal project that had been going on for the past few weeks. The school is now clean and tidy, it is time to rest..!! Merry Christmas everyone and see you next year!!

Markus McDonald 
Origin : Stockholm Sweden 
Age : 20
Watchmaking class: 2 years Fullskill Program
Current mood : This week was a success as I was able to finish all my tools that I had been preparing for, this combined with finishing the preparation for my final tool allowed this week to be massively successful as next year I will be in the green and will be able to better focus on my main course.
Alex
Origin : Kaohsiung, Taiwan 
Age : 26
Watchmaking : 2Y Fullskill Program
Current mood: Extremely tired, been cleaning the entire workshop all day. I am part of the 2 survivors that fought till the very end. Very happy about the year. Look forward to January with the new room, new view, and new people to work with. Now would you excuse me, I have a plane to catch. Good holiday!!!

STEP 1: GRADUATION! (HARMAN)




STEP 2: PIVOT GAUGE EXAM (PIERRE)

  Allowed tolerance for the pivot gauge exam!

 Allowed tolerance for the pivot gauge exam X22! It is really small. 

The final pivot gauge!

HENRIK's WORDS:
We arrived to the final weak before Christmas holidays and had our big season cleaning today! yesterday we also moved workshops and will be in a new one from now on with an amazing view and light, I am very happy with the assistance from the students to make this dream come true! Which was truly a big upgrade to the school and very much looking forward to ride it in January!! We ended the day with a grand fondue evening which was really nice after all the hard work!! The most important event was that Harman graduated as a fresh new Service and Repair Technician which I am very proud of! Well done Harman!! Soon I will also be packing my bags as the students and travel back home to Sweden to get some rest until it all starts over again next year with new and old students, which I will soon be looking forward to as always!! Until next year Happy Holidays!!

Fondue Evening!!










Friday, December 6, 2019

Armin Strom Visit & Exams Are Over!

 Armin Strom Visit & Exams Are Over!


WEEK 35

Harman Wadhwa 
Origin : New Delhi, India
Age : 28
Watchmaking class : 8 month Service & Technician course
Current mood : This is my second last week before i complete my course and move back to my home country. Time flies, hard to believe its time already to go back. I feel lucky to meet nice people and most importantly good professional education here at KHWCC.

at the work front, winding and finishing up all my seven movements as much as possible to gain maximum repair points before i leave.

See you next week, for the last time:(



Pierre Aubert
Origin : Toulouse, France
Age : 23
Watchmaking class : 2Y Fullskill Program
Current mood: Most of my week was dedicated to practicing in prep. for my pivot gauges exam. I took my final test this morning, and will hopefully get a good grade! The rest of my time was spent finalizing the sequence of operations for my school watch bridges. I should be starting the process right after Christmas! Have a great weekend everyone. 

Markus McDonald 
Origin : Stockholm Sweden 
Age : 20
Watchmaking class: 2 years Fullskill Program
Current mood : This week I focused on my tools: the press and poising plate. This combined with the filling,drilling and lathe allowed for me to make a lot of progress with half of my tools being prepared combined with next week will allow me to make a lot of progress before I go on break.

Alex
Origin : Kaohsiung, Taiwan 
Age : 26
Watchmaking : 2Y Fullskill Program
Current mood: The end is near!! Excited about the break. The same could not be said about the flight though. The score for my first trial exam is pretty good so I am happy about that. Currently fixing corners on my balance wheel holder and it is going well. Love using the cutting hook, very satisfying!! Overall the week is good!!!

Harman learning to analyze quartz movements.

Harman practicing bezel removal.

HENRIK's WORDS:
So Harmans final exam finished on Wednesday and Pierre did his Pivot gage exam today, they will receive the results next week. Markus worked very hard with catching up on tool making, and Alex continuted to perfect the corners. The highlight of the week was our visit to Armin Strom, Thank you so much to Claude and Serge for inviting us!! The visit was great!! and we all left inspired and impressed! Enjoy the pictures below of our amazing visit! Until next week have a great weekend!!


Armin Strom Visit;



















Friday, November 29, 2019

Bench Test & The Real Exam!

Bench Test & The Real Exam!


WEEK 34

Harman Wadhwa 
Origin : New Delhi, India
Age : 28
Watchmaking class : 8 month Service & Technician course
Current mood : Final exams AKA Stress Days. I am prepared and hoping for it to go well. 
It is a 3 day exam, 1 day of theory and 2 days of practical. I will be working on ETA Movt 7753 and 2892 finding out the parts and overhaul the movt perfectly. Hoping for  better weather and health this coming week. Wish me luck, I need it. 😄


Pierre Aubert
Origin : Toulouse, France
Age : 23
Watchmaking class : 2Y Fullskill Program
Current mood: Exam week! Spent most of my time preparing for my pivot gauges exam. I took two tests this week, which allowed me to fine tune some specifics in prep. for next week's final exam! I also prepared all the sequence of operations for the undersides of my school watch bridges. Look forward to finishing the sequences for the upper sides before the semester ends, if possible! Otherwise, it will be after Christmas! Have a great weekend and see you next week!

Markus McDonald 
Origin : Stockholm Sweden 
Age : 20
Watchmaking class: 2 years Fullskill Program
Current mood : This week consisted of me finishing off one final piece for the winding stem, the reasoning behind this is that the quality of every measurement be it the length or the consistency of the square is crucial to the functionality and longevity of said piece along with the winding stem I also focused on making my tools specially the base for the balance bridge support.

Alex
Origin : Kaohsiung, Taiwan 
Age : 26
Watchmaking : 2Y Fullskill Program
Current mood: It's been a good week except for the weather. Finally finished my tool. Only thing left is to fix the corners so they look sharper and do the finishing. Also a little bit excited for the trial exam next week. My first exam!!!



Exam Week!! (Harman)

                                                       Theory which i love, NOT.

                                   Extracting the broken pallet fork staff via Horia Tool.


                                      When you take screw tightness too seriously.😏

TOOL (ALEX)


HENRIK's WORDS:
So Harmans final exam started finally! He will continue on Monday and finish it on Tuesday, we all keep our fingers crossed! Pierre continued to do another 2 pivot gage practice exams, while Markus finished his winding stem square exercises and Alex finished his fancy balance support tool which looks amazing! We had a new taster course/bench test this week as well, Michael form Malaysia which was very nice too. have a great weekend to all and see you next week!

Alex inspecting a screw he black polished.


Friday fun!




Friday, November 22, 2019

Keep Calm, Its Exam Time! & Highlights from Restoration II


WEEK 33

Harman Wadhwa 
Origin : New Delhi, India
Age : 28
Watchmaking class : 8 month Service & Technician course
Current mood : 

Pierre Aubert
Origin : Toulouse, France
Age : 23
Watchmaking class : 2Y Fullskill Program
Current mood: I spent the week practicing pivot turning and burnishing in preparation for my first trial exam. I took it this morning and was pretty happy with the results for a first trial exam. I look forward to improving the pace for next week. The rest of my time was dedicated to some tools that I need to finish. No time for the school watch at the moment, it will surely come back soon! When it is the right time, I guess! We were also lucky to have some decent snow early in the week, which reminded me of my winters in Montreal! 😎 Have a great weekend everyone. 

Markus McDonald 
Origin : Stockholm Sweden 
Age : 20
Watchmaking class: 2 years Fullskill Program
Current mood : This week I continued my work on the winding stem squares finishing all 5 models however I had to redo models 4 and 3 as both of these models where under the dimension and required re doing as this is crucial in a winding stems quality.

Alex
Origin : Kaohsiung, Taiwan 
Age : 26
Watchmaking : 2Y Fullskill Program
Current mood: I continued with my tool. It's getting really close now. After that would be the filling exam. It's truly a time of fill and blood for me. At least the weather is extremely nice!!!

HENRIK's WORDS:
The students are doing great at the moment, but I can also feel everyone are getting more tired the closer we get to the holidays, intensive times indeed! Pierre and Harman are preparing for exams, Alex will soon start to prepare for his filing exam and Markus is going closer and closer to the winding stem exam. I have a feeling the end of this year will be very intensive. Last week we had no time to do a post as we all were far too busy! The students worked on independent projects and I was very busy teaching 5 watchmakers from all over the world a restoration class, which turned out to be not only very interesting but also very fun! we had two subjects; how to deal with gears and hairsprings in restoration, the students got to try out making an hour wheel, burnishing pivots of pinions, making experiments with gear train faults and measuring their impacts in the Witschi X1 timing machine to more deeply understand their impacts on amplitude, as well as trying out the topping tool, and calculating missing gears; what module cutter to order, how many teeth or leaves they should have and the full diameters. we also had time talking about hairsprings and how to source material, what to do if they are broken and practicing restoring bent hairsprings and some even got time to raise the double bends for Breguet hairsprings, very intensive but efficient course I felt, exhausting too :) I am still a bit tired to be perfectly honest! Oh! and as a topping on the cake, we even got time to make a quick visit to Mr. Simonin where the students could find the literature and tools they needed to grow their restoration careers. Below I share some highlights from the course, enjoy! and have a great weekend to all and see you next week!

Everyone busy!

Milling wheel teeth!

Trying out the topping tool!

Burnishing pivots of pinions!

Analyzing impact of worn barrel teeth!


Finishing the milled hour wheel!

Checking!

The restoration II team!

Handing out certificates!

Happy faces!

Inside the microscope while milling teeth!

Visit to Mr. Simonins store!

Drooling over tools!

What a brilliant week it was!!