ADAPTATION

WEEK 51

Pierre Aubert, James Punshon, Jayne Zhuo

Origin : Sydney, Australia. Toulouse, France. Singapore.

Age : 23

Watchmaking class: Technician Course

Current mood: James here! Quarantine! It now becomes apparent how the original watchmakers became so adept at their craft. Stuck at home with no distractions, it’s a surprisingly great learning environment. We had a couple of video theory lessons this week, which went super smooth. Practicing our escapement work in preparation for next weeks practice exams. I feel like we are in the right industry for these trying times! It’s a great feeling to bring life back to a dead movement, from the comfort of your own home. Be well everybody. 

Markus McDonald 

Origin : Stockholm Sweden 

Age : 21

Watchmaking class: 2 years Fullskill Program

Current mood: This week was much like the last being a continuation of the pivot gauge with a goal of achieving both accuracy and additionally consistent finish. 

This required me to experiment with different tools and techniques that would allow the best possible outcome, furthermore as I was not a hundred percent sure of my intuition in regard to the quality of my pieces I consulted Henrik wit the assistance of the microscope, I was able to establish where my pieces landed on the spectrum. Some of the pieces were not as good as I had hoped but the pieces in which I used a range of techniques such as refreshing a steel and hard metal graver for only a brief cut. These pieces had the best outcome and I was pleased to use what I had learned and experimented with which helped set the tone for the current and upcoming weeks.

In conclusion, although our period of isolation has impacted our circumstances and potential mental state I found myself capable of remaining focused and am capable of pushing forward with my work, this is not only helped by Hendrik consulting and use of skype/WhatsApp as well as Svenja checking in on us which contribute to us being able to move forward.

Michael

Origin : Malaysia

Age : 28

Watchmaking class : 2 years Fullskill Program

Current Mood : It has been a very productive week for me. Managed to improve my trial exam, however, I felt like there is more room to improve. Starting on another filing project. Downsize the trial exam piece by half and changed the square-shape male and female piece fitting position into a round fitting position. It was very challenging because I started to rely more on the loope x2.5. It was rather interesting as i can feel that I am slowly building up my resilience towards micro hand filing. Looking forwards to next week. 

Alex

Origin : Kaohsiung, Taiwan 

Age : 27

Watchmaking : 2Y Fullskill Program

Current mood: Home-working turned out to be even better than I thought it would be. the amount of freedom we now have is incredible!!! I could be turning while boiling something!!! Absolutely loving it right now. As to the program, I am stumbling a little bit. The practice exam for the winding stem went extremely well in the beginning but was rendered obsolete by my latter mistake, resulting in huge time loss. It's like finding out the young and attractive girl you met at the bar is actually a dude, like why is this happening? How did I get here? I did everything right and yet, here I am. Anyhow, look forward my next trial exam, after I finish the ongoing one that is.

STEP 1: HOMEMADE PALLET PUSHER (PIERRE)

STEP 2: PART FINDING MACHINE (JAMES)

Found!

HENRIK's WORDS:

One thing I have seen several examples of since we closed is that this new situation has made us inventive! For example, James came up with a genius way of searching for lost parts with the vacuum cleaner and a sock as filter to catch them! Very clever! As a bonus the apartment gets cleaned in the same time 😊 and another solution Pierre found when an oiler was forgotten, he made a push pin to push out the pallet jewels from a paper clip and pen cap! Seems to work like a charm for him! Otherwise everyone are adapting nicely to the new situation. Very calm period in Le Locle as well! We are lucky the food stores are perfectly organized, no lack of food or supplies! People keeping distance and following the safety and health measures too. I feel very safe being here. Take care everyone!