THE CHRONOGRAPH!

WEEK 64

Pierre Aubert, James Punshon, Jayne Zhuo

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

Age : 23

Watchmaking class: Technician Course

Current mood: Hi everyone, Jayne here! What an exciting week of chronograph work! It’s nice to finally make some sense of all those springs and levers! Really enjoyed examining some vintage chronograph movements and comparing them to the modern versions.

As part of the chronograph module, we made a column wheel key and a reverse screwdriver, which you will hopefully see in this weeks pictures.
Looking forward to a sunny weekend! Enjoy everyone!

Name: Markus McDonald.
Origin: Stockholm, Sweden. 
Course: 2 years full skill course.
Current mode: This week went very well as I focused on making tools specially the brass anvil. One of the biggest elements too this tool was the milling section being divided into two areas of the tool. One requiring four slots too be milled and the other requiring a deep rectangles slot in the center. The first section went very well after experimenting and making test pieces I was able too successfully mill and it turned out very well. The second section was a bit more demanding as I experimented with several methods to zeroing and set up and this went very well, finishing it today. In conclusion this week was very productive making great progress with the tool and feeling both good and confident for the technician module next week.

Michael

Origin : Malaysia

Age : 28

Watchmaking class : 2 years Fullskill Program

Current Mood: A Very HOT week ends with a rainy cool evening. Practising on brass winding stems and started with silver steel winding stem. The process is very challenging. Have to do the slots after hardening and tempering. Polishing the winding stem is the upmost difficult task. Definitely need to practice more. Looking forward to next week! 

Alex

Origin : Kaohsiung, Taiwan 

Age : 27

Watchmaking : 2Y Fullskill Program

Current mood: It was a week of trial exams, overall the results are good!! One more trial and then final exam, not too excited about that one... Hope I get enough rest during the weekend.

STEP 1: SQUARES! (MICHAEL)

These are Michaels winding stem square practice pieces for which he also made an elegant wooden table!

STEP 2: WINDING STEMS! (MICHAEL)

Michaels first ever winding stems. One in brass to get the complete understanding of dimensions and order of making it, and the other one in steel were he got a feel for the real material, looking not too bad as his first pieces and will for sure soon look sublime!

STEP 3: CHRONOGRAPH TOOL MAKING! (JAMES)

 Filing the shape of the chronograph column wheel key

 Heat treatment!

 De-burring, polishing and cleaning the tip of the tool!

Ready for action!

STEP 4: PIVOT GAUGES! (ALEX)

Alex practicing for his exam!

STEP 5: MILLING! (MARKUS)

Markus milling a deep sink on the back side of his brass anvil in the Aciera F1!

HENRIK's WORDS:

The technicians started a new course this week, the chronograph course. We always start this course with first understanding how a classical column wheel chronograph works in its principle, before going on to the more modern chronograph types, so we had lots of theory this week, as it’s a rather complicated mechanism when you first learn about it, lots to take in! They were also each given a classical column wheel chronograph movement to practice the eccentrics adjustments for depth of the various chronograph wheels as well as all the other necessary checks such as the timing of the various levers interacting with the column wheel. This is very important as the chronograph mechanism action is far too rapid for the human eye to see. For that they use a special key that they also made during the week, which facilitates the slow turning of the column wheel while observing for example at what moment the blocking lever leaves the chronograph runner and at what moment the coupling clutch wheel moves into the chronograph runner to start the recording.

Markus finished milling slots and a deep sink on his brass anvil and will start his second-year (the technician module) next week, I am sure that will be very exciting for him! Alex had two trial pivot gauge exams this week, both went really well! Michael is progressing well with winding stems and made a first one in steel, and also had some practice cleaning and finishing it after the heat treatment. This Saturday also some of the students were lucky to get an appointment with Maurizio who runs Herrli in Biel/Bienne, it’s a magical watchmaker second hand tool and watch parts store. the students have been looking forward for long time now to have the opportunity to visit him, that will for sure be good for them! All is going well and looks very positive! Have a great weekend everyone!