Friday, August 28, 2020

PREPARING FOR THE BIG EXAM!

                                                                      WEEK 73



Pierre Aubert, James Punshon, Jayne Zhuo
Origin : Sydney, Australia. Toulouse, France. Singapore.
Age : 38
Watchmaking class: Technician Course
Current mood: Hi everybody, Jayne here!
Our technician course is coming to a close :( It's hard to believe how far we have come! Had a full on week of preparing for our final exam, working on perfecting the 2892 and the 7750.
Hopefully everything goes smoothly on the day!
Will be sad when school is over, has been a blast!!
Wish us luck!


Name: Markus McDonald.
Origin: Stockholm, Sweden. 
Course: 2 years full skill course.
Current mode: 
This week I continued to expand the gear train module with last week focusing on getting back in and tackling both theory and servicing of the gear train, including the areas such as the barrel.
This week I continued with this section making tools and expanding the module to include the  end-shake and jewels.
This was a good week as I was not only able to tackle more of the technical aspect but get back into the routine whilst preparing for the gear train exam. 


Michael
Origin : Malaysia
Age : 28
Watchmaking class : 2 years Fullskill Program
Current Mood: After finishing the winding stem restoration, Henrik introduced to turn between the centres in the 8mm lathe and start making some pivot gauges. It was challenging to turn blue steel with HSS gravers. Looking forward to the actual burnishing of the pivot.



Alex
Origin : Kaohsiung, Taiwan 
Age : 27
Watchmaking : 2Y Fullskill Program
Current mood: Back to the school!!! Been preparing tools for the upcoming course as well as organizing notes. Gonna start practicing on the assembly and disassembly of some movements and shock absorbers!! Excited for what is to come!! 


                                                STEP 1: SPECIALIZED TOOLS! (MARKUS)
                                Markus making special supports for the horia jeweling tool


                                        STEP 2: DEAD CENTER TURNING! (MICHAEL)


                                     STEP 3: BACK TO THE DREAM! (PIERRE)
                                        Pierre started to make bridges for his school watch, using the jig-boring                                                    machine to drill the holes.



HENRIK's WORDS:

We are already preparing for the technician final exam, lots of overhauling of watches! Very intense week for sure! Michael got introduced to turning between dead centers, this is a very important skill for any watchmaker to obtain to the highest personal level as its one of the most important part of classical watchmaking, indeed one of the most important skills for the art of watchmaking! Alex got introduced to the technician course and we talked about screwdrivers tweezers and the shock-absorber manipulation. Markus is progressing well with the geartrain course and has covered all the different parts of it and will be ready soon for practice exams. See you next week and have a great weekend! 

Friday, August 21, 2020

BACK TO WORK!

 WEEK 72



Pierre Aubert, James Punshon, Jayne Zhuo
Origin : Sydney, Australia. Toulouse, France. Singapore.
Age : 38
Watchmaking class: Technician Course
Current mood: James here! First week back after a lovely Swiss summer break. Hardest part of this week was remembering where I put all my rodico!
Finished off our repair module this week, which for my self included a restoration of a 1920's Lemania Chronograph, which i really enjoyed. Strangely enough, this was made here in La Chaux-de-Fonds, but I purchased it in my home country of Australia. It made it around the world and back again!
Preparations have begun for the final exams. The next few weeks will be busy, but I think everyone is excited to show what we have learnt!
Until next time!


Name: Markus McDonald.
Origin: Stockholm, Sweden. 
Course: 2 years full skill course.
Current mode: 
This week: After a long and necessary holiday we returned back to school, this was a good change of pace for me as I was able to get back to the work. 
Specifically this week I continued to expand my knowledge of the gear train the engineering and the protocols. Specially altering, checking the wheels and servicing the barrel.
This although straightforward had certain complexities that made it a new experience being both challenging and rewarding.


Michael
Origin : Malaysia
Age : 28
Watchmaking class : 2 years Fullskill Program
Current Mood: It’s good to be back after the summer holiday. Managed to finish the winding stem restoration project. Firstly, calculate all the required dimensions using calipers and profile projector. Made a brass piece sample and a steel winding stem is then produced with better finishing and better fitting. I am very glad with the results although the polishing could be better. Looking forward to next week. More micro mechanics!  



Alex
Origin : Kaohsiung, Taiwan 
Age : 27
Watchmaking : 2Y Fullskill Program
Current mood: n.a.


STEP 1: REPAIRS! (PIERRE)
Pierre had an issue with one of his repairs, here he is analyzing if there was a problem coming from the escapement as the new Witschi timing machine has the possibility to compare both sides (entry and exit) noises, this gives us the possibility to compare the amplitudes, for entry and exit sides, for example, if one pallet had a deeper total lock it would have lower amplitude on that side of balance arc.


STEP 2: QUARTZ! (TECHNICIANS)
The technicians also learn to analyze quartz watches.


STEP 3: PRIVATE REPAIRS! (JAMES)




STEP 4: RESTORATION! (MICHAEL)
MICHAEL WORKING ON HIS RESTORATION PROJECT.
WITH THE REAL ONE AND THE BRASS PROTOTYPE

PROTOTYPE LOWER, UPPER IS THE REAL ONE.



HENRIK's WORDS:

First week of school after summer holidays! It feels great to be back at normal work again.This first week was also nice as we learn a lot of new things, Markus got introduced to two new subjects for the gear train course; inspecting wheels for faults and truing them in the flat as well as how to service the barrel with mainspring. The technicians also learn several new things; Automatic and calendar mechanisms, how to water resistance check a watch as well as how to do the final control of the completed watch repair, Michael completed his winding stem for an antique pocket watch where he had to learn how to design a new one as it was missing. During my break I also met with Peter from The Naked Watchmaker and we did some more projects together which was really nice! enjoy one here; https://www.thenakedwatchmaker.com/blog/2020/8/5/school-watches-le-locle-1941-1945 I also got invited to talk with Dan and Johnny at the In The Metal podcast That was a new experience for me as it was also live, you can find the talk here; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HoTAWSZHeOM it was very fun for sure! See you next week and have a great weekend!