COOL TOOL!

 WEEK 166

Team A

Origin: Thailand & USA, 

Name: A, Kate, David & Leilani

Watchmaking class: Technician

Current mood:

The technicians are finishing up the hairspring course. We have been straightening, flattening, centering and poising for the past few weeks and we are now fully aware just how important the balance and hairspring are to a properly running watch. It’s truly amazing how the smallest adjustment can make such a big difference in performance. We are now seeing all of our efforts come together during the timing portion of the course. We talk about rate, amplitude, regulating pins and delta. This is a very challenging part of our education at KHWCC and we are all slowly mastering these skills.

David

Team B

Origin: Japan/Switzerland & Canada

Name: Tetsu & Dean

Watchmaking class: Fullskill 

Current mood: n/a

Team C

Origin: Switzerland, Norway & USA

Name: Renato, David, Francesco, Åsmund & Robert

Watchmaking class: Fullskill 

Current mood: 

Hello everyone 

This week has been passing by really fast, I finally did the last finishing on the brass anvil and delivered it to Henrik for grading. Where satisfied with the results with diagonal straight graining, but time will tell if it is up with Henrik’s standards or not. Also working on the adapter for the micrometer stand, it’s going forward but I will need to find a digital micrometer before I can make the final dimension for the hole which the micrometer will fit into. So far so good! 

Francesco is working on different tools and pivot gauges, as I’ve seen it’s going really well. Think he is ready for the exam next week, so best of luck to him! 

-Åsmund

Robert has been doing the last graded winding stem and we had a good discussion on how to do the heath treatment and I think we both had something to learn from each other. 

Not a lot of high-tempo action this week, just refining and finishing the 3 winding stems we as students will keep.

Saturday we go to the Vallée de Joux for a watchmaker's bourse, an opportunity to find resources. The weather forecast for the weekend is nice and sunny, should be a good trip down and back.

Robert

After plenty of practice in cleaning and oiling incablocs I'm now going through all the different movements on our list. Disassembly, hand cleaning and then reassembly of the winding and setting mechanism, which is the first part we work on. The incabloc part was a good practice to get some routine in oiling and handling small parts. Sharpening tweezers properly is an absolute must, using the correct oilers too. Fun work. Interesting to see those industrial movements and how they're engineered with cost reduction in focus. Sometimes with very weird outcomes. Quite different to the nice pocket watch movements I worked on so far! 

-Renato

STEP 1: TOOLS! (TETSU)

Tetsu made this cool looking pallet fork holder to make shellac application easier!

STEP 2: TIMING! (TECHNICIANS)

The technicians trying out timing!

STEP 3: TOOLS! (ÅSMUND)

Asmund finalized his brass anvil!

STEP 4: HERRLI! (FULLSKILL & TECHNICIANS)

Almost all of us went to Herrli in Bienne, it was nice to see Maurizio again!

Got this beautiful mini press! Thank you Maurizio!

STEP 5: BOOKS! (ROBERT)

Robert brought this interesting book to school!

STEP 7: YOUNG TALENT COMPETITION 2023! (EVERYONE)

Now open for inscriptions; F.P. Journe 2023 Young Talent Competition!

HENRIK's WORDS:

 

Although the week was a bit cold, the temperature is forecasted to go up for the weekend which would be nice! The technicians were mainly working on tweaking balance springs but they also got introduced to timing which is a very interesting subject and for many mind opening, especially if you learn all the other parts of a watch movement before! Tetsu and Dean were busy with their last tools and David and Renato continued with the winding and setting mechanism, last week visit to Maurizio at Herrli in Bienne was great! Tomorrow most of us will go to the watchmaker flea market in l'Abbaye hopefully to pick up some cool tools! we also got invited to the very talented watchmaker Philippe Narbels workshop! you can find him here; https://www.instagram.com/philippe_narbel_watchmaking/  or https://www.instagram.com/manufactor_sa/?hl=en   and   https://www.instagram.com/narbelandco/   It was a great week! have a great weekend everyone!