HAPPY NEW YEAR!

 HAPPY NEW YEAR!

It is time to  reflect back to an amazing year!

2022 has been a year of growth and changes for our school!
We have opened a new class and doubled the number of students last January! It all became quite lively  all of a sudden .. it is very nice to see our students so passionate and part taking in the school life.
With the increasing number of students we also welcomed two new staff members. We  are very grateful to have found the perfect teacher for the new class. Michael Lau knows the school and the program perfectly well. He is much  appreciated not only for his calm and friendly character but also for his extended  watchmaking skills and personal investment in the school.

With this, the administration also became very busy and we were very lucky to welcome to our team Jean-Luc Renck as senior consultant, responsable for communication and assistance in administration.  Jean-Luc  has a long experience in communication and his extended network and strategic competence  is very beneficial to the school.

A warm welcome to Michael and Jean-Luc.

We also had a visit from covid and almost everybody got sick.  It was quite challenging to say the least. But fortunately, everybody could come back to school soon.

With the number of students growing, Henrik was very busy and together we decided on some ajustements in handling of the daily life. We are all happy that things go smoothly most oft the time. – there are always  unexpected challenges -.

But we are not only working! Sometimes we go on outings or on visits. It is an important part of school life, a little fun and companionship.

The start into 2022 had its bumps for me. A head injury forced me to stay quiet for a few months, it was a life changing experience and quite frustrating at times. I am very grateful to be on the recovery path and I would like to thank everybody for the patience and help during these long weeks.

I also would like to thank everybody following us on social medias, reading the blog and supporting us each in their personal way. You are an important part of the school.

And now let’s focus onto 2023…

In the meantime, I wish you a wonderful, successful and light filled 2023.

May peace, health and happiness be invited into all our lives.

Svenja Knecht

Administrator

HAPPY HOLIDAYS!

 HAPPY HOLIDAYS!

We had a wonderful final week before departing for various holiday activities!  On Thursday we had a very lovely apero and also a game of mini soccer before going for a really fantastic Christmas dinner!

We finalized the week on Friday with our common area cleaning. It has been a great year and it went in no time! 

We wish you all a Merry Christmas & a Happy New Year!!

Mini soccer and apero at the school!

Thank you Svenja for organizing this place, the food was fantastic!!

The school also got featured in a local magazine!!

SNOW!

  WEEK 192

Team A

Origin: Sweden, The Philippines & Taiwan

Name: Daniel, Miguel, & David

Watchmaking class: Fullskill

Current mood:

This week we took a filing trial exam on tuesday and then David and Daniel took the real exam on thursday.

We also practiced making several tools on the lathe, drilling press and profile projector.

-Miguel

Team B

Origin: Japan/Switzerland & Canada

Name: Tetsu & Dean

Watchmaking class: Fullskill 

Current mood:

This week, (05~09 December) Dean & Tetsu continued their current task, pivot gauges.
The difference here is that they were finally ready to face a practice exam, which was a simulation of a real one. 

The results showed where they were and what to be improved.
There will be a few more practices coming before the real one, but those will be for the next year.

Next week will be the last school week of this year, so the guys do not want any stress before Christmas.
They will just be producing mandatory pivot gauges; as many pieces as possible to reach the required number will be enough for now.

One more week to go!

We wish you all a nice weekend! 

Dean & Tetsu

Team C

Origin: Switzerland, Norway & USA

Name: Renato, David, Francesco, Åsmund & Robert

Watchmaking class: Fullskill 

Current mood:

This week David and I went deep into hairspring work. First we practiced removing and mounting the hairspring on the collet and staff including centering of the collet and vibrating it for a used balance. Then we started completing brand new sets of balance parts. Cutting and shaping the inner coil, attaching to the collet, adjusting the orientation, mounting on the staff, vibrating it to determine the outer pinning point and from there calculating the second inner pinning, i.e. how much to cut on the inside coil. Afterwards repeat same as before. This we'll do for four balances. Very interesting work that needs a lot of care and attention to many details. Quite exciting!

-Renato

This was a week of working on various movements, and some faults introduced to them for our benefit of troubleshooting.

The interesting part of working on these movements is the various solutions that are built into them. For instance, the retaining feature of the stem that is used to wind/set the time of a watch:

- The ETA 6498 movement uses a threaded fastener on each side of the movement to retain the winding stem and its associated parts, requiring access to both sides of the movement for assembly/disassembly of that system.

- The ETA 2824 and ETA 2846 movements secure the winding stem and it's associated parts with just 1 screw, needing access to only 1 side of the movement for assembly/disassembly of that system.

It is little features like this that make the history and development of watches interesting.

Local news here in Le Locle: We have snow!

-Robert

Team D

Origin: Finland

Name: Xinying

Watchmaking class: Technician

Current mood:

This week was pretty busy because I took two practice exams. I made  couple small mistakes that are easy to correct and I feel that I am ready to take the real exam next week. Also continued gear train practices and had a lesson about lubrication. Feeling that time goes by really quickly because after next week we will have a christmas break already.

-Xinying 

STEP 1: SNOW! (EVERYONE)

Feels like real winter now!

STEP 2: PIVOTS! (TETSU & DEAN)

STEP 3: VIBRATING! (DAVID & RENATO)

David and Renato learning how to vibrate the balance and hairspring to obtain the right frequency of 18000 vibrations per hour!

HENRIK's WORDS:

We finally got real snow that seems to stick around! Very busy week! I had almost no time to take any pictures as the week was so fast! Asmund, Francesco and Robert continued to complete as much of the gear train and barrel exercises as possible before the break! and Miguel, Daniel and David had trial filing exams and also the real filing exam! Renato and David L. practiced vibrating the balance and hairsprings to the corect frequency! Both Tetsu and Dean have almost finished all their mandatory pivot gauges and had one trial exam!  Very nice week ending with some snow!! Have a great weekend everyone!

SOON X-MAS!

 WEEK 191

Team A

Origin: Sweden, The Philippines & Taiwan

Name: Daniel, Miguel, & David

Watchmaking class: Fullskill

Current mood:

This week we took 2 Filing trial exams for the male and female pieces.

After the first one, we learned from our mistakes and by the second exam our scores improved greatly.

We scheduled another 2 trial exams next week in preparation for the real exam.

In between we also got a refresher on how to use the profile projector to check the dimensions of our parts.

Miguel also made a brass replacement stopper for his caliper by hand.

Team B

Origin: Japan/Switzerland & Canada

Name: Tetsu & Dean

Watchmaking class: Fullskill 

Current mood:

This week, (28 Nov. - 2 Dec.) Tetsu and Dean turned more of their mandatory pivot gauges, some of which were graded by Henrik, of which the passing gauges were counted towards the amount required for graduation.  As they produce these pivot gauges, Tetsu and Dean also preparing for the four-hour time limit required for the exam.  In the meantime, they will undertake a practice exam next week to confirm they have a process in place to remove large amounts of material from their blanks in an efficient manner, so that as much time as possible may be allocated to turn down the final thousandths of millimetres, ensuring the pieces stay within dimensional parameters.

Have a great weekend everyone!

Tetsu and Dean

Team C

Origin: Switzerland, Norway & USA

Name: Renato, David, Francesco, Åsmund & Robert

Watchmaking class: Fullskill 

Current mood:

David and I continued in the balance program and we learned how to do static poising on the balance. Quite interesting and fun exercise! Nice to get a feel for how much to cut and where. After some time, getting a pretty good result goes rather quickly. I also started another servicing project, the rare Bulova 10AH monopusher chronograph. Need to put a nice one together from incomplete movements. Some very nice technical solutions on that in house chrono. Some probably only to prevent being sued for patent infringement :)

-Renato

This was a week of doing testing on a watch movement's winding/setting works and geartrain. Faults were introduced into the movements, we had a time limit to disassemble the movement and find broken or "modified" parts that needed to be replaced, then a time limit to continue on with the cleaning, lubrication, and assembly.

Tuesday was the module trial test, with Henrik grading them as if it was the final test. The feedback from the work we do is invaluable as a reminder of improving our methods and the time it takes to do them.

Thursday was the real test for this module, WE PASSED! 

Now that we are on Cloud 9 with that behind us, we will start the escapement module next.

 We have been a little cool here in Le Locle, yesterday was 0°C all day, today a couple of degrees warmer, but no snow...yet.

Have a good weekend, everybody!

-Robert

Team D

Origin: Finland

Name: Xinying

Watchmaking class: Technician

Current mood:

I started this week continuing flattening wheels and servicing barrels. On Tuesday I had lessons for the gear train and adjusting jewels. Finished one movement for the practice before returning barrel and flattening wheels. At the end of the week I had almost finished them for all the movements. Next week I will take a practice exam and continue with gear train and adjusting jewels.

Xinying 

STEP 1: SOON X-MAS! (EVERYONE)

When the Christmas decoration comes up we know its soon holiday!

STEP 2: TASTER COURSE! (AMER FROM SERBIA)

Amer came from Serbia to take the taster course which was really nice!

STEP 3: KIT WATCHES, TYPE A FLIEGER STYLE! (DEAN)

Dean putting together a nice type a flieger style watch!

STEP 4: SPECIALIZED TOOLS! (RENATO, DEAN, TETSU AND DAVID)

Renato, David, Dean and Tetsu learning about the MTM device from Horia for burnishing pivots! 

STEP 5: BALANCE STATIC POISING! (RENATO & DAVID)

Both David and Renato finished their static balance poising excercises and are now ready to move on with hairsprings!

STEP 6: WATCHES! (RENATO)

Some of Renato's private collection watches that he will make one functional one out of! very small mono-pusher chronograph watch! 

STEP 7: TOOL REPAIR! (MIGUEL)

A weak plastic part from Miguels calliper broke so he made a more rigid one in brass by hand filing it! Nice repair work!

STEP 8: PROFILE PROJECTOR! (MIGUEL, DANIEL & DAVID)

Daniel, David and Miguel got introduced to the profile projector by Michael in between their trial exams!

HENRIK's WORDS:

Cant believe how fast time flies! only two more working weeks for us then holiday!! The cold feels now raw and getting to the bones, it finally feels like real winter! It was a busy week as we became 12 students for the week! We had  Amer from Serbia taking the taster course which was really nice! We also had trial exams going in both workshops and Asmund, Francesco and Robert finished the real gear exam! and Miguel, Daniel and David had trial filing exams. Renato and David L continued their journey on the balance and hairsprings with static poising, they also got an introduction to the balance spring aka hairspring! Both Tetsu and Dean have finalized more than 50% of the mandatory pivot gauges which is really good progress for them, they are now ready to take their first pivot gauge trial exam and most likely that will happen next week!  Really a great week it was! Have a great weekend everyone!