Bench Test!

Week 22

This week we had a bench tester! Cesar from the UK!

Here he is learning how the escapement of a watch works.

He brought a watch with him which Michael is using to teach him about the parts of the watch and what goes into a proper service.

 

STUDENT HIGHLIGHTS


Workshop AB

Students:
    Art, Daniel, David, Harold, Miguel, Nine
    Craig, Dunham, Ivan, Louis, Mun, Varun 

    This week Art and Nine continued to practice making winding stems. 

Art's most recent winding stem

 

    This week David finished making a new barrel for his pocket watch.

David's new complete barrel with the drum, lid, arbor and he milled recesses in the lid for the maltese cross

 

    This week Miguel made a new plastic, L gasket for Faris' Longines. He turned it down from a plastic bar and bored out the steps to make the L shape.

New Gasket (Left) and the old gasket (Right)

 

Close up of the new gasket, the translucence makes it difficult to see the L profile.

Close up of the old broken gasket. Here you can clearly see the L profile.

Testing the fit of the gasket on the watch

    This week Ivan, Louis and Varun are alternating taking their gear train exams. Ivan has just taken his exam, Louis has taken and passed his exam and Varun has just taken another practice exam before he takes the real one.

 

Thank you for reading!


 Hope to see you again next week!

Farewell, Mr. Simonin

    I was deeply saddened to hear about the passing of Mr. Simonin. Mr. Simonin was the head of the international watchmaking school WOSTEP for decades and formed the minds of countless brilliant watchmakers influencing watchmaking today and in the future.

        He was a true legend in the world of watchmaking education, and his contributions will not be forgotten. His guidance and inspiration were invaluable to me and also everyone at KHWCC, in recent years we spent a lot of time together with him in his watchmaking book store enjoying talking about anything regarding watchmaking, I can attest to that his passion for watchmaking was always extremely alive, even just very recently.

     He also gave me invaluable advice for teaching watchmaking when I was a young instructor in WOSTEP, for which I will never forget, his legacy will continue to positively influence our work and passion for watchmaking.

    My condolences to the Simonin family. He will be greatly missed but always remembered with immense respect and gratitude.

    Henrik & The KHWCC Team

Busy week!

Week 19-20

STUDENT HIGHLIGHTS


Workshop A&B

Students:
    Art, Daniel, David, Harold, Miguel, Nine
    Craig, Dunham, Ivan, Louis, Mun, Varun

     This week Art and Nine continued practicing on their winding stems. They learned how to harden, temper and blue their winding stems. They will soon learn how to make slot gravers out of hard metal and how to cut the slots on their winding stems.

    This week Daniel and Miguel continued working on their hairspring exercises. They are now trying to master timing and how to adjust the watch to improve timing. They will soon move on to Dynamic poising.

    This week Craig completed press fit exercise, and assembled his balance bridge holder after applying a charbonnage finish and black Rhodium plating to the base.

Charbonage and black rhodium plated base for his balance bridge holder.

    This week Ivan, Louis and Varun started their lessons on the gear train, jewelling, and barrel complete. They also practiced bending wheels.

  This week Ivan also practiced black polishing a cap jewel for a pocket watch. 

Horseman's branded Lemania 1900 split second chronograph stopwatch with running seconds.
Ivan has to make a balance staff for this movement.

 




Thank you for reading!
  

Hope to see you again next week!

Busy week!

 

Week 18




STUDENT HIGHLIGHTS


Workshop A + B

Students:
    Art, Daniel, David, Harold, Miguel, Nine
    Craig, Dunham, Ivan, Louis, Mun, Varun

    This week Art and Nine started making the entire winding stem. They learned how to turn the winding stem on the lathe and file the square, and how to heat treat and temper the winding stem when its done.

Michael showing them how to temper and blue parts on an electric heater.

    This week Daniel made a beryllium copper balance wheel, milling out the spokes and turning it true on the lathe.

 

Milling out the spokes on the jig borer.

After turning on the lathe.

     This week David took and passed his hairspring exam! So now he is finishing the hairspring and timing for the 7 required movements.

    This week Miguel continued with the hairspring lesson. He successfully formed his hairspring and studded it up on the balance so next week he will be focusing on improving the timing.

 

The hairspring that Miguel is practicing on.

 

    This week Miguel also made a new Horia anvil for pressing the hairspring collet onto the balance.

 

The tip of the anvil is polished to prevent scratches and damage.

The base is made from brass and the head is friction fit steel. It is tapered for added strength.

 

    This week Craig and Mun learned how to use the milling machine. They learned the basics of how to operate the machine and how to square up the vice.


    This week Craig also helped to repair one of our microscopes.

 

Craig is soldering the frayed wiring of the microscope light back together.

It works!

    This week Ivan, Louis and Varun started on the gear train lesson! First they had to clean and oil 30 incablocs each and now they're learning how to oil and assemble the winding and setting of the 7 movements.

Thank you for reading!


 Hope to see you again next week!