NEW ARRIVAL!

 WEEK 105

Willy, Yuriy, Alex, Michael

Origin : Singapore, Canada, Taiwan, Malaysia 

Age: n. a.

Watchmaking class: Technician & Fullskill 

Current mood: Busy week for all of us, we had a new student this week, Renato. We did some theory lecture regarding the effect of external influences on isochronism and on the period of oscillation. However, the Fullskill will be having a different hairspring exam which requires counting/vibrating the hairspring with ‘Master Lüthy’ the hairspring vibrating tool, second pinning and studding up next week.

Renato

Origin :Zug, Switzerland

Watchmaking class: Fullskill

Current mood:

Name: Markus McDonald.
Origin: Stockholm, Sweden. 
Course: 2 years full skill course.
Current mode: This week I started the final preperation’s for the hairspring and timing exam.

Since the balance, hairspring and timing section is such a big section with many sub sections and disciplines it was neccesary to prepare and go through each sub section thouroughly.

This went well as I was able to go through each section succesfully, being able to make the various complicated adjustments such as poising, vibrating and hairspring adjustments such as the regulating curve and double bend relatively easily. Although these sections went well the overall preperation was neccesary as certain small areas such as the set up was a bit rusty making this week a neccesity and good week in preperation for the exam.

STEP 1:  NEW FULLSKILL STUDENT! (RENATO)

Our new Fullskill student Renato enjoying the filing.

STEP 2:  VIBRATING/COUNTING! (TECHNICIAN)

In order to find the right frequency (18000 Vibrations per hour) we use this tool to compare our oscillator to a master oscillator under it, if they stay synchronized it is the same frequency as the master.

STEP 3:  HAIRSPRINGS! (TECHNICIAN)

Yuriy tweaking a hairspring in the movement for timing purpose.


STEP 4:  HERRLI! (ALL)

We had an amazing visist last Saturday at Herrli's in Bienne/Biel!

Watchmaker Lathes!

Mind boggling how much stuff there is!!

Thank you so much Maurizio for opening up Herrli the amazing watchmakers dream tool & part store!

HENRIK's WORDS:

This week was short of one day due to Easter. Renato from Zug in Switzerland joined the Fullskill class which was very nice to see! On Saturday we had the rare opportunity to visit Maurizio who has Herrli in Bienne, he opened up extra for us despite the Easter weekend, Thank you!! The Technicians continue with hairsprings and are now approaching the exam, we will most likely do the first practice exams next week. Michael and Alex learn the vibrating/counting of the oscillator (balance and hairspring). Markus did his first trial balance and hairspring, timing exam this week, Rather intense week but very fun!  Have a great weekend everyone! 

FAREWELL PIERRE!

 WEEK 104

Big congratulations to Pierre for passing the final exam!!!

HENRIK's WORDS:

 

Today marked Pierre’s last day here in our school, we will surely miss him a lot as he always gave a positive and warm feel to the school atmosphere! Pierre did extremely well as a student with us and I am very happy for his accomplishments! He is always speaking highly of the school and has always helped out to make sure we are seen through our school Instagram and is always very helpful and kind to everyone! We will all truly miss Pierre and hope he will settle in well in Holland with the amazing Grönefeld Horological Brothers and enjoy life and work there. I am certainly hoping Pierre will not forget us and come and visit us next time he is in Switzerland. Farewell Pierre and I hope to see you soon again to share ideas and here your new experiences. Have a great Easter weekend everyone! 

FINAL EXAM!

 WEEK 103

Willy, Yuriy, Alex, Michael

Origin : Singapore, Canada, Taiwan, Malaysia 

Age: n. a.

Watchmaking class: Technician & Fullskill 

Current mood: Phase of the week "Delicate substance handle with care" . Handling hair spring, messing it up and trying to rectify it. Full throttle plus full concentration .  Only one word "Wonky" . Have a great weekend 😀

Pierre Aubert

Origin :Toulouse, France.

Age : 24

Watchmaking class: Fullskill

Current mood: N/A, (In practical final exam)

Name: Markus McDonald.
Origin: Stockholm, Sweden. 
Course: 2 years full skill course.
Current mode: This week Pierre had his final exam and I focused on a few side projects during this time, specially the pivot gauges using a sections strategy to make several pivot gauges at once. This meant that I just worked on one section at a time in bulk such as body, pivot, burnishing etc. This strategy went well as I was able to increase the efficiency of my work as changing equipment was reduced.

In conclusion this was a good week although intense as each section required a lot of focus I was able too meet my daily goals.

STEP 1:  PINNING UP TO THE COLLET! (TECHNICIAN)

Pinned up hairspring to the collet.

Checking flatness and centering around the collet in the Bradux tool.

STEP 2:  HAIRSPRING ADJUSTMENTS! (TECHNICIAN)

Yuriy found this hairspring in one of his Zodiac watches for repair, it has the shape of a reversed umbrella which is a very common hairspring problem found on vintage watches, it can happen easily if someone pulls too much on the stud, which in this case is also out of square to the hairspring, he will later attempt to correct these problems.

Its a very delicate watch part!

STEP 3:  COFFEE! (ALL)

As our old coffee machine broke down after years of extreme use! Svenja found this gem, it was one of the talking points during break time this week, we love it! Thank you Svenja!

HENRIK's WORDS:

This week the most important happening was Pierre's practical final exam, which he completed well before the time was up, that is usually a very good sign! next week the experts will come to the school and grade his work, we all cross our fingers that he will pass! For the technician course, since last week they got introduced to the pinning up of hairspring to the collet including how to true it in the round and flat, they continued mostly with that this week and completed almost all of the exercises which is very fast! Some hairsprings got killed on the way, but that's for me expected when learning. Since Markus reached last week the timing course, he continued this week to finish off some old pivot gauges and will resume the timing course next week. Have a great weekend everyone! 

THE HAIRSPRING & FINAL EXAM!

 WEEK 102

Willy, Yuriy, Alex, Michael

Origin : Singapore, Canada, Taiwan, Malaysia 

Age: n. a.

Watchmaking class: Technician & Fullskill 

Current mood: Oscillator time!

This week we continue the balance build/repair topic. Replacing balance staff is a significant aspect of proper time keeping.

Old balance staff must be properly removed first. Henrik explained several different methods of this operation. Each has its own pros and cons. It was interesting to see how each method works on various balance wheels of different makes and materials. My favorite method is by using lathe to remove exact amount of material to make sure the old staff is removed securely without damaging the wheel or altering its geometry. It was eye opening experience observing how brass could be strong on time of intense and momentary impact. As well as steel loses its strength rapidly when its thickness is decreasing.

After removing old/broke staff, a new staff should be installed. Two days the workshop was full of tapping sounds of small hammers, riveting new staffs on exact place. Like dozens of woodpeckers doing their job. We also finished all the static poising and truing the balance wheels in the flat as well. We then started to work on the hairsprings by first learning how to pin them up on the collet and practicing truing them in the round and flat. 

Pierre Aubert

Origin :Toulouse, France.

Age : 24

Watchmaking class: Fullskill

Current mood: N/A 

Name: Markus McDonald.
Origin: Stockholm, Sweden. 
Course: 2 years full skill course.
Current mode: This week i finished the neccesary preperations for the hairspring and started the timing.

This was a lot different on a techical level being similar in nature to the vibrating but a lot more complicated as it was a digital representation of both the health and neccesary performance of the movement and naturally this required getting a hang of the feel. Through the process of elimination and adjusting I was able to gain a better understanding making it a very intresting section.

STEP 1:  EPILAME! (TECHNICIAN)

We also had an interesting discussion on the various applications and policies of Epilame use on movement parts such as the escapement, winding and setting mechanism, chronograph parts etc.

STEP 2:  BALANCE STAFF! (TECHNICIAN)

Oscillator with rusty balance staff! Good thing we now know how to replace them!

STEP 3:  BOOKS & TOOLS! (TECHNICIAN)

At Mr. Simonins book and tool store! https://www.booksimonin.ch/ 

Got home with all these watchmaking books!

STEP 4:  GUIDANCE! (TECHNICIAN)

Our guide to true the hairspring around the collets.

STEP 5:  STATIC POISING! (TECHNICIAN)

Static poising of a balance!

STEP 6:  PINNING UP THE HAIRSPRING TO THE COLLET! (TECHNICIAN)

The parts needed to do the pinning up.

STEP 7: WINTER IS BACK! (ALL!)

Blessings from the sky!

STEP 8:  HIGH GRADE! (ALL)

In need of a good overhaul! Amazing quality watch though!

Movement details!

Swiss silver hallmarks on the case.

Regulator index pointer with screw and locating pin!

Beast of an oscillator!

HENRIK's WORDS:

Amazing week! We got winter back in full swing! Today (Friday) we even had -10°C freezing cold in the morning!  We finished all the riveting, static poising and truing exercises this week and had some time to learn how to pin up the hairsprings on the collet including practicing making them flat and centered around the collet, certainly a delicate task when doing it for the first time. Even though there are only two concepts/rules for correcting flatness and the same for centering, it can still be very tricky to understand how to make the good corrections due to that the hairspring is spiral shaped and the correction with fine tweezers is very delicate and can easily damage the hairspring. We will spend some good time on the hairsprings, leading us in the direction of the really interesting timing course!

 Pierre had his oral and theoretical final examination today and next week he will do his practical, can’t believe he will only be with us for another 2 weeks and then he is off to Holland! Markus finished all his hairspring exercises and started the timing course; he is soon ready to start with his trial balance/hairspring and timing exams, very happy for him to reach that level!

Even though we were only allowed to go 3 to visit Mr. Simonin due to the Covid situation, it was still a great experience and we got a big bag full of books with us and even some small hand tools for Yuriy and Willy. 

Also I got a nice Patek silver cased pocket watch for an overhaul, which I used to show the difference between modern mass manufactured movements and high grade vintage movement such as that Patek, the amount of detail is a feast for our eyes! (even a lot of it is there for pride of workmanship!) Have a great weekend everyone! 

THE BALANCE!

 WEEK 101

Willy, Yuriy, Alex, Michael

Origin : Singapore, Canada, Taiwan, Malaysia 

Age: n. a.

Watchmaking class: Technician & Fullskill 

Current mood: This week was busy and diverse, we got introduced to the amazing Bestfit book and dive a bit deeper into the realm of the balance. Theories, assembly and disassembly, riveting, installation of the roller, flatness, static poising and so much more!!! We are facing an explosion of works again! Less talking more doing! See ya!!

Pierre Aubert

Origin :Toulouse, France.

Age : 24

Watchmaking class: Fullskill

Current mood: Repairing as many movements as possible in order to prepare for next weeks final exam! Starts on Friday and lasts a week!

Still have some work to do. Have a great weekend everyone!

Name: Markus McDonald.
Origin: Stockholm, Sweden. 
Course: 2 years full skill course.
Current mode: This week started with recovering from a cold that I had caught over the weekend thankfully not Covid. This was an unfortunate inconvenience as it got in the way of potential work I wanted to do. Fortunately  I was able to recover quickly and get back to work and I was able to finish off several 6498 hairsprings in preparation for the timing section, making this week better than it could of been.

STEP 1:  BESTFIT! (TECHNICIAN)

Consulting the amazing BESTFIT catalogue to find the calibre of a vintage watch.

STEP 2: THE BALANCE! (TECHNICIAN)

Some of the tools used when dealing with the balance.

Turned off roller seat before extracting the staff.

Half a balance staff.

Another practice balance with knocked out staff.

Fitting the roller on the staff.

Before the roller is fitted the balance would be fitted to the staff and then riveted.

Checking the flatness of the balance.

STEP 3: MAINPLATE RESTORATION TRIAL! (YURIY)

HENRIK's WORDS:

New Subject! This week we started the balance and hairspring course, The students first learn different technics how to safely remove the hairsprings and double rollers from the balance before extracting the broken balance staffs, they also learn different technics how to remove the staff without damaging the balance, after that they learn how to rivet back new ones in the staking set, as well as checking concentricity of balance, condition of rivet and pivots, as well as truing the balance in the flat. Markus finish several of his hairsprings and will soon start doing timing on them. Pierre was repairing and overhauling a lot of watches this week to get ready for his final exam starting next Friday. In between the balance work, Yuriy continued to practice restoring mainplates with worn barrel and center wheel bushings. I also show how to use the genius Bestfit catalogue to find the calibre of the watch in order to be able to order the right spare part for vintage watches. This Saturday we will get the opportunity to visit Mr. Simonin again, unfortunately we cannot all go due to the restrictions, but we will certainly go another time soon again.  Have a great weekend everyone!