Graduation!

 Week 26

 

This week we officially said goodbye to Xin! He completed the Watchmaking Technician course!

 

We had an evening party to celebrate!

 

STUDENT HIGHLIGHTS

Workshop B

Students:
    Dean, Ivan, Louis, Tetsu, Varun

     This week, Ivan, Louis and Varun learned how to use the schaublin 70 lathe. How to tap, drill and thread on the drill press and the lathe.

Varun operating the drill press.

Louis learning how to turn to make his balance bridge holder.

Ivan learning how to make threads on the lathe.

Practice piece, tapping into a screw.

    Ivan finished his poising plate this week! With simple round screws and a nice, simple straight graining.

    Varun finished his steel angular rule.

    Louis finished his balance bridge holder.

     This week, Tetsu and Dean took their third and fourth practice hairspring exams, which they thankfully passed.  Each of these exams provided a variety of challenges, enabling them to take the real exam with greater confidence.

     Next week, they will be taking the lessons they learned from these experiences and apply them to the exam where they will build a balance complete from the ground up and regulate it in a movement.

 

     

GUEST STARRING

Workshop A

    David, Daniel, Miguel and Dunham.

    This week they learned how to use the jig borer. How to set it up properly, make precise measurements for drilling, scribing lines, how to bore holes and how to clean it properly.

 

Finished exercise piece with a scribed cricle, square, and drilled holes.

COMING UP NEXT...

 

Nothing for now, stay tuned for Workshop A's highlights.

 

 Thank you for reading! See you next week!

Birthday and a Bench Test!

Week 25

 

 This week we celebrated the birthday of our resident Canadian!

 

Happy Birthday Dean!

 

We also had a new bench tester! Jayendra from Singapore!

 

 

 

STUDENT HIGHLIGHTS

Workshop A

Students:
    Amer, Dunham, Daniel, David, Harold, Miguel 

 

    This week, Amer and Dunham took their gear train exam and passed! They are now moving onto the escapement lesson.

Horia pusher set up to fix end shake of the jewels

Pallet fork removed to prepare for escapement adjustments!

 

    This week Daniel, David and Miguel started their lesson on pivot gauges! They learned how to turn it down on the between centers lathe, trim it down with a degussit stone and finally burnish it on the jacot tool.

Pivot gauge blank attached to carrier plate on between centers lathe

Close up of pivot gauge before doming the tip

Closer look of the pivot tip.

Measuring the accuracy of  the tip of the pivot gauge with a micrometer. Accurate to 1 micron!

    This week, Harold joined Amer and Dunham for their gear train theory discussion and started filing his screwdrivers and tweezers to begin working on movements.

GUEST STARRING

Workshop B

    Xin

    Xin passed his final exam! Congratulations to our upcoming graduate!    

 

COMING UP NEXT...

 

Next week we're going to have another bench tester! So stay tuned to meet them and see what Workshop B is up to!

 

 Thank you for reading! See you next week! 

New places and new faces!

 

Week 24

 

    Last friday we went to the EPHJ industry fair! We got to go around and see the different suppliers and manufacturers who make up the watch industry. 

 

Dial by Mei Hua

Prototype watch case by Ab concept

5 minute repeater movement by Dubois Depraz

    We also have 4 new students starting this week! In workshop A doing the 1 year course is Harold from Canada. In workshop B we have Ivan from Italy, Louis from America and Varun from India, who are all doing the 2 year fullskill course!

 

STUDENT HIGHLIGHTS

Workshop B

Students:

    Dean, Ivan, Louis, Tetsu, Varun, Xin

    This week Xin is taking his final exam! He started on wednesday and he will finish today! Best of luck to him!

Xin working on his 7750.

    This week, Ivan, Louis and Varun started the filing lesson and are making their tools! Ivan and Louis are doing the truing guide and Varun is working on his balance bridge holder.

Louis sawing out his practice pieces for his truing guide.

Louis's practice cutting sharp angles

Varun doing filing practice for creating sharp interior angles.

Varun sawing out pieces for his balance bridge holder.

Ivan sawing out practice plates for filing interior angles

Ivan practicing creating sharp interior angles.

    This week, Dean and Tetsu continued working hard on the Balance & Hairspring unit. Henrik introduced them to “2nd pinning”, “flattening & centering”, “regulating curve & double bend” and “timing”.

    Dean and Tetsu have been experiencing lots of challenges, but at the same time having fun doing the tasks, even when they spent a whole day working on just one hairspring without success. Practice exams are just around the corner.

 

GUEST STARRING

Workshop A

Students: 

   Daniel, David, Harold, Miguel

    This week Daniel is measuring the wheel distances on an Omega caliber 286 for his school watch!

Measuring distances between the Center wheel and 3rd wheel.

 

      This week Harold started on filing and making his tools. He started working on his poising plate and is now in the process of straight-graining it.

    David made a new winding stem for his Longines cal.341!

Above is the original broken winding stem, below is the new one David made.

 

    This week, Miguel took his final winding stem exam and passed! With that out of the way he can now proceed to making pivot gauges!

 

COMING UP NEXT...

 We will be having 2 consecutive weeks of bench testers!

Stay tuned to meet our 2 new candidates!

 

 

 Thank you for reading! Hope to see you next week! 

WORK, WORK!

 

Week 22

It was a very packed week for everyone! We started off this week with the official graduation ceremonies of Åsmund, David L., Francesco, Renato and Robert!

Left to right: Renato, Åsmund, Francesco, David L., Robert

Our fresh graduates and school team out for a celebratory dinner!

 

STUDENT HIGHLIGHTS

 

Workshop A & B

Students:
    Amer, Dunham, Daniel, David W., Miguel

    Åsmund, Dean, Francesco, Robert, Tetsu, Xin 

 

    This week Daniel and David took their real winding stem exam. All of those practice exams paid off in the end!

    After his exam, Daniel started making a brooch for a square punch.

Brooch in drill press, set up to punch a square in a brass bar

David made a screw for his polishing tripod.

 

    David hollowed out the center by drilling and threading the center, then milling out the surrounding material with the milling attachment of the lathe.

    Miguel, David and Michael helped to assemble a new bench for the school and a new cabinet for workshop A.

New bench being set up with lights, compressed air, drawers and other equipment.

    Everyone had the opportunity to have a lesson on minute repeaters, how it works, how to check its functions and an introduction on how to service one.

Henrik explaining the hour rack finger and the 12 star wheel of the repeating mechanism.

 

 

    We also had the opportunity to learn how to use a pantograph to restore watches by making replacement parts! 

Prepared drawing of part to be made.

One person will use the stylus of the machine to follow the drawing, another person will keep watch of the cutter, add cutting oil, and report any problems.

   

COMING UP NEXT...

 

    Next week we will be having 4 new students coming to join us! 

 

 

Thank you for reading!

Hope to see you again next week!