And then there were 6

So we were informed a little while ago that our summer work experience is partially lined up. Usually there isn't as much participation from the different brands but apparently that has changed this year. There are 6 of us and 6 brands have joined to give us some experience on the job. The companies participating will be Patek Phillipe, Audemars Piguet, Jaeger-LeCoultre, Rolex, Omega, and Breitling. Our teacher is going to decide who gets to go to which company so maybe I'll have to slip him a few 50's to get where I want to go haha. But it should be interesting to see what it's like in one of these large companies.

On another note, I finished a few more little projects. This first one is a hand setting tool. I made the tips with color markers and designed the case myself. If you can't tell I sort of put the olympic feel too it by arranging the tips like the rings and with the same colors. The handle is aluminum and the tips are plexiglass. The tips are just screwed into the handle according to which size pinion you are working with.

And this was a trial for something I am going to do for the school watch. It is a bushing for the barrel on a Unitas 6497 movement. I made this one from german silver but I will probably use bronze for the actual watch. I had to enlarge the hole that was originally in the watch and make the piece to very specific dimensions to be able to fit it in properly. Then I chamfered the hole and polished the chamfer. I suppose I should include pics of the original. Maybe I'll try to do that monday...

So the part I changed is in the middle of the gold colored part. You can see it is almost a silver color in the middle. Normally the barrel would ride on jewels but this is a very large barrel and would be much better if we used the bronze we are planning to use. You can see the polishing on the inside chamfer of the bushing. This also acts as a lubrication spot to hold the oil in place properly.

The gold colored part was originally the same color as the other recessed parts of the bridge but I retouched the whole surface as to be even.

Underside of the bridge

All of this was just a trial to see if I could make it properly and it worked great the first time. Should work great for the real project when I get to it.

Any questions? I didn't think so...