Week 33 & 34 Mar. 7-19, 2011

Just going to be a quick update since there wasn't much happening the last 2 weeks. Like I had mentioned we went for quartz watch training at ETA in Grenchen for 4 days so that was the first week. But it was good training and necessary so we had to do it sometime.

As for my projects, not a lot to talk about really. Just trying to make a hairspring that works properly right now. It usually isn't that difficult, but the way I designed my system it is proving to be a little tricky. The problem is that I want the stud holder and regulator to have a certain angle between them, and have the regulator centered on the bridge. I keep pinning it and the wrong spot and it's not really easy to adjust. So I guess I have to keep trying.

I guess one other thing I did was to adjust the escapements of both the W-01 and AMS1. We have nicely polished pallet forks and escape wheels that are a higher quality (allegedly). So I put those in and adjusted them properly using the skills we learnt back in August last year.

Here's just a picture showing a regular 6498 balance and spring. The card with angles is to judge if the vibrating point and the pinning point on the collet are within the tolerance of +/- 15°. This is to achieve better results at lower amplitudes.

I also did a little decorative work. I beveled the teeth on the crown and ratchet wheel. This isn't done very often but looks much nicer than sharp teeth on the gears. The first picture is before, and the second pic is after. Looks better with a loupe, trust me...

And I also finished the intermediate wheel for the power reserve with the satellite wheel on top. The intermediate wheel is just the barrel drum from the 6498 with the drum part cut off. It is rhodium plated. The satellite wheel is attached to the intermediate wheel with a friction fitted pin. I also placed the other wheel (with square center) to show what the satellite connects to. That wheel is connected to the barrel arbor. Those wheels are rose gold plated. I could write a whole 4 paragraphs trying to explain the power reserve system, but it probably won't make sense anyways. Maybe I'll try to use a video to explain later.

And just a few artsy shots. The light coming in the window was nice this morning. Starting to finally feel like spring. Which only means one thing, I need to work more to get this damn thing done! Hopefully a longer update next week....

Also, if anyone is interested, I will hopefully have the watch with me at Basel. I'll only be there for one day and of course the watch has no case dial or hands yet, but if you're interested in seeing it send me an email at aaronsblend@gmail.com and maybe I can show it to you. I will most likely be going up on Sunday March 26th, but if enough people want to see it a different day I could possibly arrange it. 

Anyways, here's proof it actually works haha!