Week 22-25 Dec. 20/2010-Jan. 15 /2011

Well it's been a while so I guess I should get back into updating regularly. I went back to Canada for the Christmas holiday so there wasn't really anything to update until now. After realizing I have just about the worst luck in flying history (I was on this flight), I got back to Switzerland on the 5th of January. Most of that week was gone and I was jet-lagged so I did not get much done.

And as of last week our class is doing another internship. I am working for Panerai in the after sales service department. It has been great so far with a good learning environment and nice colleagues. The first week we started servicing customer watches. Then at the end of the week for some reason I was given a special watch. It is the watch of famed explorer Mike Horn! I had never heard of him but I guess he's a big deal... here's his website. Anyways I guess Panerai sponsors him so it is cool I get to work on his watch. It is a chronometer watch (not to be confused with a chronograph) and will have to be certified by COSC. COSC is the chronometer standards testing center and only watches that have been tested by them can have the word 'chronometer' on them. Click those links if you have no clue what a chronometer or it's standards are. This isn't an education blog!

The nice thing about Panerai is that it is located in Neuchatel so I am still able to go back to WOSTEP after finishing work there some of the nights. This past week I started with a few simple things on the AMS-1. I centered and enlarged the original holes for the jewels of the escape, third, and fourth/center wheel bridges. Using the M1 it was easy to center these holes to guarantee the wheels will sit perfectly straight in the watch. The holes have to be 0.01mm smaller than the jewel to ensure a good fit. Even one hundredth smaller/larger and the jewel will be too tight/loose. But thanks to the M1 it is much easier. I didn't take any pics of the bridges, but I'm sure you will see them plenty in the future.

Next I set out making the balance bridge and the barrel bridge. My goal is to have a running watch by the end of February so I have to get a lot of parts made. First I made the balance bridge. And as I have had many many nagging requests to include coins in the photos, I will try my best to remember.

Here is a picture in the middle of making the balance bridge. You can see the undercut and the spot for the incabloc jewel, and also the spot for the locating pins and screw hole.

And here it is after all the milling. I still have to enlarge the hole for the incabloc, do the cut outs for the stud holder, make the screw holes for the swan neck, and the recess for the screw. Lots to do!

Next I started making the barrel bridge. This is the most difficult bridge to make as it has more recesses to mill out. Like all the other bridges, I started with the underside. Here you can see the cut out for the center wheel.

Also on the underside is the cut out for the barrel, winding stem and winding pinion. In the next two photos you can see how I checked the size of the locating pins. The size of the hole on the mainplate is exactly 1.000mm so I needed to mill the pin to fit exactly. So I used a jewel of size 1.00mm and slowly reduced the size until it fit. Worked great with all the pins for all the bridges. All the bridges fit great on the mainplate with very minor adjustment.

And here you can see all the bridges together. Of course the barrel and balance bridge are not quite finished yet but hopefully by next week I should have them close...

Cya next week!