Week 1 July 26-30, 2010

The first week was not a full week. I was technically still on holidays so I didn't come in every day or stay very long. It's not easy getting started on a project this big when there are many unanswered questions about what I am going to be doing at each step. So I figured I would just start by refinishing a few parts. All of the parts are from the setting/winding mechanism. These parts are just chrome plated on the original watch which just looks plain ugly. On the flip side of that, the finish on these parts has absolutely no impact on the look of the watch because all of these parts will be hidden under the dial. Nonetheless this is a part of fine watchmaking and is important.

All of the parts on the left are the originals, and the refinished ones on the right. Hopefully you can see that the ones on the right are much nicer. The are straight grained and the edges are beveled and polished by hand using files and special paper.

The part with the pins was the most difficult. There was no way to make the straight graining without first cutting off the pin. Then I had to drill a new hole in the same place the old one was. Next I had to make a new pin. The diameter of this pin is 0.50mm and the length is 1.00mm. I then had to make the nice straight graining on the top of the piece and also bevel and polish the edges. Then the last step was to push the new pin in place. The pin was 0.02mm bigger than the hole so that it is friction fitted and will hold when pushed in. I also had to be careful not to touch the finish or the piece would be ruined. The whole process took about 3-4 hours.

Unfortunately for me I had to do it twice because I used the wrong piece! There is also a mirrored version of the 6498 called the 6497. Basically all of the setting/winding mechanism parts are the exact opposite. So I was dumb and didn't check which one I was using. But on the plus side, the same part will be used in the WOSTEP school watch so it wasn't a total waste as I can use it in that watch.

So that was the first week.

Back to Basics

Well I have pretty much neglected the blog full for the last 4 months or so. Nothing really worth talking about and well blogging is tedious and non-rewarding. But now that I have actually started to work on making a watch at WOSTEP, I suppose I should document it. So this will be the start of that. The blog will only be about that. I will make an honest attempt at updating once a week about the stuff I was able to do the past week. I started two weeks ago so this will be a double update. Here it goes.

Brief Background

The students at WOSTEP in Neuchatel are given the chance to make their own watch. None of the other WOSTEP schools in the past have had the opportunity to do this. However the school is trying to change this. This year the school decided to have their own custom designed "WOSTEP caliber W-01" The watches in the past were a pocket watch design and this one is no different. It is 40mm in diameter and very similar to the Unitas 6497. In fact it is pretty much the exact same watch but with a larger diameter and made with better materials and having a nicer finish.

Since the school decided to do this, we were also told that we would be limited in the freedom of customization to be done to the watch. This, along with the fact that I think pocket watches are dumb and completely useless led me to the decision to attempt to make another watch of which I would do whatever customizing I felt I could do. It will be a wristwatch and the movement is the base Unitas 6498-1 watch. This is what the watch looks like new. Of course there is a major time confliction considering we still have to do the WOSTEP school watch, along with actually learning watchmaking, and also doing another internship in January. Needless to say I will be putting in an extreme amount of hours to get all of these things done. But I think having a wristwatch I can actually wear and show to people will be much more rewarding than a pocket watch which will for surely collect dust in a box (no matter how nice I do make that one as well!) So with that said, the next posts are the first 2 weeks! I'll try to answer any questions about the stuff I'm doing...

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...