February 5, 2009 – 6:50 pm
I finally took my first WOSTEP exam last week and I’m glad to report that I made it through. I successfully finished it with a little bit of warpage after heat treatment but it was complete by the end of the day. The results are still unknown because they’ll be going to Switzerland for grading. [...]
January 24, 2009 – 1:47 pm
It’s been awhile since I last posted and things are still going well at LWT. Since our holiday break, we’ve been working on winding stems nonstop. I believe we’ve been at it for about 3 weeks so far and one more final week. Next week will be our WOSTEP winding stem exam. When making a [...]
November 19, 2008 – 10:16 pm
I reported a while back about the interesting development at Oklahoma State where they dropped their WOSTEP recognition. It appears they will be getting it back under a new program developed by Rolex. National Jeweler and Via Luxe report today the creation of a new standardized watchmaking program created by Rolex to be implemented at [...]
October 17, 2008 – 9:08 pm
So I’ve finally been introduced to the lathe. It was a long month of solid filing and sawing which gets tedious to be honest. We just finished our second week with the lathe and I must say, I really like this thing! It’s quite simple to use actually but setting the geometry of the cutter [...]
September 30, 2008 – 9:33 pm
About a month has gone by and school is going by wonderfully. We’re still in the filing stage and it’s been quite tedious to be honest. So far our projects have been the Anvil/Pusher Holder, Balance Tack, Movement Holder, and bracelet links. It’s funny because the Anvil/Pusher holder is the only one that has been [...]
September 18, 2008 – 6:54 am
So I finished my first week of classes and almost done with my second. It’s been a whirlwind of information that’s still processing through my head. Last Monday, I had no clue how to file properly! Our first project was an Anvil/Pusher Holder. This project pretty much teaches us the basics of what’s to come [...]
September 10, 2008 – 4:44 pm
My name is Tony and I have officially started my journey to become a professional watchmaker. I’ve become a contributor to this blog because I was accepted into the Lititz Watch Technicum just like J. Peter. This will be my first blog ever, and I’m not quite sure how this goes but I’ll try my [...]
If there’s one thing I’ve learnt about this industry since stepping behind the red curtain, it’s that it’s not all that the glossed horological PR front makes it out to be. I have had a number of disappointing revelations about my trade since I first set out to become a watchmaker, and my school was [...]
Here’s a tool I learned how to use from a jeweler. The Ball peen hammer is very useful for forming rivets. I use it whenever I need to replace a worn rivet in a watch bracelet. This is a useful skill which should be taught in watchmaking school but is not. It is especially common [...]
I just spent 4 days talking watches from 7am to 11pm. It was fantastic! It was the first time I had attended the AWCI Convention and it was even better than I had expected. It is truly amazing to be surrounded by professional watchmakers (and clockmakers) who work in magnificent situations. Even before going to [...]
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