February 1, 2012 – 11:20 am
Automatons are real things. Fantastic creations of watchmakers bygone. They absolutely fascinate me. Link to Video, “The Lost art of Automota” Anybody want to pay me a few hundred thousand dollars to figure out how to do this? Feel free to contact me or just make a really, really big donation and I’ll get to [...]
January 24, 2012 – 10:10 am
Ok, this time I didn’t put any clues in the filename, but you probably won’t need it. What is it?
January 21, 2012 – 10:46 am
A short interview with the highly esteemed, master watchmaker, Philippe Dufour, debuted today on TheTImeTV, detailing some of the plans that lie ahead for an initiative he has been spearheading alongside Robert Greubel and Stephen Forsey of Greubel-Forsey. Their ambition with the project is simply this: to demonstrate and archive all of the necessary skills [...]
January 18, 2012 – 3:19 pm
This afternoon I read the following line in Malcom Gladwell’s book What the Dog Saw: And Other Adventures When Bulova wanted a name for their new quartz watch, Tinker suggested Accutron. It’s a fascinating book. I’m loving it, but I need to set the record straight: The Bulova Accutron is not a quartz watch, it [...]
January 11, 2012 – 8:59 am
It has been a while since we’ve done Tuesday Tools but since I now have a garage full of new tools we’ll kick things off a day late with a “What is it?” Segment. Take a good look at the picture below. (Click on it for more detail) What is it? And how would one [...]
January 7, 2012 – 10:45 pm
That is the question when talking about pallet arbors. I was trained in the tradition that unless you are dealing with an extremely humid climate and a dust-proof case then the answer is no, you don’t oil pallet arbors. You really want the pallet arbor to be as free as possible to rock back and [...]
January 4, 2012 – 11:35 pm
I recently acquired the estate of a deceased watchmaker. The estate came with a nice Boley lathe with a pretty nice set of collets. At long last I have a lathe at home, now if only I can find time to use it. I didn’t even have to buy a Chinese lathe. It also came [...]
December 28, 2011 – 1:59 pm
St. Paul Technical College has announced the end of their watchmaking program: Why time has run out for Saint Paul College’s Watchmaking Program Apparently details are murky but it seems to me it is a simple matter of economics. Rolex has pulled their funding in support of other schools. Those who wish to fault Rolex [...]
December 10, 2011 – 9:30 pm
One of the great things about being a watchmaker, is that so many of the tools we use everyday are small. Barring cleaning machines and water resistance testing equipment, most of the stuff we use to do our job everyday can fit in a stocking at Christmas time. For this year, I’ve compiled a list [...]
December 8, 2011 – 8:12 am
A new assembly video, of Blancpain’s calibre 1151, has recently been posted on Alliance Horlogère. Based on the Frederic Piguet 1150, it is a double barrel, automatic wristwatch calibre with a 100 hour power reserve. Frederic Piguet itself is now defunct, having been fully integrated by the Swatch Group into Blancpain’s production chain several years [...]
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