Watch out! It's watch time!

We are now being introduced to the wonders of watch work.  After another trip to the horological suppliers to get some of the specialist tools required we start with... a clock!

Platform escapement on a carriage clock

The platform escapement on a carriage clock is the same technology as found in a watch, but on a larger scale - ideal for learning about how a watch works and the techniques for servicing a watch.  Take it apart checking for faults along the way, clean it and then reassemble while putting all the right oil in all the right places.  Practice makes perfect so repeat, rinse and repeat.

Then we move down one step on the size scale and start working on... a watch! (albeit a pocket watch.)

Pocket watch ETA 6497 movement

The practice with the carriage clock platform escapement has stood us in good stead for dealing with this little beauty.  We only started on it yesterday but it has been a lot of fun so far.

And after this we move on to quartz watches.  Apparently, there is more to them than just changing the batteries ;-)

Into the second term...

It seems a long time ago, back in September, when fourteen of us arrived at the School of Jewellery and started on our journey into the world of horology.  And what an adventure it has been so far!

There has been plenty of work to do: technical drawing with pencil and paper and using CAD; the history of timekeeping and the theory of horological mechanisms; The "Longitude Problem" and the history of the marine chronometer;  study of design in historical and modern context; materials, mechanics and the use of tools and other fabrication processes and machinery.  Every other spare minute was spent in the workshop, honing our hand skills and putting the theory into practice.

We all enjoyed time in the workshop the best.  After the traditional apprentice's exercise of filing a cube we moved on to making a Mini Clock.  It looks like a clock, it is built using the techniques required to build a clock but won't actually become a working clock.  (We make a working clock, to our own design, in the third year).  It was a real challenge, especially if you had no experience of metalworking at the start of the course!

My Mini Clock at the end of the first term

Unfortunately one of our number had to leave the course so that he could spend more time with his family.  A great loss to the team.

And so, into the second term...