https://www.bbc.com/news/av/world-europe-44333446/the-swiss-master-watchmaker-running-out-of-time

apologies if old or been posted before, I liked it, though odd he doesnt have an apprentice. surely there must be a few people interested and somewhat able to take it up and be able to meet his expectations?

 

This just makes me sad. So many crafts are dying out, skills can not be passed on, knowledge that gets lost.

I blame this partly on our overly academic society. From an early age on we are getting told that if we want to achieve something in life, we must have good grades and enter a university later on for further education. Only to end up in the mills of big corporations and competing with thousands of others for the same job offering.

I regularly encourage younger people to take a good hard look left and right before making the decision to enlist at University.

In my circle of friends are a few who made their living, and sometimes a quite considerable amount of wealth, with building up companies from scratch as carpenters, floor tilers, coachbuilders and contractors.
And it happens more often than what I would hope for, that their children have no desire at all in continueing what sometimes took generations to build.

I sincerely hope that Mister Dufour finds an acquaintance to pass on his craft and unique set of skills.

 

Congratulations to Phillippe and his super watches. However, it's a big jump to recommend because of this others shouldn't go to University!

"I regularly encourage younger people to take a good hard look left and right before making the decision to enlist at University"

The greatest singer ever, Ella Fitzgerald (let the argument start), had no formal training but if your child was offered a place at the Royal Academy should they turn it down?

In my circle of friends most who have significant wealth also have a significant education. Yes there are exceptions we can all point to whose drive/vision etc has taken them very far. Plus there are many degree courses where graduates are just incurring debt with little hope of better employment than without a degree.

However, on the majority of people benefit greatly from degree level education. Rant other

 

I think there is a misunderstanding/language barrier here. I get your point. We are on par with the „incurring in dept/little hope of better employment“ part.

What I was trying to say with“take a good hard look left and right“ was that there are other ways of career path‘s and education besides the university. Don’t worry i‘m not advising anyone to go ahead and try to find a job without any education at all. .


Big fan of Ella Fitzgerald btw, but I place her third behind Nina Simone and la grand Dame Edith Piaf (for the sake of argument )

Cheers,

Max

 

He's had others work in his shop before (there were 2 others working in his shop when I visited him a number of years ago), and in fact his daughter is also a watchmaker. I believe she works for one of the big brands though, and doesn't appear to be too interested in taking over for her father.

Keep in mind that there's more to the business than just the watchmaking part...and not everyone wants those headaches. Trust me if I wanted a much easier path in just the watchmaking I do, it would be working for one of the big brands in a service center. I would be able to just do my work for the day and go home at the end - running your own business is a much different thing, and not everyone is cut out for it.

Cheers, Al

 

I would agree on many points with you, and I have lived both sides of the coin. In general there is a loss to society when not only skilled trades die off, but even the average joe can't fix anything on their own.

There is a satisfaction that can't be met in any other way than working in the physical world and either fixing, creating, or problem solving on a physical object where the laws of physics apply and you can't talk your way out of the problem...

And of course being in a trade doesn't mean being uneducated. Part of the basics you will learn in any trade is going to involve some post-secondary education, at least it does here. If anyone doubts this then they have never had to troubleshoot a complex pneumatic or hydraulic system on some industrial machinery. Since I designed systems like this it was not a problem for me, but the industrial mechanics we had could also do this kind of work, as well as rebuild equipment, scrape in slides, perform complex vibration analysis on bearings, etc. The level of technical expertise required in many trades is quite substantial, and the "new engineers" coming out of school would do well to respect the knowledge of the people who do the work, and learn from them. I know I did and I was a better engineer for it.

In general though trades don't get the respect they deserve these days, and I think that is the gist of your point. I agree fully.

BTW Mr. Dufour is working on a project to document all these techniques for posterity...at least I read about that maybe a year or so ago.

Cheers, Al

 

Hell, I'll quit my job and be his apprentice! Where do I send my resume?

 

Just good enough to be a watchmaker
The rest is history...

 

Life changing decisions.

 

I would love to find a Philip Dufour watch.

 

Hodinkee radio, which is on spotify, just did an interview with Dufour and it was excellent. Its always enjoyable to hear what he has to say but this is one of the better ones I've listened to. Guess which two brands he recommends to new collectors??...

 

One is Nomos, at least he has in the past. And as noted he owns an ALS...