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ChrisN
·Agreed, it should be demanding as if not, it is worthless. I think they pitch it about right with it being difficult but not impossible.
So, after a good Wednesday, now the practical tests on Thursday and Friday.
Arrived in good time for the Thursday quartz exam and unpacked my large collection of tools. It turned out that the BHI had most of them available but, I was taking no chances.
You're supplied with a quartz watch with some faults introduced by the examiner. The idea is to test the watch, identify the faults, strip, clean, review for further faults and reassemble/oil and test again. The watch had a Ronda 1015 calibre which is not the best but, I have one of these so not a real issue. The room was full (8 people) and most people expected an ETA 955.112 (or some such) so not everyone was that happy, I suspect. Obvious faults were a broken stem and missing insulation pad for the battery but there were some others in there as well such as a bent wheel and a lightly deformed stop lever so it doesn't earth the stepping motor when the crown is pulled out. It seems they have a series of faults so you don't all get the same - they need to do this as, after 4 hours, there is a break for lunch and you could tell others what the faults were....
I was very nervous at the start and having problems holding screwdrivers let alone screws/springs and so on. I'm not exactly sure why this was as I'm used to being under pressure in my current job. Anyway, can't be a problem as I do this sort of thing daily. Can it?
After an hour or so, I settled down, the morning went very well and 30 minutes before lunch, I had the basic movement back together and tested. Good consumption and date change worked well. So, I popped the hour wheel, dial and hands on that and went for lunch. All that was left to do was trim the new stem, case and final test so, 30 minutes work and I still had 2 hours to go.... Up to now, no issues and was very relaxed.
Unfortunately, when cased, the consumption rose by 30%-40% and that pushed it out of the allowable spec. So, I had two options:
1. Check that the second hand was not grazing the underside of the crystal. If it was clear (which it was), then remove the hands and dial and re-check hour wheel end shake and dial centering on the hour wheel. These are the only possibilities for this issue, as that's all I'd done after the previous test, and I had an hour and a half. This is what I'd do in my workshop.
2. Spend 45 minutes checking other things that were completely unrelated and get myself in a complete funk so I couldn't do anything at all.
I chose option 2...
In the end, with time in hand still to revert to option 1, I submitted this watch with high consumption and notes explaining the possible issues as I'd lost my ability to do any practical work due to my nerves. In my workshop, if I suddenly get an unexpected problem, I'll put it down and do something else until it's clear in my mind and then come back to it. Not an option here, obviously, so we'll see if explaining the issue shows the examiner that I just ran out of time to resolve it. To be fair, they allow at least 50% more time than I'd need at my bench so, it was just me getting myself nervous.
A bad end to Thursday as it knocked my confidence for Friday which was to be the mechanical watch exam. I was well prepared for the quartz having built that particular calibre and half a dozen others a few times so just saw it as the warm up for the mechanical test. Didn't have a good night at all but made some decisions about why I'm doing this course and what I'll do in the future (more another day) and, still annoyed with myself, went into the Friday exam with an attitude of just work as I would at my own bench and it'll be fine. I've done a lot of mechanical watches now and this was to be the simplest configuration without any complications at all so had to be fine...
Friday was a seven hour practical with an ETA 6497 - just three people on this one so a very relaxed atmosphere. The watch they give you is a specific ETA watch for test centres (not seen one of these before). Again, faults were introduced and the first obvious fault on mine was half of the crown wheel teeth were missing. Second obvious fault was a broken upper Incabloc spring so, no point in replacing the crown wheel to test in the before condition. It took me 3 minutes to remove the back and 30 minutes to get the flipping bezel off (!) as the movement came out the front. I have never experienced such a tight bezel and at my bench I would have given in and found my little used bezel remover but none available there. Usually, the razor/knife works easily but not here. Ah well, movement out eventually.
A few other faults on strip down such as very slightly bent wheels and a coned hairspring but all shakes were fine and everything seemed good. The upper Inca spring is easy to replace if you just push the bloc out a little and then fit the new one. Took my own Horia tool but could have just used theirs. Do this and then check the end shake after pushing the bloc back in.
Cleaned all and then fitted the balance cock to readjust the hairspring which is easy to do on these with the ETACHRON system. Assembled all the base movement and set up, then tested - just doing what I'd usually do and not putting pressure on myself. Ran beautifully with 280+ degrees after just 30 minutes running so will be 300 after a day or two. Few hairspring slight tweaks and it was close to chronometer spec - these ETA calibres really are great although I much prefer a 2892 to the 6497. Fitted dial and hands now checking everything twice (!) and off to lunch.
Three hours left after lunch as it's a seven hour exam so, cased again and rechecked the performance, water resistance and finished. Very happy with this exam and finished with a little under two hours to spare so the time is generous even allowing for a delay in using a cleaning machine (not an issue with 3 people in the room), nerves etc. Again, it turns out that some faults were common (the Inca spring which is obvious) but everyone had different faults for the rest.
-------------------
As an overall summary of my experience, I found that the organizers and invigilators were very good and certainly didn't apply so much pressure that you felt it would be impossible to succeed. A few small gripes about the conditions and supplied equipment but certainly with the long times allowed, the BHI put nothing in the way of you succeeding if you are well prepared. I definitely put more obstacles in my own way than they did but, in the end I'm not unhappy.
For anyone contemplating this course, it seems definitely worth buying the first year notes which have been completely re-written and brought up to date. They seem very clear and are far better than the 2nd/3rd year notes (re-write is in progress) that I bought. I think a lot is there but you do need to read around the subject to be sure you have the knowledge for the theory exams (in particular) but the first year seems comprehensive.
It's a trying experience as you're putting yourself in front of your peers to have your knowledge and work reviewed so, I can see why a lot of watchmakers refuse to do this and looking at the watchmaker sites in Europe, my impression is that under a third put themselves through a formal course. I'm sure these tests are even harder if you are sitting something to obtain a spares account with the big manufacturers as your livelihood is directly dependent on the outcome. There is certainly a lot of pressure involved with either.
For me, I think the best part so far of this course has been the assessor feedback, which I wrote about previously, as that is based on work you do in your own shop - that can also make you a little nervous but I was very happy with the comments I got. I found the exams/tests challenging but not impossible. The pass rate for each exam is not that high I believe (I'd estimate from talking around with people doing re-sits and with previous experience that it's 30-50% although I've not seen these figures written down anywhere) but it's not clear if this is down to lack of preparation or nerves. As I said, I don't believe anyone can blame the conditions at Upton Hall.
As a side note, I'm sure I read somewhere that the American CW21 exams have an even lower pass rate but, I've only met one person who has done both BHI and CW21 so am not sure how exactly they compare. My impression is that the CW21 has less allowed time.
Anyway, moving forward, I'm going to have to change my plans for the course a little as I have some other very important things to do this summer that mean I will have less time than I'd like. More on that another day.
Cheers, Chris
So, after a good Wednesday, now the practical tests on Thursday and Friday.
Arrived in good time for the Thursday quartz exam and unpacked my large collection of tools. It turned out that the BHI had most of them available but, I was taking no chances.
You're supplied with a quartz watch with some faults introduced by the examiner. The idea is to test the watch, identify the faults, strip, clean, review for further faults and reassemble/oil and test again. The watch had a Ronda 1015 calibre which is not the best but, I have one of these so not a real issue. The room was full (8 people) and most people expected an ETA 955.112 (or some such) so not everyone was that happy, I suspect. Obvious faults were a broken stem and missing insulation pad for the battery but there were some others in there as well such as a bent wheel and a lightly deformed stop lever so it doesn't earth the stepping motor when the crown is pulled out. It seems they have a series of faults so you don't all get the same - they need to do this as, after 4 hours, there is a break for lunch and you could tell others what the faults were....
I was very nervous at the start and having problems holding screwdrivers let alone screws/springs and so on. I'm not exactly sure why this was as I'm used to being under pressure in my current job. Anyway, can't be a problem as I do this sort of thing daily. Can it?
After an hour or so, I settled down, the morning went very well and 30 minutes before lunch, I had the basic movement back together and tested. Good consumption and date change worked well. So, I popped the hour wheel, dial and hands on that and went for lunch. All that was left to do was trim the new stem, case and final test so, 30 minutes work and I still had 2 hours to go.... Up to now, no issues and was very relaxed.
Unfortunately, when cased, the consumption rose by 30%-40% and that pushed it out of the allowable spec. So, I had two options:
1. Check that the second hand was not grazing the underside of the crystal. If it was clear (which it was), then remove the hands and dial and re-check hour wheel end shake and dial centering on the hour wheel. These are the only possibilities for this issue, as that's all I'd done after the previous test, and I had an hour and a half. This is what I'd do in my workshop.
2. Spend 45 minutes checking other things that were completely unrelated and get myself in a complete funk so I couldn't do anything at all.
I chose option 2...
In the end, with time in hand still to revert to option 1, I submitted this watch with high consumption and notes explaining the possible issues as I'd lost my ability to do any practical work due to my nerves. In my workshop, if I suddenly get an unexpected problem, I'll put it down and do something else until it's clear in my mind and then come back to it. Not an option here, obviously, so we'll see if explaining the issue shows the examiner that I just ran out of time to resolve it. To be fair, they allow at least 50% more time than I'd need at my bench so, it was just me getting myself nervous.
A bad end to Thursday as it knocked my confidence for Friday which was to be the mechanical watch exam. I was well prepared for the quartz having built that particular calibre and half a dozen others a few times so just saw it as the warm up for the mechanical test. Didn't have a good night at all but made some decisions about why I'm doing this course and what I'll do in the future (more another day) and, still annoyed with myself, went into the Friday exam with an attitude of just work as I would at my own bench and it'll be fine. I've done a lot of mechanical watches now and this was to be the simplest configuration without any complications at all so had to be fine...
Friday was a seven hour practical with an ETA 6497 - just three people on this one so a very relaxed atmosphere. The watch they give you is a specific ETA watch for test centres (not seen one of these before). Again, faults were introduced and the first obvious fault on mine was half of the crown wheel teeth were missing. Second obvious fault was a broken upper Incabloc spring so, no point in replacing the crown wheel to test in the before condition. It took me 3 minutes to remove the back and 30 minutes to get the flipping bezel off (!) as the movement came out the front. I have never experienced such a tight bezel and at my bench I would have given in and found my little used bezel remover but none available there. Usually, the razor/knife works easily but not here. Ah well, movement out eventually.
A few other faults on strip down such as very slightly bent wheels and a coned hairspring but all shakes were fine and everything seemed good. The upper Inca spring is easy to replace if you just push the bloc out a little and then fit the new one. Took my own Horia tool but could have just used theirs. Do this and then check the end shake after pushing the bloc back in.
Cleaned all and then fitted the balance cock to readjust the hairspring which is easy to do on these with the ETACHRON system. Assembled all the base movement and set up, then tested - just doing what I'd usually do and not putting pressure on myself. Ran beautifully with 280+ degrees after just 30 minutes running so will be 300 after a day or two. Few hairspring slight tweaks and it was close to chronometer spec - these ETA calibres really are great although I much prefer a 2892 to the 6497. Fitted dial and hands now checking everything twice (!) and off to lunch.
Three hours left after lunch as it's a seven hour exam so, cased again and rechecked the performance, water resistance and finished. Very happy with this exam and finished with a little under two hours to spare so the time is generous even allowing for a delay in using a cleaning machine (not an issue with 3 people in the room), nerves etc. Again, it turns out that some faults were common (the Inca spring which is obvious) but everyone had different faults for the rest.
-------------------
As an overall summary of my experience, I found that the organizers and invigilators were very good and certainly didn't apply so much pressure that you felt it would be impossible to succeed. A few small gripes about the conditions and supplied equipment but certainly with the long times allowed, the BHI put nothing in the way of you succeeding if you are well prepared. I definitely put more obstacles in my own way than they did but, in the end I'm not unhappy.
For anyone contemplating this course, it seems definitely worth buying the first year notes which have been completely re-written and brought up to date. They seem very clear and are far better than the 2nd/3rd year notes (re-write is in progress) that I bought. I think a lot is there but you do need to read around the subject to be sure you have the knowledge for the theory exams (in particular) but the first year seems comprehensive.
It's a trying experience as you're putting yourself in front of your peers to have your knowledge and work reviewed so, I can see why a lot of watchmakers refuse to do this and looking at the watchmaker sites in Europe, my impression is that under a third put themselves through a formal course. I'm sure these tests are even harder if you are sitting something to obtain a spares account with the big manufacturers as your livelihood is directly dependent on the outcome. There is certainly a lot of pressure involved with either.
For me, I think the best part so far of this course has been the assessor feedback, which I wrote about previously, as that is based on work you do in your own shop - that can also make you a little nervous but I was very happy with the comments I got. I found the exams/tests challenging but not impossible. The pass rate for each exam is not that high I believe (I'd estimate from talking around with people doing re-sits and with previous experience that it's 30-50% although I've not seen these figures written down anywhere) but it's not clear if this is down to lack of preparation or nerves. As I said, I don't believe anyone can blame the conditions at Upton Hall.
As a side note, I'm sure I read somewhere that the American CW21 exams have an even lower pass rate but, I've only met one person who has done both BHI and CW21 so am not sure how exactly they compare. My impression is that the CW21 has less allowed time.
Anyway, moving forward, I'm going to have to change my plans for the course a little as I have some other very important things to do this summer that mean I will have less time than I'd like. More on that another day.
Cheers, Chris
