While I understand the value of hands on training, where can I get a good virtual class? I know YouTube has some good channels, but I'm willing to pay for group or individual instructors. AWCI did some during the pandemic but haven't added any to their roster since 2020. I'm in south jersey, so there's not much local to me I'm general, let alone a watch repair school.
25 or so years ago (plus or minus 10 years) I wanted to attend Watchmaking school between contracts. The way the tech industry worked one needed to find a new position to keep up every 18 months or so. I was told I was too old. The other factor was I was making top dollar in the industry. (well others (men) got 25 to 30% more but that is how the world works. And is off topic here.)
What I did was find some mentors to learn from. Not sure that is still an option. Seems like a lot of those who repair for a living have so much work, they do not have much time to teach. (Which is why having Archer online is a blessing) It also seems the quality contracts (we will not use the work anti-competitive) also prevent such folk from helping others or sharing materials.
There was a member on the Horological Tours, who was a top NY watchmaker. Supposedly he learned the trade on the streets of Buenos Ares. Or similar SA country. He would look for street sweeper bristles (now nylon.) the old ones were steel. He told a story how he would use the paving stones to file them into useful screwdrivers. I believe he also used Henry's Textbook.
If you do not have Henry's Textbook(s) then get them. I wonder what happened to the NY schools Henry was so proud of? One would think that there is some vestige of them 30 years later. Where ever Henry went in the world there would be people who wanted him to autograph his book.
People in the UK have access to the BHI, which has a great wealth of trade publications. Especially the ones from the 1950s. Similar for other countries I have some of the Swiss Horological journals (in french or English) from the 1950s. While a lot of the books deal with the exceptions, there is some good foundational material to be had.
One of the things my mentor would have me do is file. How to sit, how to hold the file etc. I also took jewelry classes. Same thing for using the jewelers saw. Boring as hell. Was told a story how one had to file a perfect cube. Student took the project home and used a milling machine. Teacher said, make 100 more exactly the same.
Grinding polishing is also similar. I am amazed how many grinding tools I acquired back in the day. One has to learn how to grind the tools and drills. I had to do this again to see if I could make a screw remover. (wound up etching it out.) Now I think I understand (some 30 years later.) that one does not grind the parts one makes or adapts the tools needed. Like a special stake for removing Bettlach hairsprings that are riveted in place.
It really becomes about the tools and learning (or re training oneself) as to how to use them. Especially the heat treating processes, which is probably something not done in watch assembly school. It always seems the tool one needs is the tool one does not have. Most of the reason I do not want to work on my speedmaster, is I would need about 5000 in fixtures to hold things proper. (Yet I have no issue working on similar Lemania movements in my Tissot, or house branded watch. There are watches and there are watches.)
I have also mentioned before that the GI bill applied to watchmaking trade schools. Big cities like NY and SF still had them. The SF school shut down in the mid 1990s. Some of these schools were correspondence schools. Look for books by William O. Smith Jr. He wrote the Esembl-O-Graph books along with his father. His book Twenty first century watchmaking, deals with replicating parts for things like the Valjoux movements. I think these guys may have been behind the AWI. Back in the 1990s the AWI had an attitude. Considering themselves above hobbyists. I think they may now be the AWCI having added clocks. I always found it interesting that both the NAWCC and the AWCI put watches in the name before clocks. I started with clocks. (again through mentors.) Mostly as I was interested in mechanical dolls.
Some of the US stuff from the 1950s is 'stolen?' from the Swiss trades and reprinted in the American Horologer and Jewler, which was pretty good before the 1970s. There was a columnist named Jesse Colman. Who had a down home folksy style. Most of the reprints deal with clocks. A lot of the old guys like my mentor did both. My mentor did not do watches as he said his eyesight was not good enough. I think he did not really want to deal with customers and warranty work. Dorian also maintained the tower clocks in SF as well. He had another 'apprentice' who was a Berkley engineering student. That student re designed the hands on the Ferry Building restoration which has dials a few inches larger than big been. Perspective is everything. Dorian's shop also had tower clock mechanisms in the window. Even I had to get a small tower clock movement (which I still have and sits next to the refrigerator.) So it is easy to get carried away.
My initial focus was on pocket watches. (which still sit in the drawer after 30 years.) It was only by accident, which I have posted before, that I became interested in Omega watches, as the Omega folk gave a lecture on the tour buss and gave us reprints of the old catalogs. I also got catalogs at the Basil fair.
I think I have posted most of this before. But like my AS 1187 refresher watches. It sometimes is good to revisit the basics. Filing is only done in one direction hardly ever is back and forth motion used. It works like a plane, shaving metal off the part. Curved files make flat surfaces, flat files round the edges and curve the surface. I think filing was used more in clock making than watchmaking.
The other thing my mentor would have me do was make a balance staff. I think I have a PW somewhere what I made a staff for. I also ruined most of my friend's collection of center wheels and pinions attempting to find one that would fit a repeater I have. That did not help our relationship and may also be why some are hesitant to teach. With clocks it is common to replace the pivots. This can also be done in watches, apart from the differences in tolerances.
It looks like I did squirrel away a box of stuff for a day like today. Perhaps now that I am in my 60s, I am the right age to be a watchmaker. I also chose to save chronographs and automatics for the future. (which seems to be now.) Yet it is the simple AS and ETA that I am currently finding most satisfying while I dream of once again working on my lesser Omegas.
