There were 10 watch schools based schools in Switzerland 6 are still operating today, the earliest started in Geneve in 1824. The watch below was made at the Ecole d'horlogerie de Porrentruy, that school was started in 1884. This particular watch was made in the 60's and was based upon the Pre-Carrera Heuer reference 409. The watch was a culmination of training where students attended the school for a period of 3 - 51/2 years. In Porrentruy at the time they had 2 levels of graduates, the D'apprenttissage horlogerie and the Ecole d horlogerie, the latter indicates a longer and more detailed training. The students would choose the material of the case (steel, chrome, gold) and movement (3 hand, chronograph tripledate moonphase chronograph) it all depended on the students budget since he had to pay for this separately. The example below is and interesting example. Case: 3 piece waterproof steel case with solid 14K bezel and pushers. The lugs appeared to have been machined down and 14K gold was forged onto the lugs. interesting that the student opted to start off thick at the end of the lugs and taper them down as it came up to the case. The case was delivered by Heuer and I assume the student applied the gold onto the lugs. I am not familiar with the Heuer but I am assuming the applied gold was done by the student. Movement is a VJ23, same as the one used by Heuer, There is a small difference of the chrono bridge which is different than the Heuer and obviously no signature on the movement. The student did all the finish work on the movement including the anglage. The movement was sourced by the school. Dial: Dial is a derivative of the Heuer 409 but has the school signature.
Neat watch, thanks for sharing. I do not know much about school watches but I would guess that the student did not alter the case in any significant way. Here is another Heuer with similar lugs: https://farfo.com/vintage-wristwatches/heuer-pre-carrera-vintage-chronograph-reference-3645/
An interesting facet of watches that I didn't know about, but would know like to explore. Thanks for the post and the nice photos.
Interesting watch! There is a nice book published on Swiss school watches by Simonin Books: https://www.booksimonin.ch/fr/4845-dix-écoles-dhorlogerie-suisses,-chefs-d.php I believe it is only available in French though. I have a copy but unfortunately it's in storage in another country.
Interesting website. I have often wondered what my old acquaintance Tony has been up to. I bought a lot of books from him back in the 1990s. A couple of them quite rare. He was the contact our Tours had to WOSTEP. I think I was more of a book collector than anything else. Interesting that Here nearly 30 years later I am looking at these books again. This one is not one I have, Mostly I have the ones related to complicated clocks and watches. What little french I learned came from reading such books, which makes it near impossible for me to speak the language without making others ears bleed. Since I mispronounce the words when reading I find the native speakers to fast for understanding what they are saying. I always found the student projects fascinating. Some of the teaching aids were quite interesting too. I often have considered making my own. One of my favorites. The above is about three inches high. Above are the photos I was looking for. I still have the remains of some watches I was going to make parts for. I keep thinking that with access to a laser cutter I could make something like these teaching aids. The other thing I was considering was using Computer aided design, to make models of the missing parts. I even got programs for doing so. That of course lead to other distractions down other rabbit holes.
Interesting bit of information is that this type of plexiglass model is used by complication/movement makers as part of the prototyping process. Making the mechanism first in plexiglass already gives them a good indication on whether the components will function properly together. It's easier and cheaper to iron out any issues before they start to produce the real components in metal.