What do YOU do?

Guess you are right but it is always better to have another department causing a delay to a project 😁 But yes, frogs, bats and birds are very good at delaying construction projects 😀

And no image to go with the post... 😕

To a point, yes. Understanding the physics involved helps, but the workings of a watch are pretty basic to be honest, compared to some of the machinery I've designed and other machinery I've had to deal with.

I had various roles during my engineering career, so aside from the basic mechanics of the watch, other areas have helped.

For a few years I was in charge of preventative/predictive maintenance for the specific facility I worked at. Although a lot of it doesn't apply directly to watches, dealing with lubrication schedules, vibration analysis of spindles to predict failures, etc. all adds to general knowledge for maintenance of watches too I suppose.

Since I wrote technical manuals and procedures for machines/systems that I developed, I would guess it makes deciphering the of watch technical guides and work instructions a bit easier.

For a time I rebuilt large machine tools, and essentially the same procedures are used in the service of watches. Disassembly, clean, inspect every part, and determine which of the 3 R's apply - Reuse, Repair, or Replace. But now I do this on very small machines that weight a few grams, instead of machines that weigh 15+ tonnes.

For a while I worked in the industrial engineering department, and my experience there, along with the bits of that from school, allow me to understand how to plan the work more efficiently - I stop short of doing a motion study and breaking down the tasks into Therbligs though. 😉

And finally having to write budgets for projects, understanding financials, etc. helps with the general running of the business, even though that's not specifically related to the actual work.

What helps as much as all that does, is that I'm a hands on person in general. I went to high school at a time when there were courses like machine shop, drafting, and others so I understood heat treating, machining feeds and speeds, gear cutting, etc. from a relatively young age. Not long ago I found an old box full of some projects I made back in high school:



Tack hammer, C-clamp, vise, arbor press, lathe center, and sine bar. I also made gears to repair one of the lathes in the school, and some other projects. Turning materials on a watchmaker's lathe is very different from using an engine lathe, but still understanding feed and speeds and general concepts helps.

Probably a longer answer than you wanted, but there it is...

Cheers, Al

Work for an online bookmaker.