Today will be a short post today since we didn’t have class on Monday (Memorial Day).

The first half of the day was spent with watch movements. I spoke with Mr. Poye to verify that all the work that I have been doing on movements is to satisfy the nomenclature section of the first semester. I am definitely able to start recognizing the different parts without having to keep the in a specific order when I remove them. I am not able to fully do that with the screws (yet). I can differentiate between the click/crown screws and some of the the different bridge screws, but once you get smaller than the main bridge screws, it gets a bit more difficult.

The bulk of my time in class today was spent working on more “material systems,” specifically crowns. The exercise today consisted of trying to match the proper crown type with the proper case. I was given three cases each of “O-Ring/Water-Resistant” and “Dress” cases. In order to do the exercise properly, I had to match the case material, color and style as well as get the right dimensions (height/diameter and width).

It… took a while.

These were the 6 watches that I had to work with. The ones up top needed “O-Ring” crowns and the ones below needed Dress crowns.

So here is what I had to work with. Each tray that you see had six rows of 24 glass/plastic vials with crowns in them, so about 700 vials of crowns (some trays were missing some vials) that I had to go through. I don’t have anymore pictures because it was a little overwhelming.

After I thought I was done, Mr. Poye checked my work. I had 1 correct, and the rest would have been “okay” but he explained the reasons why I needed to select different crowns (gold plated versus gold filled, non-Art Deco style, older crown style for a newer case, etc). After my second try, I had 5 out of 6 done. The 6th watch was the one on the top right. I had pulled a crown that would work, but Mr. Poye said that it looked a little cheap compared to the case material. After another 15 minutes, I found the right one.

It was a very good exercise because it gave me an idea of what I might have to go through if I decide to work for myself repairing non-production watches. If I worked for a brand servicing their timepieces and needed to replace a crown, I would walk over to the parts drawer and grab a new one.

Below you find a few pictures of the watch that I will be finishing up tomorrow. So far, it is missing the cannon pinion (the part of the watch that the hands ride on) and the 4th wheel (the wheel that drives the escape wheel). I also think that the third wheel top pivot is broken-which means I won’t be able to get any power to the balance wheel to get it to run.

Speaking of the balance, when I went to reassemble the balance, I discovered that the stud screw had come out.

Instead of taking it to Mr. Poye to work on, I decided to try my hand at it. After about 20 minutes of trying, I was able to get it screwed in. Needless to say, I was pretty pleased. So when I get to that part of the curriculum, I can go into it confident knowing that I have done it once before.

Thanks for reading!