Around we go!

Tourbillion : means Whirlwind literally, is an escapement device in a watch, its very delicate and very brittle. so this takes specialized tools and VERY strict guidance if you want to do this. Last but not least, you need the talents.

Lucky for me, my boss thinks i have all of these now(the tools i made, linky at top), the guidance i get from my boss and the talent i got somewhere else(mom? dad?).

Anyway, i am now in the process of making my Very first Tourbine cage, you pronounce the french cage similar to cache, but with longer a, like caaache.(or tourbillion cage(this is the english cage, like bird-cage), the complete thing is called a cage, beats me why). ive taken as many pictures as ive remembered to take, be cause, to be perfectly honest, im quite swept up in this work and easily forget to stop and take pictures.

Its great fun, especially since i can for the first time sense that im getting close to my first "product". Its very challenging though. Small brittle stuff that easily break or if i take a 100th of a millimeter to much here or there, it simply wont work and *woosh* back where i started on last wednesday( wednesday-ish atleast).

Other news :

Were going to IKEA again now on saturday, it sucks to have ALL your clothes in one biggish closet with 3 shelfs, that makes all my pants in one big pile in left corner of shelf, all my t-shirts in a big pile in the middle, some t-shirts spill over to the pants, some wander off to the sweaters, which also have a specific corner to be in. Now, add some pull-overs and polo(?) shirts and its all a big mess. this needs fixing.

My French is coming along, im almost able to totaly understand my teacher soon. this will hugely boost my learning capabilities(sarcasm intended) No, but seriously, my french is picking up and coming along nicely. Last word i learned was "fois" (which means "time" as in "Due fois par semain" = "two times per week".) Rebekkas french is, ofc, brilliant, she just doesnt get as much practice as i do.

Working on workphotos

Now that im finaly done with most of the pre-montage for the other guys in the attelie, My boss asked me to do some possages(dunno how to spell that, but its to put parts on for pollish and/or work in the lathe.) for a tourbillion. so that probably means that i will start working on the Tourbillion soon.

Btw, before i can start working on the tourbillion, i have a 7 page how-to, just step by step, without any theory on how or why(thats a few books of material). and i needed to make 7 possages to hold different parts for specific steps(or what the hell you call it, things-to-do-before-its-finished).

Even if the tourbillion is really not many parts at all, it is the beating organ of any watch its put into. and being handmade. everything becomes very touchy-touchy. if i dont keep my tolerances while doing the pre-assembly on the tourbillion, the finished product will be a bitch to get right.

Im really looking forward to this. i havent been in a rush getting here though. ive been savoring the feeling of anticipation, and knowing there are more, better things to come then pre-montage. i think that every step of building my own watches(the ones i get assigned at work i mean) will be very fun and very interesting work for me.

Im growing quite confident in my skills now, at the same time i am starting to realize the amount of stuff i have yet to learn, and that amount gets bigger and bigger for the day. "Learn the answer to one question and have two more questions" kind of thing.

In closing, i need to talk to my boss before i add more pictures, i want to get a permanent deal so that i can just keep posting without being afraid of being sued or something for leaking industrial secrets >.<

And here is a slightly hazy picture of a Tourbillion in a watch for those who didnt know what that is.

Some work examples

I have really told all the story on the picasaweb website, so just check it out. there is a description on what i did today and monday. Its typical pre-assembly work, just finishing parts, making them straight etc. when i have some other nice piece to work on ill post more pictures :P (and according to what im allowed to show ofc ... )

new watch!

i couldnt resist, i had to have one of these

thats officialy my first compulsive buy ever i think(atleast in watches). so look and like it :P

Dutchies!

Me and Rebekka had three friends from holland here on visit the last weekend. It was _great_ fun, we went to Saut-de-daubs, Neuchatel and drove around some in the area. The area is really nice, i hadnt seen so much of it before and it is awesome.

We had lots of food, beer and fun, Theire son(Daniel, 2.5 years old) is such a sweetheart he kept asking me what i was doing and when i told him, he would always say "okey" in the cutest voice :)

I would love to go and visit them someday soon, probably will after X-mas :)

for pics check out jp's album


Work work work.
Almost a month done soon, and im getting more and more comfortable with the ppl at the company, even if my french is mostly still point and grunt(with nasal sound effects, it sounds french atleast).
This friday i started mirror polishing, it didnt work out at all, even the guy showing me wasnt able to get it right, we have to figure out what is wrong, if my tools are defect, my paste(the polishing paste) or if the piece itself is the base of the problems. well, i wasted a whole day on it anyway, so the things my boss gave me to do before he went on a small holliday will guaranteed last me now...
Oh well, c'est la vie.

I also found out that my employer will pay for my french lessons, so im starting those after x-mas i think. to avoid a 2-3 week break in the studies. Thats 600 francs i save, so awesome :P

p.s. Freddie! have fun with your boys!

/David out

Second week, starting badly

I caught a fever and went to work yesterday with it, i thought id better show up, feel how it is and go home if its bad. It turned out to be bad, but if i had gone home after showing up, i would have lost plus-hours. so i struggled through the day with fever and headache, something im not doing again, the whole day was error ridden and mistakes were being made a lot(at least according to me)

Riveting wheels with wrong punches, cleaning the same wheel twice and leaving others dirty etc etc, i just was not able to focus the whole day.

BUT

We are gonna pull our forces together and work like horses and finish the order we have before x-mas AND do more then that(for a nifty bonus). so that means the odd Saturday at work and a few more plus-hours.

I start most mornings at 7.30 and work till 1700, that gives me 1 plus-hour a day, thinking of trying to come at 7.00 and staying till 1700, thats 1.5 hours a day. but we'll see about that, maybe its easier to just go to work at noon on saturdays and work for a few hours. atleast that way i still get 2 sleepy mornings.

I would like to talk about what im doing at work, but im not sure what kind of secrecy i have on me, so ill ask my bosses how much i can talk about without getting in trouble :P

other then that, check my new pics for our appartment

thats it for now,

p.s. everyone can now leave comments, no need to register with anything or anyone, so please do :)

/Davíð

Watchmaking

I have now worked for a week, doing some pre-montage, its going decently i guess, too early to judge i think.

But phew, the depth of watchmaking im going into is immense! everything needs to be 100%, and not just any 100%, a watchmakers 100%, this is going to be a real challenge(like climbing a mountain, not like solving an impossible puzzle). Were also getting settled in our appartment, it will be really nice here i think.
We finally got our internet connection installed, im really glad that we got it before the weekend, not after :P

I had one of the best work-lunches today, my boss and i went downtown to get some tools, we then went for a pizza and some coffee afterwards, the lunch took 2 hours! usually we take 30 minute lunches, but its really nice to know that once in a while its okey to take a long lunch and chill.

the pre-montage, as i said is going quite well i think, we got to play around with the GP jackpot a little bit today and yesterday, it really is gonna be a cool watch when its finished(there are only 2 pieces completed, the one that went to Basel fair and the one we had. Its still just basic work, but its very good training and setup for when i start doing "real" work. And im starting to realize just how big this job is, i feel really lucky that everything just seems to fit, time, money(not much, but enough), wife, boss, work etc etc.

Im excited about the future me and Rebekka are going to have here in Switzerland, the next couple of years are going to be interesting!

/David