British Horogical Institute Short Courses - Service and Repair of Manual Wind Watches

IrishPlayer

Hi All,

Just back from the UK after attending a week long course at the BHI and want to share my experience.

My trip begins on a rainy Sunday 6th February, catching a flight to Heathrow

After catching a Piccadilly Line in to London

Headed to Tower bridge to complete a personal goal.

In 1967, my grandfather who has been a huge influence on my life, especially regarding watches, went to London along with my grandmother on their honeymoon and got the idea to recreate some of the locations he visited

Tower Bridge

Tower of London

Trafalgar Square

While at Tower bridge, spotted an interesting sculpture that reminded me of a certain watch of mine!

Then it was off to the Tower of London

From there, headed to Brick Lane to check out the weekend markets and passed the famous bagel shop

Next stop was the London Transport Museum, which was fantastic

Now it was time to head to Kings Cross station to catch the LNER Azuma to Newark Northgate

Arrived in Newark around 7:22pm where I headed to where I would spend the night, The Beaumond Cross Inn

IrishPlayer

Next morning, time for Breakfast!

As I was eating, another guy took a seat across from me to have his breakfast. Before long, it was time to get in the taxi to head to Upton, I was back at the BHI!

Rang the doorbell and was welcomed in by our teacher for the week, from Northern Ireland John Murphy. Got chatting, mentioned about the former institute in Blanchardstown which brought back memories for him. He studied at Manchester before the BHI.

As the others arrived, I noticed the guy that was sitting beside me at breakfast was attending the course! The class consisted of six including myself, one been younger than me at 24 who was doing the DLC and had been sponsored to attend the course, the guy from breakfast worked in a retail jewellers and the others were doing it as a hobby aged in their 50/60s.

After everyone arrived, completed a fire safety of the building and shown our rooms

Gets you thinking of the watchmakers who slept in this room! The building is old and needs work, we were told to have the heating cranked up as it got very cold at night!

Here is what is known as the Common Room, fridge, kettle, microwave, TV and Toaster there for everyone to use

After getting settled, it was time to go to the bench!

Tools I would be using for the week

Because of its bigger size, we would be using a pocket watch to learn

We started by disassembling ready for the ultrasonic cleaner

Looked at some of the teaching tools

The class starts at 9am and finished after 5pm with a break at 1pm.

When the class was done, we all headed out for dinner at a local pub, The Bromley Inn

* Veg on the side!

Time for some late night studying before bed

893bet

I would have sank at heap of pints at that stage and been late the next day.

IrishPlayer

Breakfast included with the B&B at the BHI

Returing to the bench to retrieve our freshly cleaned parts

The main spring was cleaned by hand, quite scary winding it back up with the tension in the winder!

The oils we would be using

Finished up for lunch, which is bought separate

After we continued on with reassembly

We finished up for the day and went to the Cross Keys for dinner

IrishPlayer

The next morning I opted for a lighter breakfast

Contuing on with reassembling

Some maths behind it all, like back in school!

At lunch, we took a tour of the tool shop, showing some of the lathes required if doing the distance learning course

Returning to the bench we used a staking press to fit a jewel which was great fun but tricky

Another fun day, time for another lovely dinner at the Cross Keys

Ljmscooter

This is fascinating. And thanks for all the pics.

Did you have to rebush any of the holes like the clock guy does in the repair shop ? Or does that not be required on watches

IrishPlayer

Counting on with the assembly, of course in between John explained the different parts etc

What a feeling when the balance was dropped in and it came back to life!

https://imgur.com/a/Ye0zriN

First numbers on the timegrapher

Brought long the Timex, once again thanks to @NIMAN

* No haven't started yet, want to build up the practice first!

With a days work behind me, back to the pub for dinner and stories of working on watches in Switzerland

IrishPlayer

Sadly Friday arrived, the last day, time to put the finishing touches

After we got the watch back together and everything cleaned up, we got our certificates

Saying goodbye to the BHI, headed back to Newark-on-Trent to stay another night in the Beaumond Inn

Looking at the dinner menu, after hearing they were know for their pies and wanting to try something new, went for Pheasant!

Absolutely lovely, and thankfully no traces of the bullet!

Enjoying a white hot chocolate to finish off a great day

IrishPlayer

An early 6am start to Saturday morning, with my bags packed up and my to do list ready, headed down for breakfast

Catching the 8:33am train back to London. Arriving in before 10am, grabbed a bus to my first stop

Possibly the highlight of the week, The Imperial War Museum

Straight away, my eyes spotted the V2!

Couldn't believe the size of it, after seeing it so many times in documentaries, sobering to think they were assembled in slave labor from the Mittelbau-Dora concentration camp.

Unfortunately, the FW190 that I have seen in pictures was not on display

Also a V1 on display.

IrishPlayer

Could of spent the whole day at the museum, but unfortunately time was limited so had to move on

I headed to The Science Museum to see the Clockmakers Museum currently there, sadly there was no more walk in tickets available

More details regarding the exhibit https://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/see-and-do/clockmakers-museum

With time running out, headed to Harrods which was close by. As I went to walk in, the security stopped me as suitcases were not allowed. With time running out, I googled a place to store my bag, a shop close by offers to hold cases for £4. I headed back to Harrods, promised to pick up something for someone at home so it was worth the effort.

With just enough time left, headed back to the Underground back to Heathrow

nj27

Fabulous stuff, thanks for going to the effort of documenting it here.

IrishPlayer

Most likely forgetting loads, so feel free to ask any questions. The experience was incredible! Sadly my lack of practice and for some reason, quite nervous, I struggled to keep up with the others. Highly recommend getting tools and practice first before attending as it's relatively advanced, fitting incabloc jewels especially.

I've come to the conclusion that this is something I really want to do, really considering making a move to the UK, possibly Manchester giving that is where the WOSTEP college is along with many Watch Brands.

Chatting with the taxi man on the way home from the airport about the trip, his father studied at the former Irish Swiss Institute of Horology!

Thanks again everyone for suffering though my long winded posts as usual!😁

Keith.

nj27

Curious about the eye strain side of things. Haven't yet worked on a watch at that level but I definitely know from long photography sessions that my eyes take a bit of strain and I have to refocus and rest them occasionally. How is the close up watch rebuild on the eyes or vision?

Trigger Happy

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118629203#Comment_118629203

Eye strain is what eventually got me. I used to be able to strip and rebuild a watch as a hobby but not these days. My eye sight is just not what it was and a loupe does not help.

After working for a bit on a watch i get either dry eye, sore eye, headache, lower eye lid twitch or lack of focus. Mind you - I get the same after a demijohn of beer...

nj27

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118629554#Comment_118629554

Don't worry I don't think it's age, the ciliary muscles control close focus and they lack endurance. I am knocking on 30 and close focus has a time limit. Now the question is: how do the gentlemen at patek, a lange and sohne et al do it?

Wibbs

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118629941#Comment_118629941

Years of practice I'd imagine. I don't mind it, but I'm short sighted anyway and so far I've not had the close focus age thing. I'd only run to a loupe for very close in work tbh. My dad who had 20/20 vision, which I sadly didn't get, didn't need reading glasses until his 70's, so maybe that's where I get that from?

Thinking more on that; maybe more watchmakers are naturally shortsighted so they have less trouble over the years of close up work? An elderly watchmaker I used years ago, now sadly no longer with us, was still working into his late sixties and as a sideline well into his late 70's.

hitemfrank

I'm betting it's methamphetamines.

Fitz II

When you are practiced at this you do it as much by feel as by eye. The eyes build a picture of the workpiece and then the hands do the rest. When I was a technician used to get eye strain but as I got better it went away. Trick is also to try and not keep changing focus, move the workpiece in and out of a fixed focal distance rather than refocusing your eyes. Like anything its a trained skill

banie01

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118630203#Comment_118630203

Yep!

All those Swiss lads are on the Pervetin 😉

I know from my own attempts at model making that things like this are a great help. It was actually Fitz that pointed me towards a set. Makes close work a lot easier.

https://a.aliexpress.com/_ms8Ne1W

Simon5834

Wow Keith, what a tremendous set of blogs.

From holiday rep, to London tour guide, food connoisseur to watch mender extraordinaire.

Loved the blogs.

Need one more set of photos, you on your scales before and after the week in Newark.

The BHI rocks!!

Simon5834

I have to eat at the Cross Keys. Awesome place!

Simon5834

Keith, when we met it was clear you had a passion for watches and a knowledge way beyond the enthusiastic hobbyist.

Go for it. Let us know if you make the move and do what you really want to do. As a young person you’ll be in work for many decades to come and it’s vital you love what you do.

Clearly you love watches. 👍

Lorddrakul

Great stuff.

Thoroughly enjoyed this.

njburke

Well don Keith, a great read.

IrishPlayer

Huge Thanks to everyone for the support, Simon great to see you on the form! Be careful on here as it's a bad influence on your wallet! ;) If you are ever in our neck of the woods, be happy to get together for a drink or hopefully see you in Birmingham for one of the fair dates this year.

Forgot to show the packs we received at the end of the course along with our certificate, some bedtime reading material!😁

IrishPlayer

"Did you have to rebush any of the holes like the clock guy does in the repair shop ? Or does that not be required on watches"

No, we didn't rebrush any holes. Here's a nice little summary taken from the BHI that lists all the things that were covered in the week

"You learn the basics of repairing and servicing mechanical watches. You look at various hand tools, and removal and fitting of cases, dial and hands.

This is followed by cleaning and lubrication. You then check the escapement, barrels, mainsprings, train and motion work, friction work, cannon pinion, balance springs, curb pin and dynamic poising. You also look at the use of timing machines and amplitude meter, timekeeping and testing, and record keeping."

"Curious about the eye strain side of things"

At times, especially with the hairspring adjustment and lubricating the incablock jewels, found it difficult to keep focus. Might look into getting a stronger eye glass but I'm sure it takes getting used to.

John actually gave us an exercise to do, looking through our eyeglasses, we had to count the teeth of each of the wheels. It was a way for us to get used to focusing for long periods of time. Another thing that happened was I would get a cramp in my hand while using the tweezers, something again I'm sure would come with practice and getting used to.