Fnord.

Thanks to some kind relatives, I got enrolled in the Time Zone Watch School last year, level one. (Sounds vaguely Harry Potter, doesn’t it?) TZWS, as its known, is an at-home self-paced class where you buy the parts and tools to disassemble and then assemble a watch. It’s pretty basic, the movement arrives almost completely intact, and you choose case and such. However, you do get to do quite a bit, tearing down and reassembling is quite intricate and you learn more than you’d think. (See old posts here and here for a bit more.)

Yesterday and today I assembled it and cased it up, check it out:

I got 2 or 3 dials and 3 sets of hands with the kit, so when I get level 2 of TZWS I’ll probably change them both. I liked how this came together, though.

It was a good thing that I had previously ordered 2824 stems for JP, though, as I made errors trimming the stem. It’s tricky, even with a micrometer, and I might have to go back once more and try again.

TZWS is amazing, and I highly recommend it. You hafta buy a bunch of tools (all hail Bergeon!) but they’re first-rate and you can use them for years. The unexpected benefit to me is the very Zen nature of the work: You have to be utterly focused, unhurried and gentle. It’s very relaxing, which I didn’t expect. Rewarding, too, and you get to have this wonderful little machine with you all the time that makes you smile whenever you see it!

This entry was posted on Saturday, June 28th, 2008 at 9:23 pm and is filed under Reviews and recommendations, Watches and timekeeping. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.