Swiss Watchmaking Adventures

Volume I

Published on April 21, 2004 By Jadewatchmaker In Life Journals

"A Texan Visits the Jura Mountains"

February 26, 2004

The sixth week of WOSTEP's Refresher Course has begun with ten quite tired men....with the Quartz training being interjected two weeks early, the class has had to meet for an additional weekend. This is in addition to the usual 13 hour days each student invests just staying afloat with the already rigorous schedule. On Friday they will have been in class 8+ hours per day for 15 consecutive days. With the phenomenal view of Lac Neuchatel, it is amazing that one can sit at the bench for that many hours without occasionally gazing out the window.

The first exam has been completed and passed. WOSTEP works on a 6 point system where a 6 is the equivalent of a 4.0 in college. It's a bit too complicated for me so I can't report Kent's score, only that he has consistently been the best in the class in a number of techniques. This is, after all, quite impressive as he is old enough to be the father of many of the classmates. RAH RAH!!

This class will have a visitor for the next section. A student from the previous Refresher Course will come back to retrain on a section she did not pass.

Last week's field trip took the students to the ETA factory in Grenchen for two days. The students whose performances were acceptable earned certification. They were also each given a movement, jewels, bezel and basically all of the parts need to complete ETA's latest model.. When each student has built the watch and it has been evaluated by Mr. Madden, he will have it presented to him at commencement. This will be the third watch Kent has built from "scratch". Another RAH RAH!!

Weekends find most of the class in Geneva at "Watch Part Trading Festivals" (for lack of a better term). This would be the equivalent of the regional NAWCC meetings where vendors set up tables to buy, sell, or trade with other enthusiasts. In this case, though, the vendors usually speak French so you can imagine the comedy that ensues during bargaining.

We did manage to steal away on Sunday for dinner with Mr. Dutta from India and Mr. Wang from Shang-Hi, China. Both of these students are being supported by ROLEX and will return to teaching positions. We learned that Rolex is quite generous with its per diem!! ...With Neuchatel being such a small town, the only restaurant open on Sundays is the Creperie. So now we have the menu memorized and have learned how to order without unusual ingredients. Champignons are mushrooms. Jarbon is ham. Fromage is cheese. That's all I need to know to get around in Schweiz!!

Graduation will be in May. Then Kent plans (maybe) to be in Abilene for the wedding of a distant cousin then (definitely) in OKC for July 4th to present a lecture at the National. After that, he will go on the Swiss tour in August for two weeks. After that who knows? He does have the "green card" in Germany, but with 55% taxes, I'm not inclined to rush into this right away. Any number of Swiss manufacturers can import an American, so that might be more fun and more profitable....Anyone with more sophisticated information on this topic, please email...This is only my amateur take on things.

As I am the current President of the Fan Club, direct autograph requests to this email address: LawtonDickerson@hotmail.com.

Thanks for reading. Tchuss and Bon Jour!

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