"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 Neu...

March 1, 2004 Reliable sources tell us that Kent Dickerson has earned a 4.36 on his first phase of testing! If WOSTEP were the Olympics, he would have tied for the Bronze!! He finished after China and India and tied with another contestant from the States. Of course we in the know are sure that he will bring home the Gold. The Refresher course is now entering the "escapement" phase, which is Kent's strongest area. Keep those inquiries coming and thanks for your support. Tschuss

Oops! My apologies for the error. lld >From: "Kent Dickerson" >To: lawtondickerson@hotmail.com >Subject: RE: WOSTEP Newsletter Volume V >Date: Fri, 26 Mar 2004 11:27:41 -0600 >It wasn't Breguet but Piguet, Audemars Piguet (Arnold Swarzenegger's >favorite) that invited us to SIHH, Kent

26 March 2004 It's been a quiet week at Lac Neuchatel. The recent Quartz training has run its course with little fanfare...and little interest…Yawn …Now we cheerfully return to more mechanical (and more complicated) entities. The routine of training while completing the 9 required repairs continues. We have learned that students may no longer work late unless "behind"...Let us hope this eliminates burn out among the horologeries. Three more manufacturers have withdrawn from th...

19 March 2004 The quest for perfecting the Master Horologist continues. The results of the Escapement phase of testing have been reported. We have learned that the scoring process is conducted utilizing a microscope. The images are then projected. How terrorfying! How frightful! The absolute dread of such a procedure. Some students witnessing this process have had myocardial infarctions. Some have been reported to turn instantly, prematurely gray. One student walked past the gradin...

9 March 2004 The "Escapement" phase of WOSTEP's refresher course is coming to a close. The exam has been postponed until tomorrow as Mr. Madden is under the weather. Mr. Madden is the 28-yr-old Major Professor for this year's class. He is from the Land Down Under and does not have immunities to the Suisse critters. Madame Simonin has moved him into her home until he recovers...she is a chubby lady with a big kitchen so he'll definitely get some good soup there. Well, she's really the Dinin...

We learn the following information from Kent: "It turned out I had the highest score in my class. I changed strategy by eliminating one part and changed a couple of ways I did things and it paid off. So that's a relief. Now we are covering chronograph and precision timing, both very interesting. This is the last section before the final exam. I have a lot of repairs still to do in order to sit the exam, but they are coming along. I can't believe that we just have less than three wee...

After a disappointing low on the first trial, Kent tried to figure out ways to solve problems quicker with making a hairspring. He came up with a plan and finished 25 minutes under time! With a possible exception of vibration, he felt this was the best hairspring he has built yet. He is quite sure that he passed the retest! This after noon he has moved with the rest of the class to covering Chronographs. This, coupled with precision timing, is the last section of the course. With renew...

Hairspring exam: 3 students successfully pass. 4 completely fail. 1 abstained due to illness. Retake is on Wednesday. Kent will be with the Re-takers. Too disappointing to report further. Will keep you posted as events develop.

The church in Heidelberg told us yesterday that they plan to appear at WOSTEP's commencement dressed in Fasching clothes and carrying foghorns. Guests of the distinguished gentleman from Texas.

I forgot one detail, after tools and related items I went upstairs to the jewelry area and looked through the loose gemstones. I was hoping that I might find a rough piece of lapis for my next watch but no luck.

21 April 2004 Kent's description of BaselWorld 2004 continued: "Next I met Robert Bray, a first year candidate member from London who makes wonderful clocks including a beautiful Westminster Skeleton with 8 bells (which struck while we were talking). I asked if one clock was related to Harrison's. He said it was 3/4 size and included all the elements of Harrison's H3 but was not an exact copy. He apologized for it not running. Said he finished the hairsprings and installed them for t...

21 April 2004 While Kent was attending BaselWorld ( http://www.baselworld.com ) I attended a training in San Antonio, Texas. Both are beautiful places with much to offer. Just a few random highlights from Kent's description of the annual unveiling of the World's Finest Watch and Jewelry innovations: He attended as a guest of Patek Philippe. Five buildings were required to house the displays. Each designer has his own freestanding structure within the PolyExpo. And this is pro...

2 April 2004 Ladies and Gentlemen: We delay our reporting of the latest news so that none of you mistake the phenomenal news as an April's fool letter. Surely all of these events are actually true. With one exception: the photo of the beautiful Clausing 8520 vertical milling machine which was saved on Kent's desktop is in fact just a dream, not a fact...Kent does not yet own this tool. Alas, he has only his horological longing for the entity. Let us hope that ownership one day becom...

You'll just have to see the evidence at http://groups.msn.com/wostepadventure