The Fullskill Program (approx. 4000 Hours)
The Fullskill program aims to provide students with the skills and resources to not only function as a professional watchmaker but also expose the students to restoration, construction and after sales service.
The classical methods of traditional watchmaking are always becoming more and more of a dying art. The founders of K&H Watchmaking Competence Centre were afraid that nothing was done to prevent the old classical watchmaking of disappearing and set their minds to try to preserve the methods of the old masters.
A Fullskill student of the K&H Watchmaking Competence Center will learn to become a professional watchmaker so he or she will be able to operate in after sales service, repair and production of new watches, and even to some extent be able to restore antique and vintage watches where production of parts are necessary. The student will also learn to adapt and deploy their own technical creative thinking to be able to solve problems independently.
The first year focuses on developing mostly micro-mechanical skills:
At the start of the second year students micromechanical abilities are developed enough to begin learning watchmaking, where they learn:
School watch (4 months)
Students at K&H are instructed on a hybrid Apprentice-Mentor mode of teaching, whereby students are given individual dedicated attention by the teacher. This system of instruction has been found to be greatly flexible and beneficial. Students are instructed, based on their individual learning progress, instead of progression as a whole class. This translates to a more effective and nurturing learning environment for the student. Students will be in close co-operation with the Instructors to learn the most common micro-mechanical processes related to watchmaking, tool making, watch repairing and watch servicing.
The classical methods of traditional watchmaking are always becoming more and more of a dying art. The founders of K&H Watchmaking Competence Centre were afraid that nothing was done to prevent the old classical watchmaking of disappearing and set their minds to try to preserve the methods of the old masters.
A Fullskill student of the K&H Watchmaking Competence Center will learn to become a professional watchmaker so he or she will be able to operate in after sales service, repair and production of new watches, and even to some extent be able to restore antique and vintage watches where production of parts are necessary. The student will also learn to adapt and deploy their own technical creative thinking to be able to solve problems independently.
The first year focuses on developing mostly micro-mechanical skills:
- Filing
- Sawing
- Drilling
- Thread cutting
- Milling
- Boring
- Turning (hand turning, between centers turning and bigger lathe turning such as Schaublin 70 and 102)
- Pivotage
- Grinding
- Heat treatment operations
- Electroplating
- Polishing
- Various decoration techniques such as frosting, beveling, polishing, snailing, circular graining, spotting, etc ...
At the start of the second year students micromechanical abilities are developed enough to begin learning watchmaking, where they learn:
- Cleanliness, manipulation and oiling
- Winding & setting mechanism
- Motion work and theory
- Barrel, practice and theory
- Gear train, practice and theory
- Escapement, practice and theory
- Oscillator (hairspring & balance practice and theory)
- Precision timing, practice and theory
- Chronographs, practice and theory
- Automatic modules, practice and theory
- Calendar mechanism, practice and theory
- Encasing practice
- Basic repairs, full service and short repairs
School watch (4 months)
- The school watch project is an individual undertaking of the student, based on their motivation and interest of making a school watch; they are free to do whatever they want as long as the instructor agrees that the project is possible to do within the time frame, they are encouraged to work independently when possible, while being provided advice from the instructors.
Students at K&H are instructed on a hybrid Apprentice-Mentor mode of teaching, whereby students are given individual dedicated attention by the teacher. This system of instruction has been found to be greatly flexible and beneficial. Students are instructed, based on their individual learning progress, instead of progression as a whole class. This translates to a more effective and nurturing learning environment for the student. Students will be in close co-operation with the Instructors to learn the most common micro-mechanical processes related to watchmaking, tool making, watch repairing and watch servicing.