What did we do last month?😃
To my valued collectors,
Huge days in the workshop making watches during the week that were bookended by huge days over the weekend putting a new engine in my hill climb Subaru. Swapping an engine in a car is a sizable job, but is dwarfed by designing, machining and finishing just one of the components in my watches. July has been nothing short of jam packed.
We have been sharing a little more on Instagram over the past month or two, but I want these monthly updates to serve as a place where I can go a little more in depth and talk about all aspects of my work.
Thanks to Cielo we are trying out a new format, where we can post videos and links, as well as have a more pleasing aesthetic. Please provide us with your feedback on the new look and use experience.
Last week I asked if you would like to see a 3D model of the updated Series 2 movement.
For those who responded, thank you.
Here it is!
An extraordinary amount of work and thought went into this design and I am so very pleased with the result. I wanted to create a movement that is technically sound and visually pleasing. There are a few aspects of the movement design that I would like to highlight:
The escape wheel/pallet cock - notice the curved ramp (radius) that joins the two separate heights, with the polished alignment pin poking through? This is a really difficult component to machine, given its overall height, the radius and the two very different heights of the escape wheel jewel and the pallet fork jewel.
The Daniels style centre wheel steel cock
The beryllium copper crown wheel cap with two eccentric screws
The multi layered and unique ⅖ bridge, with integral clickworks and winding wheels.
18,000 vibrations per hour
Frosted finished plates and bridges
Nickel silver mainplate and bridges
What has been machined this month?⚙️
Steel Centre Wheel Cock A photo/video montage of the various steps in machining the steel centre wheel cock. Inspired by the steel cocks found in the highest grade pocket watches from the 20th century and more notably adopted by Daniels in his higher end pieces.
If you missed the instagram posts where I speak a little more about the process, you can see them here:
⅖ Plates With critical features machined on both sides that need to line up with each other within 10 microns, this ⅖ plate is a tricky part to make. It took me quite a few iterations of different fixture designs
to get this one right. I spent an entire week on the fixtures alone. The photo here shows a ⅖ (that is scrap due to one of the heights being off by 0.005mm) that I micro bead blasted and roughly hand finished. I did this to get an idea of how I want to proceed with the chamfering and polishing. I am a fan of small, neat and tidy edges, as I believe this gives a better overall aesthetic quality to the movement, drawing the eye into the geometry, rather than being distracted or drawn towards shiny edges. A few test pieces will be made before a final decision is made.
Berillyium Copper Crown Wheel Caps
Beautiful, functional and deadly. Berillylium copper - what a material! *Please note that having the beryllium copper inside of your watch is in absolutely no way toxic or harmful. It is in fact the swarf and dust that is created when machining and polishing the beryllium copper that if inhaled can cause serious health issues. I wear a respirator when dealing with this material and clean my workspace thoroughly.
Many avoid using this material for this reason. However, it is just beautiful, with a non-tarnishing colour that is somewhere between rose gold, bronze and copper, and given that it is a very high quality bearing material, I could not pass up the opportunity to use it as a decora
tive bearing for the crown wheel. I also think it looks just gorgeous in combination with the German Silver. Blank discs are first turned on the large lathe, they are then transferred to the watchmakers lathe,
where the underside is turned perfectly flat and left with a brilliant surface finish, they are then moved into the milling machine where the screw holes are accurately drilled and located. They are now soaking in acetone, where they will rest until I am ready to hand finish them.
First Schoots Watch goes for Auction 👀
As you may have seen, one of the pieces of Series 1 was placed up for auction this month. What a marvellous result that was achieved. Selling for 3 times the original sale price in under 12 months since the official release of Series 1. I am truly so fortunate to have this level of interest in my work. I am also amazed at how much traffic this auction has brought to Cielo’s email inbox.
I hope you are all well and want to thank you for your continued support.
Best wishes!
Reuben Schoots
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