Your appreciation of watches will never be the same again. Pulling a mechanical watch apart, learning how the watch works, and putting it back together is simply life changing. We want to offer you an experience of a lifetime. Once again, here are the 4 reasons why we open our doors for 4 nights per month to teach watchmaking:ġ. Yes, we invested double the time originally anticipated, but it was worth it - every minute of it. The fees for the course are £150 per annum and successful applicants may be eligible for VEC scholarships covering course fee and/or maintenance grants.The happy faces say it all: another successfully completed Seiko 7S26 course. The college advertises in the national newspapers in May each year and interviews are held in late August. And they should have good patience and aspire to the highest standards,' says O'Brien. If they have done mechanical or technical drawing at school it would be an advantage. There is an interview and 'we are looking for people with an interest in mechanics. Students interested in the three-year full-time course need their Leaving Cert with a pass in five subjects, including maths, and one science subject. He was the one of the graduates of the final watch repair course offered by Bolton Street in 1952 (there was no course available in Ireland between 19) and then worked with Rolex for 14 years, before beginning work as a teacher with the college. The director, who was to stay for five years, ended up remaining for 20. The school was established, under the auspices of Dublin County VEC, with a Swiss director and assistant.

In addition to the tools which students make themselves, the Swiss watch industry provides each students with a set of tools worth more than £800.Ĭollege director Brendan O'Brien explains that the college came about when the Swiss watch industry approached the Department of Education with a proposal to set up a school.

Students work on a project, over two years, to make their own horolometer, which then becomes their property - they pay for the components themselves. In electronics, teacher Frederick Reid has designed a horolometer, which is used to test watches. They must also grapple with the intricacies of calendars and other complications. Karl Fitzmaurice, watchmaking and jewellery teacher, explains that second-year students move on from working with large pocket-sized watches to wrist watches. The toolmakers lathe in the far corner of the room - a Schaublin - is the Rolls Royce of lathes, says Ball proudly. They will also make brass hammers, hand cutters and levers. Making the tools involves turning, filing, knurling, drilling, hardening, tempering, threading with taps or dies and polishing.įor instance, to make a centre punch, they must file a rod of steel, 6mm in diameter, by hand, so that the four sides are perfectly square. George Ball, watchmaking and theory teacher, explains that the first-years will make 10 small tools, which they then will use in subsequent work. When E&L visits, the four first-years at the bench are intent, using forceps to manipulate 'jewels', measuring the external diameter of the synthetic rubies. The peace may be due in part to the setting, beside the spacious grounds of the hospital, or to the small numbers of students, four first-years, eight second-years and 10 third-years or to the precise nature of the work. The Irish Swiss Institute of Horology is housed in a small building on the outskirts of Blanchardstown, Dublin. It is the quietness that first strikes the visitor.

Horology online course