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KIH
[Purist]
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Graduation project of Japanese watchmaking school

I had a pleasure of seeing the graduation exhibition of Japan's jewelry and watchmaking school, Hiko Mizuno (see my report on the "petite" Lange Academy held there: alang.watchprosite.com )


















There were two projects from the graduate students or interns, both of which are pretty impressive:


1. Clover Seed Leaf Tourbillon (by Makoto Yokoyama)
Twin barrel for the more torque to work with the heavier tourbillon carriage.




"Tourbillon carriage with motif of four-leaves clover, almost all parts are hand made.  Tried to make it not too big (39mm).  Twin barrel for stable torque."




















Photos by Mr. Yokoyama.









And here is the video of when the movement started working for the first time.




2. Twin Retrograde Tourbillon (by Ryuhei Amaike)




"Hour and minute hands both moves as retrograde.  The gears of the function were all made by hand."




Still in the assembly stage - to be completed soon.
















Photos by Mr. Amaike












And how it works in videos sent to me later:






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They are equally impressive work.  It took 6 months for design and took another 6 months for actual construction, assembly.  Now they want to sharpen the accuracy department.

A bit sad part is that with these creativity, there are not many places they can use or expand such talent here.  Graduate tend to find jobs at watch repair shops, brands' service department, etc....  Only few can continue such creative work, including Mr. Kikuno ( ahci.watchprosite.com ).  Well, that may be true in any watchmaking school in the world, though....

I just hope the best for those two young watchmakers.  Mr. Yokoyama is going to work for the servicing department of a famous brand, and Mr. Amaike will stay at the school for one more year.



Japan's young watchmakers: Mr. Yokoyama, Mr. Kikuno (Alumni of Hiko Mizuno, AHCI Candidate), and Mr. Amaike.




Thank you.

Ken

This message has been edited by KIH on 2013-03-23 09:42:03

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