Horological Meandering

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"Just technicians"

Well thank you for diminishing my profession. 

Of course as you state the term watchmaker does not assume one designs and builds watches when used in the context of the industry.  However the term "Watch Technician" does mean someone with a specific skill set (at least in North America) and this person is most certainly not a watchmaker.  The AWCI has several levels of certification and "Certified Watchmaker" CW21 status is quite a bit different from the propsed "Watch Technician" status. 

The WT level includes the ability to change batteries, swap crystals, perform pressure tests, etc., but does not include actual servicing of watches (movement servicing and all associated tasks that a watchmaker does).

In order to obtain the CW21 (watchmaker) status a certification exam is required, which is approximately 4 days long.  It includes written and many practical tasks (includes the complete servicing of a quartz watch, an automatic watch, and a mechanical chronograph).  This level does not include fabricating new parts, but the Master Watchmaker level does.

It can be confusing to the layman as the terms do lead some to believe that all watchmakers actually make watches from scratch.  Keep in mind that at most large factories, the watchmakers there don't actually make the watches either.  The parts are made by production workers, and are at best assembled by the watchmakers.  In some cases they are only adjusted by the watchmakers, and assembled by production workers.

But here is another twist to this discussion....when you send your watch into the big company service center for an overhaul, does a watchmaker work on your watch from start to finish?  Well not necessarily.  In some cases this situation is similar to the watch factory where people "off the street" with no horological background are employed to perform certain tasks, in an assembly line like fashion.  Again the final adjusting is done by a watchmaker, but not much else.

The reality is the watchmaker who can and does do it all is a rare thing these days.

Cheers, Al

Watchmaker (just a technician according to some)