THE SWISS WATCH SCHOOLS. 



63 



Fig. 1. Plate. 



The writer was greatly interested in this nation of watch- 

 makers, and gave some attention, during a recent visit to that 

 country, to the Swiss methods of making watchmakers, as well as 

 of making and marketing watches. 



The Ecoles d'Horlogerie schools of watchmaking are under 

 the municipal management in Switzerland precisely as are our 

 common schools. Special permis- 

 sion must be obtained by any one 

 desiring to visit either the watch 

 or the common schools. There 

 are watchmaking schools at Ge- 

 neva, Neuf chatel, Chaux-de-Fond, 

 Locle, Bienne, Ste. Imier, and 

 Porentruy. 



The idea of going to school to 

 learn to make watches would 

 strike an American schoolboy as 

 queer enough. Doubtless many 

 of them who find the arithmetic 

 and geography and grammar to 

 go rather heavily, but who are 



fond nevertheless of seeing '' the wheels go round," would think 

 it a blessed existence to study nothing at school except these 

 wheels, how to make them, and make them go round. But the 

 reality loses the novelty and charm with which the American 

 schoolboy might invest it long before the slow, thorough, exact- 

 ing work is done which entitles the Swiss boy to graduate an ac- 

 credited watchmaker. 



The school the writer visited is the extensive one at Geneva. 

 Being provided with the requisite permission, and escorted by an 

 " alumnus " of the institution, he was shown every courtesy and 

 afforded every opportunity to observe. 



One is first ushered into the beginners' room. To enter, a boy 

 must be at least fourteen. He will first be introduced to a wood- 

 turning lathe and set at turning tool handles. He will be kept 

 at this from eight days to several weeks, according to aptitude. 

 Then he will be advanced to the work of filing and shaping screw- 

 drivers and similar' tools. These, and all other tools which he 

 may afterward make, will be his own. Being in course of time 

 to some extent provided with tools, he will undertake making 

 a large wooden pattern of a watch frame perhaps as large as 

 a dining plate. After he has learned just how this frame is to 

 be shaped, he is given a ready-cut one of brass of the ordinary 

 size, and he begins drilling the holes for the wheels and screws 

 (Fig. 1). All along the masters stand over him and instruct him. 

 The circular pieces of brass which are put into his hands here 



