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Canada's only watchmaking school still ticking after 80 years
- Ozzie-D 3mo ago[flagged]
- ButlerianJihad 3mo agoYes, but has it taken a licking?
- 14 3mo agoAs a Canadian cool! Never heard of this school before but on the west coast so probably why. I've watched many watch repair videos online and the knowledge base required is huge. Also there are many tools needed which are not cheap. There is just so much to know that takes years to learn. Very cool that the knowledge is being shared and the skill passed on. In my small town there was only one guy who worked on clocks and watches. He passed a while back and his kids continue with his jewelry store but they now send out watches and clocks to another business as none of his kids learned how to do it.
- whynotmaybe 3mo agoI discovered this school right after discovering the Richard Mille clock in Quebec City [1] because the school is responsible for maintaining the clock. 1. https://www.ville.quebec.qc.ca/en/apropos/portrait/attraits/hotel-de-ville/horloge_jura.aspx https://www.ville.quebec.qc.ca/en/apropos/portrait/attraits/...
- xutopia 3mo agoI live in Quebec and this is the first time I hear about it.
- LzeYing 3mo agoI believe this is exactly the kind of high-paying job that is difficult for AI to replace.
- stouset 3mo agoSure but it’s also a microscopically small component of the country’s overall economy.
- zuzululu 3mo agocanada's economy is roughly slightly below Mississipi with increasing amount of migration from third world countries putting strain on its resources and with almost no plans other than to tax the already overstretched middle class its almost the exact dilemma in Western Europe except the only saving grace is military security is guaranteed by its larger and richer neighbor
- sanswork 3mo agoCanada's GDP is $2.2t vs $165b for Mississippi. Immigration rate is decreasing.
- zuzululu 3mo agothanks for bringing this up and I have to reiterate the importance of per capita which is something that is curiously ignored in these discussions but I'm sure you know the difference from just measuring GDP alone and just forgot about it Canada's nominal GDP per capita is roughly $53,800 USD, which places it nearly on par with Mississippi also Canada admits people from third world countries at a per-capita rate roughly four times higher than the United States, with none of the enforcement agencies capable of tackling illegal immigration which a lot of this demographic engages in. It's difficult for ICE now imagine Canada which has no such enforcement on the same scale my point is that Canada has a smaller economy but imports more from the third world than its much richer and powerful neighbor. this is not a sustainable arrangement.
- cwillu 3mo agoIf you don't say the words “per capita”, you don't get credit for having said them.
- sleepyguy 3mo agoMy grandfather was a master watchmaker and jeweler who learned his trade in the Soviet Union and then in Europe. After emigrating to Toronto after the war, he opened his own jewelry store, where he repaired watches and clocks, as well as crafted and repaired fine jewelry. He was a true master of his craft and built a successful business based on his exceptional skill. He Was well known for his craftsmanship and his remarkable ability to repair virtually any watch or clock, no matter how complex. Jewelers from across the city would bring him pieces that no one else could repair. For antique and vintage timepieces, he would often fabricate tiny replacement parts by hand when originals were no longer available. When he retired, very large companies would still come to his home to repair incredibly expensive pieces. He liked to tinker and would quietly work in his little home shop, pipe burning, radio playing, and visitors coming throughout the day to have him fix things. When he passed, he had 10's of 1000's of watch parts in all these little bags that were all tagged and in boxes. We ended up giving them away to one of his customers who own several Jewelry stores. Had I known I would have offered them to this school along with 100's of watches he kept for parts.
- p1necone 3mo agoMy father was a watchmaker. Fond memories of going with him in his van to the various jewellers he did work for picking up and dropping off. I remember being given a big metal lamp from his workshop when he passed away and realising the body of the lamp was not isolated from the incoming power, although luckily not at mains voltage (not what killed him).
- ElenaDaibunny 3mo agokid me thought AI would replace people doing insanely precise hand work. turns out it replaced me writing emails, and this school's still going strong after 80 years. lmao we got played
- throwatdem12311 3mo agoAI was supposed to do my laundry so that I could make art and code for fun but now the AI is coding and making art while I do laundry.
- DigiEggz 3mo agoProfound and painful statement.
- ElenaDaibunny 3mo agoyep,sci-fi really got this one wrong lol.
- fragmede 3mo agoit's a funny meme but it's because software can iterate faster than hardware. Give it a few years for robot maids to come out that can do your laundry, then we'll see society upturn.
- throwatdem12311 3mo agoWhat social upturn do you expect because robots will still be coding and making art as well as folding laundry. How will I buy a robot maid if I don’t have a job because a robot does it? These robot maids will be doing manual labour jobs before I can just buy one for myself. So who will be left to buy thing at all?
- dghlsakjg 3mo agoGive the Chinese some time. They are doing incredible things with world models, and have an economy that really could do incredible things with robots wired to effective world models. It won't surprise me at all if in 10 years LLMs are less of a big deal than world models
- throwatdem12311 3mo agoMaybe I will take up watchmaking when I get sick of AI slop programming and offshore morons going wild with a Claude subscription.
- ggm 3mo agoIf you read about Harrison's Chronometers you read of Rupert T. Gould who suffered a Nervous Breakdown, and it is said fell into watch repair as therapy, bringing them back to life.
- rohitsriram 3mo ago[flagged]
- Cider9986 3mo agoThe 8th highest voted HN submission is on mechanical watches. I imagine that's the type the watchmaking school involves themself with because afaik all high end watches are mechanical. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31261533 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31261533 4 years ago 413 comments They have a certain beauty in their intricate details working together for function. I do really like looking at the glass back which shows some details and you can see the piece that move to gain power. Although it seems youd have to pay a lot to get an accurate one because I have a $250 mechanical Seiko and its time keeping is junk. It was mediocre when I got it and has gotten worse. It was $150 when I bought it so I suppose it would have been a good investment if it hadn't got beat up.
- gleenn 3mo agoIf you are using a mechanical watch to keep time (accurately for long) you are doing it wrong
- sodastar 3mo ago[dead]
- deleted 3mo ago[deleted]
- AdamN 3mo ago> all high end watches are mechanical. No, most high end male jewelry are mechanical watches (and much of women-oriented jewelry as well). High end watches are such a solved problem we don't even talk about them anymore. Either the G-shock, the Garmin watches, or the Apple Watch run circles around mechanical watches in terms of functionality with each satisfying a different niche (100% self-contained, long lived smart functionality, glance-oriented integration with full-stack personal tech ecosystem).
- titanomachy 3mo agoI think most people when they hear "high-end watch" picture some sort of mechanical jewelry watch. When G-shocks, Garmins, and Apple Watches are a few hundred dollars and well-known luxury watch brands start at a few thousand, it's reasonable to consider the latter more "high end". Personally I'm not interested in owning a luxury watch, I like the Garmin ones.
- pizzaballs 3mo agoEnjoy till ai with robot arm take your job..
- kazinator 3mo agoAntrax lead guitarist Dan Spitz went on to become a watch maker: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dan_Spitz https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dan_Spitz
- pfdietz 3mo agoI would have expected guitar repair. One of my recent youtube channel finds was a young woman who repairs old guitars, rewinding pickups and such. Fascinating. I didn't realize one of the uses for Formvar (aside from films for use in electron microscopes) was insulation on electric guitar pickup wires.
- MarceliusK 3mo agoThere is something pleasantly backwards about a school teaching people to repair objects that were designed to last, while so much of the rest of the economy is optimized around replacement
- al_borland 3mo agoOne could argue that it’s everyone else who is backwards.
- yulker 3mo agoThere's something interesting in maintaining items built to last when the objects themselves are maintained and kept for entertainment reasons. (Entertainment in the broad sense for enjoyment first and foremost over utility or practicality). I guess it strikes me like a master of maintaining toy trains or something along those lines, both evoking a sense of respect and sense of humanity for the craft and art of the thing, while paradoxically feeling that this is not "actually important" (whatever that means). Like someone being a great soccer player or michelin star chef -- the seriousness of this kind of endeavor is both inspiring and comical at the same time? Maybe it should be viewed like the sign of a healthy ecosystem; if it can support "exotic birds" like these, it's stable and healthy.
- legends2k 3mo agoIt's promising and I'm glad to hear such a depth-oriented study of making things, taking time is still a thing in a fast world. People are paying to study this, nice
- bell-cot 3mo agoYes, but notice the scale - 20 students, in a nation of 40+ million people. We might call that a moral or poetic victory - but practically speaking, it's like an endangered human language which "still has over 100 native speakers". The future ain't looking good.
- fennecfoxy 3mo agoThis is definitely something I've always thought about doing once I retire (if my generation gets to retire). Just seems like the ideal way to spend the last period of your life; quietly making the small mechanical pieces and hopefully finally assembling something to be left behind. Though I don't imagine I'd ever be able to produce something as small, accurate or intricate as these students are able to.
- throw2ih020 3mo agoIt's surprisingly easy to learn. I had a coworker who did this as a hobby while working in tech. Rolex hires people right off the street and trains them into professionals within weeks. Even as an amateur I've opened a few of the cheaper watches in my collection for some basic maintenance. When I retire it's one of the hobbies I hope to dive deeper into, it would be nice to be able to do my own oiling on most of my collection. The main barrier to entry is that you need a lot of tools and supplies, I priced it out and to do a full service on an automatic I probably need $1000+ of tools and supplies.
- danteocualesjr 3mo agofascinating!