| Show AROUND THE CLOCK he still has time on his hands after half century at trade features ELGIN ILL somewhere in the united states there may exist an untutored and unknown genius of job like patience who after months of painstaking effort could put together a watch that would run but the odds are just about one million to one that it would fall far short of the performance demanded of fine watches today in the opinion of william williamjr jl H director of elgin watchmakers IS s ought to know he has made watches for more than 50 years e rs now teaching others the profession at the elgin school he received his first introduction into the lore from his father who at one time was the royal watchmaker of sweden Sa came to america as a lad in 1881 1981 today he Is still active in the profession an honorary member of at least eight state associations and the dean of american fine watchmakers always ready to talk about his lifes work explained some of the reasons why making a watch is not the easiest thing in the world our students learn that the best watches must be within a limited tolerance of time fast or slow before they are released from the factory he says they learn to maintain tolerances of of an inch to fit parts into precision watch movements they master all the individual manufacturing operations necessary to restore a watch to its timekeeping time keeping ability an idea of how bow small these tolerances are can be gained from the fact that one ten thousandth of an inch is the size of a human hair after it has been split the long way 30 times students also work with roller jewels that are so small that weigh a pound some of the screws u used sed in watch manufacture are so tiny that of them just barely fill an ordinary sewing thimble despite their size each screw his has a perfect thread and its head is perfectly slotted some of mehus Sa students become proficient in the art in a period of from 11 to 14 months although he has been in the business for more than half a century Sa still mana manages es to keep posted on latest developments in the field he admits that making watches today is considerably sider ably ea easier sier than it was 50 years ago he at tributes attributes this in part to innovations in repair equipment and parts DEAN OF watchmakers S william II 11 director ai 0 elgin watchmakers college collece Is 1 shown here inspecting a clod clock made by william geoghagen one OIK of his students driven by an electric motor the nine dialed clod clock shows the time in bombay lon don Ila hawaii wail san francisco yokohama shanghai new york IIo moscow scow and elgin elein |
