Yeppers…it’s a real place…just west of Cincinnati, OH…it’s the HQ for the AWCI which is the certifying entity for certified watchmakers [CW21] and certified master watchmakers [CMW21] in the U.S. What our daughter and I did was take the AWCI build-a-watch course which is basically like taking a discovery flight to see if you want to pursue a PPL and beyond. Needless to say, I realized pretty quickly that I’m not cut out to be watchmaker…and to NOT fuck with mechanical watch(es) unless you know what you’re doing.
During the 3 day build-a-watch course in 2018, our class of 12 disassembled, cleaned, oiled, reassembled, and adjusted mechanical 17j ETA 6497-1 movements and recased them…followed by pressure testing them. All tools and instruments were provided. We had the choice of whether or not to purchase the watch that we were working on…11 of the 12 students purchased their watch [an additional $300 per watch] which our daughter and I did. The course itself was $600 per student…so if you purchased the watch that you built, it was $900 total per student. Also, the class was taught by 2 CW21s and 1 CMW21. NOTE: “21” references the 21st century.
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