Hi all,
This may or may not be of interest, but, for me, it is and I hope you all will find some fun in it as well.
When I visit watchmakers I will, in most cases, take photos of their bench/benches. I find it interesting; what are they working on? what kind of tools are being used? are they tidy? etc. So, here is a collection of some of the watchmakers' benches I have photos of.
I should mention that the given state of each watchmaker's bench is not to be viewed as "The Norm." This is how they appeared on the day of my visit, which may be messier than usual, cleaner than usual or about normal. Also, most of these watchmakers have more than one bench to work on. These photos are of the "main" bench.
Enjoy!
Derek Pratt's bench with pocket watch he had recently made, which uses Daniels' Double Wheel Escapement and has a one-minute tourbillon with remontoire
Philippe Dufour's bench where he is in the midst of applying the anglage to a Simplicity
Vincent Calabrese's bench where he is working on the jump hour watch he did for Bell & Ross
Svend Andersen's bench where he is working on his Grande Jour et Nuit watch
Roger Smith's bench (in Daniels' workshop)where he has several projects going; working on the Limited Edition series of Daniels watches, working on his own pocket watch and doing some restoration work
Andreas Strehler's bench where he is working on a proto-type for Basel 2003
Vianney Halter's and Stew Lesemann's (Vianney's top watchmaker) benches where they are working on ALL KINDS of stuff!
Audemars Piguet's master watchmaker's bench. He spends his days working on new and old Grande Complication pocket watches, as well as restoring other complicated pocket watches. At the time of this photo he was working on a new AP Grande Complication pocket watch
A friends bench. He is a first class restorer of watches in the Philly area. And, believe it or not, his bench is ALWAYS like this!
Miniature watchmaker and bench from the Horology Museum in Le Sentier
My bench this morning