At present the instruction comprises a practical and a theoretical course.
Practical Instruction.—This is divided into three sections: (1) an elementary one having in view the construction of the simple watch in its essential parts; (2) a higher section in which the pupils learn to recognize the complicated parts; and (3) a section of mechanics applied to watch-making and to the study of the construction of machines and tools for facilitating and improving the manufacture.
1. Elementary Section, First Year.—The pupil must manufacture all the small tools necessary for making unfinished movements; that is, drills, reamers, punches, files, etc. He must then learn to file and turn, and to make use of the finishing lathe with the bow, or of the foot lathe.
In general, the time taken by an apprentice to manufacture his tools is from two to three months, and he can scarcely go to work on the movements before this.
In this class the regular pupils have to execute seven pieces of work in the rough, two for horizontal escapements with key and regulating wheel, and five for various other escapements. Among these there is one for simple repetition and one for minute piece. Aside from the work fixed by the programme, the pupils may manufacture all the other complicated pieces upon obtaining the authority for it from their masters and the director.
The average time employed in performing the work imposed by the programme necessarily depends upon the capacity of the pupil, but we may say that in general ten months are necessary.
Second Year.—After executing his last piece of work in a satisfactory manner, the apprentice passes into the class in regulators, where he begins to manufacture the small tools that he will require.
In this work, as in the preceding, he must take all his pieces from the crude metal, and he must do the forging himself, as well as the roughing down, the turning, filing, and shaping, and finally the finishing, without the aid of any other machine than the dividing one.
In general, after eighteen months of work, the apprentice goes to the finishing shop, where the delicate and minute work begins, pivoting, putting the wheels in place, and practical study of gearings. After learning how to divide a wheel correctly, he is set to work on pinions and wheels in the rough, which he must rivet, finish, and pivot according to the different planes of the pieces that have been calculated and executed by him under the direction of the master.
The programme to be followed by the pupils of the class in finishing is, as regards number of pieces, the same as that of the preceding classes, that is to say, seven.