Craig Daniel Hawthorne

As I pursued my earlier career in engineering, I was fascinated with gears and springs and complex linkages. I loved the idea of pulling apart some intricate mechanism and figuring out how it worked. When my job landed me in a cubicle drawing shapes on a computer screen, a chance video about clockmaking opened my mind to the possibility of horology. THIS is where all the intricate gears and levers were! I started buying old pocket watches from the local flea market, taking them apart, and putting them back together. After maybe the fifth or sixth attempt, they still worked after I was done. In time, my skills grew to the point that I was able to start a small freelance job cleaning and regulating old watches. But I could tell my self-taught knowledge had its limits. And so I have come to Switzerland to learn the full craft of watchmaking, and to see what great things I can do with it.