Back in September 2016 my wife and I attended WOSTEP's 50th anniversary (here is a link to a blog post I made about it)
At the event I had the privilege to show some of our RGM watches with a few other independents who graduated from WOSTEP, you will recognize many of them.
During the evening portion of the event we met at a beautiful Chateau in Neuchatel Switzerland. Mr. Simonin was there, he was the director of WOSTEP for many years and my instructor back in 1986. I took this opportunity to have the below picture taken with him.
Antoine Simonin, watchmaker with over 50 years in the profession
- Well-known expert in the Swiss Watch Industry
- Watchmaking Instructor
- Specialist in old and new horological books
- Antique watch expert
- His publishing house Editions-Simonin was established in 1984 and has published over twenty titles.
One of my favorite stories from back in school was about "Lap drawers or trays", American watchmaker benches traditionally had a lap tray you could pull out to your stomach, this was to catch any parts that might fall or roll of the bench towards the watchmaker. In Switzerland they did not typically have these trays on their benches. I remember asking Mr. Simonin why they did not have them, his answer was..... a good watchmaker should not drop parts on the floor!
Well...
A week or so later when I came back from lunch I found Mr. Simonin on the floor looking for a watch part. I got on the floor to help, then I looked aver at him and said what are we looking for, then I added "I bet a Lap Drawer would have come in handy" He said nothing, but the look on his face said plenty! I stopped talking at that point. Memories.....