Wednesday, August 11, 2010

Breitling Training



I had to save my Breitling training for last. The training was epic, 5 weeks! I really got to know the company and the people during that time. I was so impressed with Breitling’s dedication to after-sales service. The training program they have in place is by far the best I have seen. And the staff, trainers, managers are all very dedicated and passionate about the program and the company. It was an amazing experience.

Breitling Uunderground passage

I spent my first week of training in polishing. The second week was a solo program in which I spent a day in each department of the after-sales service facility. The remaining three weeks were level 1 and 2 training, which covers a majority of the Breitling watch calibers on the market. The program was harder than I expected, we were graded on everything. Our trainer, Stefan Kuonen, scrutinized our work to a painful degree and he really pushed us to improve at every stage of the training. I have to admit, I had a couple meltdowns, some bad days when I felt all my watch skills had left my body and I couldn't do anything right. I don't know if it was the grading that started to get to me or the exhaustion that comes from travelling and living in a hotel for too long or the fact that I was also having to work on the island service center project at night. But all excuses aside, what the program did accomplish for me personally was to wake up my mind to watchmaking again. After 12 years, I'll admit I had gotten lazy. I had gone through the motions for so long and stopped questioning them or remembering why I do what I do. I'm happy to have had this experience. I'm really happy that I passed! And I feel that I am still waking up to my watch world. Questioning it in ways that I haven't in a long time. Taking it apart and figuring out what about it I really like and what about it I need to fix. This is a good thing.


Polishing training group


Level 1 & 2 training group

3 comments:

Unknown said...

Congratiulations for passing the level 1&2 course!
I did think you would pass the course, but it's still a great achievement, since I agree with you that those courses aren't the easiest out there.
Every little thing gets graded, and judged.

But that's a good thing, It keeps you focussed and sharp :D

If you get back to the island, could you perhaps send me your E-mail when you read this. I would like to send you something through an E-mail.

Regards,
Leonor van Dijen

solarlab said...

I was just talking about you the other night in awe of you. I think it's definitely a good thing to re-discover what inspired you in the first place.

I'm proud and inspired and adoring you from the mainland.

Anonymous said...

Hello , excuse me , how can I apply for breitling training level 1 , id like to get that interesting level