How to Find Peace Through Watchmaking

The key lesson of Horology 101, a two-hour course in movement mechanics at the Horological Society of New York, is that to tinker with a watch is to sink into delight. The process is so hypnotic that the jargon and shoptalk chimes like music as you prod the beak of the click free from the ratchet teeth. When my classmates and I began our exercise with that action—allowing our ratchet wheels to rotate the wrong way and thereby release the power in our mainsprings—we were, literately and figuratively, learning how to unwind.

Founded in 1866, the HSNY bills itself as “America’s first watchmaking guild” and counts luxury merchants, local craftsmen, esteemed appraisers, veteran clock restorers, and the guys from Hodinkee among its leadership. It introduced Horology 101 as a monthly offering, open to the public, in February 2015, encountering such great demand that it immediately increased the frequency to weekly. The nonprofit’s educational program now includes Horology 102 (about the gear train), Horology 103 (winding and setting works), and Horology 104 (escapement), plus a road show that condenses all the above classes into a four-hour course. It will travel in February to Chicago, Philadelphia, and Seattle.