My trip to Secaucus.

The Swatch Group U.S. training center is located in Secaucus New Jersey. I traveled there in June for the OWME 1120 test.

That facility also performs service work. They service all of the Swatch group brands, and are the only facility in the U.S. that services any of the prestige brands; Breguet, Blancpain, Glashütte Original and Jaquet Droz, which makes some truly amazing watches:

It’s a rather non assuming building considering what goes on inside:

There is a nice duck pond behind, that mostly has geese in it:

Peloton has a large facility located across the pond:

I’m not going to get into much detail about the week of training and testing. I will say they expect a very high level of precision in oiling, adjustment and cleanliness.
I was happy to see they had basically the same benches I have:

The instructor/evaluator was super nice and knowledgeable. As Omega has been my favorite watch Brand for a long time this was a little like a trip to Disney World for me.

Swatch group fed us lunch everyday:

Going into test day I knew roughly how long it would take me. There were some surprises along the way, so the test was around 4 hours of fun and 1.5 hours of terror. Walking back to the hotel I wasn’t sure how I had done. I knew my timing tape was good along with a lot of other things, but did I miss anything critical?
It was a somewhat not so good night of sleep, as we were going to go over the results the next morning. The other person in my class/certification went through the same sort of thing that evening.
The next morning I found out I passed:

That meant we could proceed into Co-Axial training:
That evening I enjoyed a well deserved beer:

It was a fun trip and I met some great people. I will be going back in September for 8500 and 8520. Later this year hopefully I can attend the 3313 training.

Good job. But that's probably the first mini-travelogue for Secaucus, NJ ever done!

I started by taking basically every class I could at the AWCI. When they shut down because of COVID, I flew their head instructor to my workshop on 5 separate occasions for additional training.
This has been an almost 5 year process for me. The application for the OWME 1120 also involves proof of owning the required tools and equipment. As well as an approved space for the work. There are different options/brands that are approved; I personally have spent over $43,000 on equipment and tools, and over $10,000 building a cleanroom.
I’m currently in the process of buying the various Omega special tools now that I have access to them. I’ll likely be spending a other $5,000-8,000 on those.

Congrats on the pass.

Thank you, and yeah I can’t image traveling to Secaucus other than for this. While I was there, the joke was “Secaucus is the jewel of the Meadowlands!”

Thanks Al!

I should mention watchmaking isn’t my full time career still at this point. I’m currently a Field Service Engineer working directly for GM. Before that I spent 5 years working for Mercedes Benz. I probably should change my avatar from the SLS to a Corvette….
I’m not planning on giving that job up anytime soon, so the watchmaking gig will continue to be a part time thing. I currently have a 6-8 month backlog of watches to get through before I would consider taking any additional ones in for service.
I’m also am planning to work on another degree starting the spring 2022 semester, as GM will pay for it and it would help me in my job.

That is so frickin cool your able to follow your dreams while having a cool gig already. Like a dream type of thing for a lot of people. Good on you. You give me hope on my lofty goal of getting into modding seikos. It’s a difficult balance I’m just finishing some classes and clinical hours for certifications and degrees in the field I’m currently working in. It’s fun driving yourself nuts trying to fit everything in but I guess it’s always good to exercise the brain and learn new things. I give you a lot of credit looks like your managing well. I have a midsize smp that will need servicing in a year or two if you are open for business. Very cool photos you took A plus all around

This is so cool! THANK YOU for giving us this rare, inside look. And congratulations on achieving your certifications!

Congrats on the pass

A vino or two with Dennis would cap off a NJ trip. 😉

Another picture of the bench area:

I did find some ducks at the duck pond one of the days:

2500 co-axial:

This was the first time I had seen a Deville hour vision in person, it’s a nice watch:

When at Newark waiting for my flight home I picked something up to commemorate my trip to New Jersey:

When I travel back in September, I will get some more pictures of things I am allowed to photograph. In most of the facility you can not take pictures.