Big hands on the little hands: students find a future in the not-quite-lost art of repairing mechanical, watches.

• Author: Collins, Glenn
• Position: TECHNOLOGY

Despite the domination of battery-powered quartz watches and digital displays, mechanical watches that need to be wound are coming back into style.

But very few people are qualified to repair them. To help fill this gap, the Swiss watch industry has introduced special training programs in cities around the United States.

Harry Papathomas, 20, from Madison, N.J., is one of six students enrolled in a free, but highly selective, two-year training program at a school recently established in Secaucus, N.J., by the Watchmakers of Switzerland Training and Education Program.

MASTERING PRECISION

"This is an art form within the confines of a watch," says Papathomas. His first step toward becoming a watchmaker is to use a jeweler's saw to fashion a brass file-cleaner. It will be six months before he and the other students actually touch a watch. First, they must master the elements of microtechnology and precision sawing, filing, and sharpening.

When students graduate, they can command a starting salary of $55,000 a year. By tradition, they will be called "watchmakers," even though most won't be building watches from scratch. According to the Federation of the Swiss Watch Industry, there are potentially 100,000 watchmaking jobs open in the U.S.

For a while, the watchmaking profession seemed done in by the "quartz...