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WOSTEP
WOSTEP, the Watchmakers of Switzerland Training and Educational Program, is an internationally recognized professional qualification in the maintenance and care of fine-quality watches. It was devised by the Centre Suisse de Formation et de Perfectionnement Horloger and is sponsored by manufacturers and retailers within the horological industry in Switzerland. Origin During the 1960s, and at the request of the U.S. Government, the Swiss government created what would eventually evolve into WOSTEP- Federation of the Swiss Watch Industry FH. It was originally designed to train American watchmakers in techniques of watchmaking that developed in Geneva and the Jura mountains as from the 16th Century. It is important to understand that at the time of the founding of Wostep, America was losing its title as "world's largest watch producer" to the Soviet Union (mostly making poor-quality everyday watches). As American watch companies continued to slide into oblivion after the end of W ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Watch
A watch is a timepiece carried or worn by a person. It is designed to maintain a consistent movement despite the motions caused by the person's activities. A wristwatch is worn around the wrist, attached by a watch strap or another type of bracelet, including metal bands or leather straps. A pocket watch is carried in a pocket, often attached to a chain. A stopwatch is a type of watch that measures intervals of time. During most of their history, beginning in the 16th century, watches were mechanical devices, driven by clockwork, powered by winding a mainspring, and keeping time with an oscillating balance wheel. These are known as '' mechanical watches''. In the 1960s the electronic ''quartz watch'' was invented, powered by a battery and keeping time with a vibrating quartz crystal. By the 1980s it had taken over most of the watch market, in what became known as the quartz revolution (or the quartz crisis in Switzerland, whose renowned watch industry it decima ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Manufacturers
Manufacturing is the creation or production of goods with the help of equipment, labor, machines, tools, and chemical or biological processing or formulation. It is the essence of the secondary sector of the economy. The term may refer to a range of human activity, from handicraft to high-tech, but it is most commonly applied to industrial design, in which raw materials from the primary sector are transformed into finished goods on a large scale. Such goods may be sold to other manufacturers for the production of other more complex products (such as aircraft, household appliances, furniture, sports equipment or automobiles), or distributed via the tertiary industry to end users and consumers (usually through wholesalers, who in turn sell to retailers, who then sell them to individual customers). Manufacturing engineering is the field of engineering that designs and optimizes the manufacturing process, or the steps through which raw materials are transformed into a final pr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Horology
Chronometry or horology () is the science studying the measurement of time and timekeeping. Chronometry enables the establishment of standard measurements of time, which have applications in a broad range of social and scientific areas. ''Horology'' usually refers specifically to the study of mechanical timekeeping devices, while ''chronometry'' is broader in scope, also including biological behaviours with respect to time (biochronometry), as well as the dating of geological material (geochronometry). Horology is commonly used specifically with reference to the mechanical instruments created to keep time: clocks, watches, clockwork, sundials, hourglasses, Water clock, clepsydras, timers, time recorders, marine chronometers, and atomic clocks are all examples of Measuring instrument, instruments used to measure time. People interested in horology are called ''horologists''. That term is used both by people who deal professionally with timekeeping apparatuses, as well as enthus ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Switzerland
Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland is geographically divided among the Swiss Plateau, the Swiss Alps, Alps and the Jura Mountains, Jura; the Alps occupy the greater part of the territory, whereas most of the country's Demographics of Switzerland, 9 million people are concentrated on the plateau, which hosts List of cities in Switzerland, its largest cities and economic centres, including Zurich, Geneva, and Lausanne. Switzerland is a federal republic composed of Cantons of Switzerland, 26 cantons, with federal authorities based in Bern. It has four main linguistic and cultural regions: German, French, Italian and Romansh language, Romansh. Although most Swiss are German-speaking, national identity is fairly cohesive, being rooted in a common historical background, shared ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Swiss Government
The Federal Council is the federal cabinet of the Swiss Confederation Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerlan .... Its seven members also serve as the collective head of state and Head of government, government of Switzerland. Since World War II, the Federal Council is by convention a permanent grand coalition government composed of representatives of the List of political parties in Switzerland, country's major parties and Languages of Switzerland, language regions. While the entire Federal Council is responsible for leading the federal administration of Switzerland, each Councillor heads one of the seven federal executive departments. The president of the Swiss Confederation chairs the council, but exercises no particular authority; rather, the position is one of a Pri ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Federation Of The Swiss Watch Industry FH
The Federation of the Swiss Watch Industry (FH) is the Swiss watch industry's leading trade association, headquartered in Bienne, Switzerland. The Federation is a private, professional and non-profit association. The Federation of the Swiss Watch Industry was established on 19 November 1982 as the result of the merger of the Swiss Federation of Watch Manufacturers’ Associations (founded in 1876) and the Swiss Chamber of Watchmaking (founded in 1924). It currently gathers more than 500 members representing more than 90% of all Swiss watch manufacturers (watches, clocks, movements, components, etc.). History On 14 May 1876, the Intercantonal Association of Jura Industries was founded in Switzerland. In 1900, it became the ''Swiss Chamber of Watchmaking and Allied Industries'', extending the focus to include jewellery, gold & silver work, and music boxes. The ''Swiss Federation of Clock and Watch Manufacturers’ Associations (FH)'' was established in 1924 by delegates from Be ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Geneva
Geneva ( , ; ) ; ; . is the List of cities in Switzerland, second-most populous city in Switzerland and the most populous in French-speaking Romandy. Situated in the southwest of the country, where the Rhône exits Lake Geneva, it is the capital of the Canton of Geneva, Republic and Canton of Geneva, and a centre for international diplomacy. Geneva hosts the highest number of International organization, international organizations in the world, and has been referred to as the world's most compact metropolis and the "Peace Capital". Geneva is a global city, an international financial centre, and a worldwide centre for diplomacy hosting the highest number of international organizations in the world, including the headquarters of many agencies of the United Nations and the International Committee of the Red Cross, ICRC and International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, IFRC of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement, Red Cross. In the aftermath ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jura Mountains
The Jura Mountains ( ) are a sub-alpine mountain range a short distance north of the Western Alps and mainly demarcate a long part of the French–Swiss border. While the Jura range proper (" folded Jura", ) is located in France and Switzerland, the range continues northeastwards through northern Switzerland and Germany as the Table Jura ("not folded Jura", ), which is crossed by the High Rhine. Name The mountain range gives its name to the French department of Jura, the Swiss canton of Jura, the Jurassic period of the geologic timescale, and the Montes Jura of the Moon. It is first attested as ''mons Iura'' in book one of Julius Caesar's '' Commentarii de Bello Gallico''. Strabo uses a Greek masculine form ("through the Jura mountains", ) in his ''Geographica'' (4.6.11). Based on suggestions by Ferdinand de Saussure, early celticists such as Georges Dottin tried to establish an etymon "iura-, iuri" as a Celtic word for mountains, with similar putative etymologies ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Soviet Union
The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet Union, it dissolved in 1991. During its existence, it was the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country by area, extending across Time in Russia, eleven time zones and sharing Geography of the Soviet Union#Borders and neighbors, borders with twelve countries, and the List of countries and dependencies by population, third-most populous country. An overall successor to the Russian Empire, it was nominally organized as a federal union of Republics of the Soviet Union, national republics, the largest and most populous of which was the Russian SFSR. In practice, Government of the Soviet Union, its government and Economy of the Soviet Union, economy were Soviet-type economic planning, highly centralized. As a one-party state go ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
World War II
World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the world's countries participated, with many nations mobilising all resources in pursuit of total war. Tanks in World War II, Tanks and Air warfare of World War II, aircraft played major roles, enabling the strategic bombing of cities and delivery of the Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, first and only nuclear weapons ever used in war. World War II is the List of wars by death toll, deadliest conflict in history, causing World War II casualties, the death of 70 to 85 million people, more than half of whom were civilians. Millions died in genocides, including the Holocaust, and by massacres, starvation, and disease. After the Allied victory, Allied-occupied Germany, Germany, Allied-occupied Austria, Austria, Occupation of Japan, Japan, a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Waltham Watch Company
The Waltham Watch Company, also known as the American Waltham Watch Co. and the American Watch Co., was a company that produced about 40 million watches, clocks, speedometers, compasses, time delay fuses, and other precision instruments in the United States of America between 1850 and 1957. The company's historic 19th-century manufacturing facilities in Waltham, Massachusetts have been preserved as the American Waltham Watch Company Historic District. The company went through a series of bankruptcies and restarts under new ownership, with watches and clocks bearing the Waltham name still being made and marketed today. History The early years, 1849 to 1857 Prior to 1850, watches in America were generally supplied either from England or Switzerland.Caross, "The Waltham Watch Co.," p. 167. The idea for the Waltham Watch Company came from watchmaker Aaron Lufkin Dennison. Dennison was the son of a shoemaker, born in Maine in 1812.Caross, "The Waltham Watch Co.," p. 166. He ser ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hamilton Watch Company
The Hamilton Watch Company is a Switzerland, Swiss manufacturer of wristwatches based in Biel/Bienne, Bienne, Switzerland. Founded in 1892 as an American firm, the Hamilton Watch Company ended American manufacture in 1969, shifting manufacturing operations to the Buren factory in Switzerland. Through a series of mergers and acquisitions, the Hamilton Watch Company eventually became integrated into the Swatch Group, the world's largest watch manufacturing and marketing conglomerate. Early history Hamilton succeeded three watch firms manufacturing timepieces in the same facilities in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, US, including the Adams & Perry Watch Manufacturing Company, Lancaster Watch Company Ltd., Lancaster Watch Company and the Keystone Watch Company. The precursor to the Hamilton Watch Co., the Lancaster, Pennsylvania based Keystone Standard Watch Co., was started by Abram Bitner in 1886 with the purchase of Lancaster Watch Company's factory. Lancaster, then Keystone manufa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
