The Lititz Watch Technicum is a

watchmaking A watchmaker is an artisan who makes and repairs watches. Since a majority of watches are now factory-made, most modern watchmakers only repair watches. However, originally they were master craftsmen who built watches, including all their par ...

school located in

Lititz, Pennsylvania Lititz is a Borough (Pennsylvania), borough in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, United States, north of Lancaster, Pennsylvania, Lancaster. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it had a population of 9,370. History Lititz was ...

, and was designed by an architect

Michael Graves Michael Graves (July 9, 1934 – March 12, 2015) was an American architect, designer, and educator, and principal of Michael Graves and Associates and Michael Graves Design Group. He was a member of The New York Five and the Memphis Group and ...

. The school, founded by

Rolex Rolex () is a Swiss watch brand and manufacturer based in Geneva, Switzerland. Founded in 1905 as ''Wilsdorf and Davis'' by German businessman Hans Wilsdorf and his eventual brother-in-law Alfred Davis in London, the company registered ''Rolex ...

in 2001, was created to help make up for the deficiency of skilled

watchmaker A watchmaker is an artisan who makes and repairs watches. Since a majority of watches are now factory-made, most modern watchmakers only repair watches. However, originally they were master craftsmen who built watches, including all their par ...

s in the United States. In the mid-1970's, there were 44 watchmaking academies in America, but by 2001 the number had dwindled to just ten, and in 2019 only six remained. The 54,000 square foot facility on Wynfield Drive also houses the Rolex service center. Offering free tuition to its inaugural September 2001 class, Rolex received hundreds of applications, but accepted only twelve students. Ranging age from 17 to 37, they were taught in three classrooms over an 11-month academic year, eight hours a day, five days a week. Charles Berthiaume, director of the school, told the ''

Associated Press The Associated Press (AP) is an American not-for-profit organization, not-for-profit news agency headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association, and produces news reports that are dist ...

'' "With the shortage of watchmakers, we're literally missing a generation." The Technicum offers a two-year, 3000+ hour SAWTA (Swiss American Watchmaker's Training Alliance) curriculum. Tuition is free, however, students must pay for the cost of their toolkits, which is around $7000, along with housing and meals. The program focuses on

micromechanics Micromechanics (or, more precisely, micromechanics of materials) is the analysis of heterogeneous materials including of composite, and anisotropic and orthotropic materials on the level of the individual constituents that constitute them and th ...

and watch service for high-end, luxury watches with a strong emphasis on

chronograph A chronograph is a specific type of watch that is used as a stopwatch combined with a display watch. A basic chronograph has hour and minute hands on the main dial to tell the time, a small seconds hand to tell that the watch is running, and ...

s. In 2010, the school, established as a nonprofit foundation, became an educational subsidiary of the Rolex corporation. At the time, principal Herman Mayer was one of its three instructors and 21 students were enrolled. By 2017, the Lititz Watch Technicum had put 148 students through its 3,500 hour training program with an 85% graduation rate.

References

{{coord, 40.1659, -76.3089, type:edu_region:US-PA, display=title Rolex Lititz, Pennsylvania Education in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania Watchmakers Buildings and structures in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania