Curriculum vitae

Where Marta Ilves trained and what she has worked on.

Marta Ilves

Watchmaker, mechanical watches and small clocks

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Portrait

Summary

Fifteen years on a bench, the last seven of them my own. Two years of formal training in Pennsylvania, eight years on a high-volume service bench in Boston doing forty watches a month under somebody else's name, and since 2019 a one-person workshop on Westminster Street in Providence taking fewer than a hundred watches a year. Vintage and modern mechanical, wrist and pocket, plus small domestic clocks. No quartz, no smart watches, no guessing.

01

At the bench

  • 01

    Watchmaker, own workshop

    Westminster Street, Providence · Providence, RI

    A one-person bench taking work by post and by appointment. Under a hundred watches a year, every one serviced start to finish by me and returned with a written record and a timing sheet. About a third of the work is restoration - staffs, hinges, crowns and bushings made on the lathe rather than ordered.

    Mar 2019 – Present
  • 02

    Senior watchmaker

    A service center for four Swiss brands · Boston, MA

    Forty watches a month against a service standard and a clock. Chronographs and automatics, warranty and out-of-warranty. Trained four apprentices and wrote the bench notes the workshop still uses for chronograph reassembly.

    Jan 2014 – Feb 2019
  • 03

    Watchmaker

    An independent repair shop · Boston, MA

    Everything that came through the door: quartz, mechanical, clocks, jewelry repairs I should not have been doing. The best three years of training I have had, because nothing arrived with a manual.

    Aug 2011 – Dec 2013
  • 04

    Nothing to do with watches

    A warehouse and then a bakery · Fall River, MA

    Listed because people ask how anyone gets into this. I was twenty-six when my grandmother's watch stopped and four shops told me it was not worth the money.

    2004 – 2009
02

Training

  • 01

    Diploma in watchmaking, WOSTEP-standard program

    A two-year watchmaking school · Pennsylvania

    Two years full time: turning, filing, micromechanics, escapement theory, hairspring work, casing and finishing. Graduated first in a class of eleven.

    Sep 2009 – Jun 2011
  • 02

    Clock repair, evening course

    A horological association chapter · Boston, MA

    Eighteen months of Tuesday evenings on weight and spring-driven clocks, bushing, and pivot work at a scale where you can see what you are doing.

    2015 – 2016
03

Certificates

  • 01

    Certified Watchmaker of the 21st Century

    American Watchmakers-Clockmakers Institute

    2013
  • 02

    Chronograph service certification

    Manufacturer training, four calibers

    2016
  • 03

    Water resistance testing and case sealing

    Manufacturer training

    2017
04

What I work on

  • Manual and automatic wristwatch movements
  • Chronographs, column wheel and cam
  • Pocket watches, key and lever set
  • Staff and pivot turning on the lathe
  • Hairspring truing and vibrating
  • Case, hinge and crown work
  • Spring and weight-driven clocks
05

Teaching and writing

  • 01

    Introduction to the bench

    Six Saturdays, four benches, Providence

    A short course for people who want to know whether they could do this. Half of them find out they cannot, which is the point and is worth the fee on its own.

    Twice a year since 2021
  • 02

    Bench notes

    A letter I send when I have something to say

    Not a schedule. Eleven letters in five years, each one about a single repair that taught me something I did not know.

    Since 2020
  • 03

    Guest instructor, escapement week

    The school in Pennsylvania

    One week a year on escapement adjustment with the second-year students, which is the closest thing to a debt I can repay.

    2022, 2024
06

Languages

  • English First language
  • Estonian Fluent, from my grandmother
  • French Enough to read a parts catalog