It's one thing to get a balance wheel to tick in a training movement. Getting a balance to tick in a Rolex is something else entirely.

It lives! It's been slow and careful going, but the balance wheel for my Geneva School Watch is progressing nicely. Today it's beating in a Rolex 1575 training movement, and soon it will be ready for installation in my watch... If I had it yet, that is.

Working with a genuine Rolex movement—training or not—is a surprisingly different experience from everything else that we've done. The 6497 training movements and even the 7750 are in a different league when it comes to finishing, which makes the Rolex all the more harrowing; any slip, and the damage is immediately visible.

We won't actually get the parts for our capstone watch until next year. That's okay. The balance wheel will still work perfectly a year from now!