Certified Swiss Watchmaker....who knew?

So yesterday I went to Fred Meyer's (note that Fred Meyer's = Smith's in Utah) to get a new battery for my fossil watch. I've been needing to do it for several months now but because I don't have my own car in Logan it makes going to random errands like that difficult. Since I'm home for a week, I decide there was no time like the present.

I waited patiently to be helped and then a nice lady told me that they had a watch guy right there in their jewelery department who could fix my watch for me. He came out, took my watch, and said to give him about 2 minutes. During that two minutes I discovered that his credentials and card were on one of the glass, jewelry display cases. Under his name I saw the words..."Certified Swiss Watchmaker". Needless to say, I was intrigued. How does one become a Certified Swiss Watchmaker? What does that really mean? Who thinks about being a watchmaker when they grow up?

When the nice gentleman brought my watch out, I paid him for his work. Curious enough to pose a question, I frankly asked him "How do you become a Certified Swiss Watchmaker"? He talked to my mom and I for several minutes about how he went to school in Switzerland to get his certification, that schooling took 2 or 4 years (I can't remember which, and that the final exam was 18 1/2 hours long! Wow!! He said a month before the exam all he and his colleagues did was study flashcard after flashcard. A week before the test, they threw all their flashcards in pile and pulled from random. They would only have 20 questions on the written portion of the test out of a possible 800!

In addition to the written portion, he had to fix and reassemble three different kinds of watches. He said that they really mess them up good so that it's really difficult. My watchmaker graduated 3rd in his class, although he explained to us that he should have been second.

It was really cool to talk to him and find out something I knew absolutely nothing about. I didn't even know you could be a Certified Swiss Watchmaker! The certification is recognized all around the world. This just proves that it takes all kinds to make the world go 'round, and that you can learn something new everyday.