July 18, 2026

The Lathe That Came With the Building

When the atelier took over the workshop space in 2011, a watchmaker’s lathe was bolted to the bench by the window — no maker’s records, roughly a hundred years old, and in better adjustment than the modern machine we brought with us.

It still does one job: balance staffs, turned between centers the old way. Some machines survive because nothing newer is actually better at the one thing they do.