To get started in watchmaking, reading great theoretical works such as those published by the Fédération des Écoles Techniques is an excellent first step. However, purely self-taught learning through books quickly shows its limits.

Watchmaking is an art of gesture and transmission. A two-dimensional drawing can never reproduce the dynamics of a mechanical interaction or the delicacy of lubricating a pivot. How do you feel the exact tension of a spring? How do you position your tweezers so a micro-component doesn't fly off? Without a visual mentor to break down each action precisely, the risk of picking up bad habits is high.

To progress quickly and without frustration, the ideal is to complement your theoretical reading with an ultra-detailed, dynamic video resource.

Where books stop, a structured curriculum takes over: our guide on how to learn watchmaking online explains how to combine both, and the online watchmaking course shows what a guided programme covers.

That is the whole spirit of Décalibre: to offer you a digital mentor through 200 video modules so that every technical gesture becomes natural and clear.

Books remain irreplaceable for theory — see our reviews of Théorie d'horlogerie, the history of the Vallée de Joux and Horological Alchemy by Denis Flageollet.