of swiss watchmakingin 2001 rolex established lwt as their contribution towards addressing the major challenge that concerns the entire watch industry the shortage of watchmakers who are qualified to service the high end brands . the shortage originated in the 1980 s when the quartz watch debut threatened the future of the mechanical watch and the demand for highly qualified watchmakers . the result was a dramatic drop in the number of watchmaking schools in the u.s. from 40 twenty five years ago to less than 10 today . however in the 1990 s sales of high grade mechanical watches began to rebound and continue to grow . since mechanical watches require routine servicing to clean lubricate and calibrate the industry is faced with a large and growing number of high grade watches that will require skilled maintenance . over the years our curriculum evolved in many ways to meet the current need for full fledged watchmakers in the united states . the encouraging results of this evolution did not go unnoticed in the industry ; resulting in the creation of a new certification body sawta swiss american watchmakers training alliance . 2014 lititz watch technicum