Guilloché lessons – some memories

Atelier · · by Christian Bissener


Man in a checked shirt with a magnifier headband working at an antique rose engine guilloché machine in a workshop

Some of my best hours are spent at the atelier of Jochen Benzinger, practising on his guilloché machines. It is an honour and a pleasure to learn this craft from a master guillocheur.

The rose engine is, to my mind, the most beautiful of these machines to work on. The difficulty lies in the pressure on the cutter, which has to remove material to exactly the right depth. One has to push firmly, but not too hard. That feeling takes a long time and many hours of practice to find.

Close view of a brass dial blank held in a brown block on the guilloché machine
The practice dial: outer minuterie and small seconds traced, the small seconds finished in a sun guilloché pattern