The DIY makers who build their own watches
“It probably started on Reddit,” recalls Matthew Wright, an engineer from Brisbane, Australia. Online, he stumbled on a couple of posts from
people who had made their own watches. He’d never even thought about
doing something like that, but now he wanted to have a go too.To get
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He started reading forums, researching tools and materials, and checking out where parts could be acquired, such as cases, dials, hands,
strap and movement. “It becomes like a big jigsaw puzzle, you try to
work out what pieces will fit together,” he says.
Before long, he had made his own watch to wear on his wedding day – a black dial in a stainless steel case, with tan strap. And then, he made
four more in a similar style to give to his groomsmen.
“They still wear the watches on a regular basis – it’s quite a nice feeling when I see them wearing it,” he says.Thanks in part to the
availability of information over the web, many people just as curious as
Wright have embarked on their own home-made watch projects. And some
have even launched businesses as a result. But how easy is it to get
started?
A quick hit on Google will bring up a wave of results that can kick things off for enthusiasts. There’s the Reddit Watch forum, the TimeZone
Watch School, which offers courses via the web for a price, discussions
on the WatchUSeek forum, and hundreds of YouTube videos aimed at
makers.
People can buy kits for assembling watches or individual parts online with relative ease, too. This is the exact rabbit-hole that Wright fell
down when he started researching.
“You see other people who’ve made little changes to watches, they’ve changed dials or whatever, and the next thing, I stumbled across
websites where you can buy the cases completely empty,” he
recalls.People like Wright, who have a bit of experience with making
their own bits of tech, will already have some of the necessary tools
and know-how to get going, of course. One such person is Mike Hamende.
By day, Hamende is a nuclear power plant operator in Illinois. By night,
he makes things – from drones to robots to toys and his own circuit
boards.
“My hobby is design and fabrication, and at the time a watch felt like a natural project to attempt,” he says, remembering how he embarked
on making his first watch, with a glow-in-the-dark dial.He’s since made
two more with mechanical movements. Initially, he decided to take apart
some watches in his own collection to try and learn how everything
slotted together. Then, he found technical details about the movements
online – importantly, these provided the detailed dimensions he needed
to plan his design.
“Basically, those drawings tell you the size and shape of the cavity you need to have inside your watch case for the movement to fit
properly,” he says.
The whole thing was modelled in computer software and then brought to life with the help of tools, like a ‘fly cutter’, that could mill and
shape the materials he was using.A hobby is one thing. But some take
their watch-designing even further. In 2013, Jan Binnendijk, a maker in
the Netherlands, found an old, broken watch once worn by his father. In
the process of taking it apart and fixing it, he fashioned his own parts
– including a case, dial and hands. By the time he’d finished, much of
the device was brand new.
Later, he published photos of his project on a Dutch watch forum. “That drew the attention of a guy who was starting his own watch
company. He needed a supplier of cases,” recalls Binnendijk.
A team of five people eventually came together to make 52 watches with pre-made movements. They sold them for 500 euros ($615) each, which
Binnendijk says covered the cost of materials.
