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 more news about custom watch, you can visit koalaprint.com official website.
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.
Personalized Gifts and Cards Market report explores various marketing opportunities, top challenges, Covid-19 impact and recovery on market size and share. The main objective of Personalized Gifts and Cards market report is to provide growing demand status of Top Manufacturers - Personalised Memento Company, Disney, Redbubble, Card Factory, Funky Pigeon, The Original Gift Company, Etsy.To get more news about koala print, you can visit koalaprint.com official website.
Global “Personalized Gifts and Cards Market” report presents a proficient evaluation of upcoming market trends and current and futuristic growth strategies supported by top key players. It offers excellent understanding of manufacturing cost structure, regional landscape along with statistics, country-level market size, and segmentation by market growth over the forecast period. Personalized Gifts and Cards market report is a comprehensive research that provides market size and share analysis according to top regions, drivers, opportunities and challenges, risks and entry barriers are also covered.
The Personalized Gifts and Cards market report is segmented as “North America, Latin America, Asia Pacific, Europe, and Middle East and Africa”. These regions are described well and elaborated with demographic insights and potential lucrative regions for the business owners to tap and expand their business geographically.
This report mainly elaborates the definition, types, applications and
major players of Personalized Gifts and Cards market with deep analysis
about market status, enterprise competition pattern, advantages and
disadvantages of enterprise products, industry development trends,
regional industrial layout characteristics and macroeconomic policies,
industrial policy has also been included. From raw materials to
downstream buyers of this industry will be analyzed scientifically, the
feature of product circulation and sales channel will be presented as
well. In a word, this report will help you to establish a panorama of
industrial development and characteristics of the Personalized Gifts and
Cards market.
Chapter 1 is the basis of the entire report. In this chapter, we define
the market concept and market scope of Personalized Gifts and Cards,
including product classification, application areas, and the entire
report covered area.
Chapter 2 is the core idea of the whole report. In this chapter, we provide a detailed introduction to our research methods and data sources.
Chapter 3 focuses on analyzing the current competitive situation in the Personalized Gifts and Cards market and provides basic information, market data, product introductions, etc. of leading companies in the industry. At the same time, Chapter 3 includes the highlighted analysis--Strategies for Company to Deal with the Impact of COVID-19.Chapter 5 Different application fields have different usage and development prospects of products. Therefore, it provides subdivision data of different application fields and market forecasts.
Chapter 6 includes detailed data of major regions of the world, including detailed data of major regions of the world. North America, Asia Pacific, Europe, South America, Middle East and Africa.
Chapters 7-26 focus on the regional market. We have selected the most representative 20 countries from 197 countries in the world and conducted a detailed analysis and overview of the market development of these countries.
Chapter 27 focuses on market qualitative analysis, providing market driving factor analysis, market development constraints, PEST analysis, industry trends under COVID-19, market entry strategy analysis, etc.