Most people with a passion for cars and motorsport will typically end up developing a love for many other topics, such as aviation, sailing, and if you’re like me, watches! This passion, at least in my case, came from a few different sources. First and foremost, many car lovers will see their favourite personality, actor, or racing driver sport a fancy watch. For me, seeing Steve McQueen wear a Heuer Monaco while shooting the film “LeMans”, taught me that a watch is an essential component in a sophisticated persons’ attire. Pretty much every man over the past century to have been dubbed as “cool” or “the king of style” has worn some sort of watch as part of their attire. The only proof you need of this is to look at some pictures of Steve McQueen, Gianni Agnelli or any iteration of James Bond. In the past, a watch was an expensive, yet discreet element one would wear to complement their look. Despite their cost, it mostly resides hidden from view most of the time. It shows wealth and taste with understatement, the true definition of class.
However, this perspective is somewhat outdated, seeing that most people mentioned above have died long ago. In the modern age with low cost and questionably styled watches, and even the ever-popular digital “smart” watch, the old school meaning of a watch has faded. For most, the artistry and engineering that goes in to creating a watch is meaningless, most likely stemming from our habit of getting used to mass produced products which have a finite life, are styled to conform to a trend; and are thrown out the second they no longer function.
There is hope for watch lovers like me however, seeing that a good watch from brands like Seiko, Orient and even Tissot can be had for relatively “little” money. That being said, they are typically styled to comply with most people’s taste, resulting in watches which are functional, but not stylistically ambitious.
With all of this in mind, why not create a base design for a watch which can then be modified to suit anyone’s style choice? That was the objective with this project, to create an automatic watch styled to my personal specifications, and with the possibility of easily replacing virtually every component, thereby making it essentially a lifelong watch.
The first step was developing a feeling for what the watch should look like. As I mentioned previously, 60’s and 70’s film actors have experimented audaciously with many different styles, giving us an opportunity to find inspiration from what they wore in period. 1970’s watches in particular fascinate me because they are the first departure from the classical circular cased watch from the previous decades. Heuer’s Carrera or Monaco are among the most famous, but many watches from Omega, Certina, Tissot and even Seiko follow this design trend. In fact, another reason for this project is that I was tempted to buy some of these, especially the Seiko 6138-8020 Panda, but the cost was truly staggering, so it seemed like a better alternative to just create my own watch inspired by this period's aesthetic for a fraction of the cost.
I selected the Miyota 8215 for my project, because of its availability online, as well as Miyota’s great website, full of spec sheets and drawings; all at a really low price. I initially wanted to make a chronograph, but these automatic movements continue to be prohibitively expensive, so I decided to begin my watch making journey with something simpler.
With the movement’s plans passed on to CAD, as well as all of the reference pictures available online (especially on Pinterest), the next phase was to brainstorm and sketch out a few designs.
With some patience and experimentation, as well as learning about what matters in a watch and adapting the designs to my manufacturing capability, I finally reached this "definitive" design after about a month or so.
The prototyping was done using my Prusa i3 Mk2s, but the intricate components and their associated tolerances required some external help. That’s why I used Xometry, currently my favourite online manufacturing service. They provide everything you’d expect from services like Stratasys Direct for example, but in Europe and at a respectable cost. And the end results were much more precise and accurate than what I expected.
Currently, this project is still on going and so this page will be updated in the future. The next phase of the project is to 3D print the watch in either Steel, Titanium or Aluminium.
