I’ve added a new astronomical face and rejigged the world clock for my rellies (showing AW for Australian Western time.) Dirt simple changes but it’s thrilling to have something that’s partly mine. Because it is based on the Casio body it’s also an iconic design classic too.
I believe a version with tzdata in it is in the works by the author. My thanks to everyone involved in the project and everyone on HN who got me into this hobby!
The author also recently designed a custom LCD as a drop in replacement [1] and I can't wait to get one. I've decided smartwatches are too expensive and short lived for me, but I think this version, with just a little bit of programmability, is gonna be perfect.
At the very least this makes author's watch rather less unique and custom than described. Perhaps it was an one of a kind back in 2020, but it's not anymore.
OP’s watch appears to be a customized variant of the annual calendar LIGHT, which was introduced in 2016. The 36mm case is unusual, not one of the standard sizes, but O&J has been willing to do 36mm cases on request since ~2010 with certain models. So—like all O&J watches prior to 2020 or so¹—the cosmetics are fully customized, but the mechanism is shared with other O&J watches².
¹ since then they also have a collection of non-customizable watches
² this undersells it a bit; most O&J watches (like mine!) are "just" customized realizations of a set of basic designs (which is a good thing, IMO, because those designs work better than what most buyers would come up with). But many of those designs were developed collaboratively in response to specific customer requests. I was in the workshop in 2018 and saw an early prototype of what became the day/night watch (https://www.ochsundjunior.swiss/watches/day-night/) in development for the customer who had proposed it. If you skim through their blog, you'll find lots of interesting projects done for customers with varying degrees of customization (I really love this day/night done with no conventional face: https://www.ochsundjunior.swiss/dirks-day-night/)
It isn't super clear from first read, but that design is not by the author, but by the company. He gave them specs for what he wished for in a design, and they came up with a design.
I have exactly the same watch for exactly the same reasons. With saphire glass and a titanium case and strap, it's very light and after two years of being worn constantly, it's still completely unmarked. It's also nicely inconspicuous - it's "just a casio", but those who know, know.
Exactly... add to that the requirement that I want to have the peace of mind of being able to accidentally bang the watch against the metal poles of the subway, etc., without damaging it in some ways, and I always end up with a G-Shock.
It also has a more complicated (chronograph) brother, the LIW-M610. It's fun to see the hands in the subdials spin around as you change functions and timezones.
I also wear this watch every day and have done for a couple of years now. It’s the perfect watch- completely autonomous time, solar powered, classic look while still having digital functions. I love not having to worry about ever setting the time or changing the battery. And it’s waterproof!
The sapphire glass means I don’t treat it especially well and it looks brand new.
With regard to value and cost I would like to add the factor 'time' to the discussion. A watch like this can easily last for decades, possibly longer (and it will retain some value, possibly even appreciate in value, over time).
This is a sharp contrast with 'consumables' like most smartwatches and smartphones, that (given enough time) will add up in costs, too. I am not saying one should "do this or that" - but value/cost is a funny thing when you think of it in more than one dimension.
You've got the money, you wanted to buy something nice for yourself, and you like luxury watches. Nothing wrong with that - plenty of people buy a $50,000 car when a $40,000 car has the same number of wheels.
But for my $200 Garmin to "add up in costs" to your $10,000 watch would require some extremely creative accounting.
Although I suppose time does factor into every discussion of watches, in a way :)
This. I have never bought a watch for more than $300 and I would have to buy 33 $300 watches to get to $10,000. If I live 60 more years, that's one watch every 22 months for the rest of my life.
Those Garmins will be worth 0 in 10 years, or 30. These ones will keep working and could be worn by his grandchildren easily, if basic care is taken and they are not stolen or lost.Their value could be low or also very, very high.
Passions should not be primarily measured in TCO or returns, then no vacation ever makes any sense since you just spend money, no expensive clothing, no expensive car, no restaurants just eating cheap salads whole life and so on. Also one should live in tiniest cheapest shed to maximize earnings. You see where this goes
There is no point in trying to justify the cost in counting the BOM, taking your watch for example, it uses a generic ETA caliber 2892-A2 (the "engine" in the watch) which is used in watches that cost 10% up to x10 of yours while it cost only $300-500.
I look at watches as a piece of jewelry more than an engineering item, they might or might nor keep their value but I like how they look, make me look and make me feel especially if there is a nice story behind the watch.
> Don't be afraid to make decisions for yourself. Wear the watch you want to wear. If it doesn't exists, don't panic. Thanks to the wonders of our connected world, you can find people that will help you!
Good advice for people that have money to commission custom pieces from lauded swiss companies.
Meanwhile I'm wearing the watch I got for "free" (ended up still costing for maint/repairs), and trying to get my mortage paid.
No need to pay someone, you can make one. What do you need? A secondhand manual pantograph mill someone is getting rid of for a few hundred dollars and a little jewellers lathe?
And of course a book on watchmaking.
We've been making watches for about half a millennium now, and if a craftsman in the 1500s could do it, surely a curious man with semi-modern secondhand tools from the 70s can too.
I'm going to do exactly this eventually and it's going to "cost" me maybe as much as a flagship phone all up, time and effort not included.
You're right if you're aiming to make a 16th century pocket watch. Anything approaching a modern wristwatch calibre is much more time and money intensive.
The majority of the cost will be time and effort. I think George Daniels estimates it to be 3000 hours for a skilled amateur to make the tourbillion pocket watch described in his book. This number will be decreased if you forego the tourbillion. But even so, other equipment costs: jewelling press, staking set, poising tools, depthing tool, all kinds of abrasives, oils and greases. The largest tool cost will be lathe attachments like collets, cross slide, milling attachment, wheel and pinion cutters. You may be able to cut wheels and pinions on the pantograph but probably not to the precision needed for a wristwatch, maybe for a large pocket watch or clock. Maybe you could put the lathe on the milling table to index the stock and use the mill to cut?
That's not counting all the theory needed to design and build a movement from scratch.
My advice would be to steal the going train, escapement and balance from an existing movement and fabricate the remaining parts
They're not that expensive (in the world of luxury watches, anyway), and they are really cool, but the mere thought of paying thousands of dollars for a fragile thing that I wear on my wrist that I will probably bang against a door handle or something within a week is making me sweat.
The alternative option is to order some parts from AliExpress and make your own custom watch. Elliot Coll has some videos on how to do that on YT.
FWIW, I’ve worn my O&J every day for seven years, banged it against all sorts of things, and never had any issue (and mine is 42mm and silver, so both less durable than OP’s titanium and much larger and more likely to get banged on stuff). It’s really not a big concern.
Well, you have a mortgage, meaning you at one point had waaay more disposable income than even more luxurious variant of those discussed would cost.
Some folks put money into ferraris or porsches and then race them, or watch them appreciate (if smart & lucky). Or boats. Some folks spend money otherwise. Half of this forum spent similar amount on just non-mandatory technical gadgets in past few years.
This watch making is actually an investment that can bring nice returns in the future, barring damage/theft/loss happens. Also an interesting skill learned, plus skill explained to others. I can't do anything but appreciate such folks.
The post for most parts was neat, not disagreeing there. But wrapping it up as some sort of empowering life lesson feels so utterly out of touch that I felt like reminding that it is huge privilege to be able to do this sort of thing. Someone not wearing custom luxury watch is most likely not due being afraid to make decisions for themselves. Attributing the ability to do this sort of thing to "connected world" and "people willing to help" is just distasteful to me.
It doesn't help that the whole post is titled "Designing my own watch" while the actual design work was seemingly mostly done by ochs; mixing up doing something and commissioning something done is another of those things that has echoes of ages past, and not in a good way.
For the authors defence I do say that 5 years ago was slightly different time and back then these sort of things could pass more easily.
It's not completely custom, i.e. ochs und junior is using their own design, but the blog post is a lovely showcase of why he loves the watch, and watches in general.
If you value polish, go with your Ressence. If you value a custom watch that matches exactly your specifications, OP's choice is perfectly fine. It's obvious he will get more enjoyment that way of his money spent. Nothing wrong here.
And that comes with a custom watch w/ a design cycle. I guess instead of paying for a store-front, sales people, advertising - this is where the cost would live.
I collect luxury watches and understand movements and case construction... I'm not trying to be overly negative, rather if someone is interested in this, how to not waste your money. People who don't know watches see "Swiss" and equate that with good and luxury.
If you want to make a custom watch, design the case and dial yourself, and buy an off the shelf swiss or japanese movement like a ETA / miyota or a sellita movement, https://sellita.ch/index.php/en/movements these are used in top luxury watches and have great accuracy and reliability.
>Base Movement
> ETA 2824-2 with 38 hours of power reserve. Manufacturer: ETA SA / Grenchen / Switzerland.
it's literally an off the shelf movement.
> Although ETA movements are now unavailable for purchase from ETA, you can still find watch parts suppliers offering replacement movements for sale. The gold tone version (see example below) appears to cost less than the silver (nickel plated) version. Prices generally range from $200-$300 USD, but at the time of this post, the gold tone 2824-2 can be purchased for $236.20 USD here, and the nickel plated for $262.42 USD here.
The main thing that drives the cost in something like this is the movement, and this doesn't have a custom movement at all, there's no way the rest of this is worth around 10k.
Without a nice dial I don't really see the point.
It's like putting a ferrari engine in a mini. Sure it's incredibly cool how it works, but I couldn't imagine buying one of the watches, and I am a watch collector.
The dial and hands design and quality looks just so so poor. The huge lines in the case pieces don't inspire much confidence in the craftsmanship either.
Obviously the article mentions they want the case to be unpolished which is fine if the machining wasn't so poor.
The buyer obviously thought they were getting something custom because they showed him a few CAD screenshots, but the watchmaker is selling this on their website still.
From the image where the caption reads:
> The curved case design is very comfortable on the wrist, as there are no sharp edges sticking in your arm
This isn't even correct, it's literally got flat lugs which do not curve on the wrist.
> this doesn't have a custom movement at all, there's no way the rest of this is worth around 10k.
It has an annual calendar module added on. Surely that's semi custom and worth something, considering how expensive the calendar watches usually are.
(edit): actually there's a secondhand annual calendar longines on chrono24 for less than $2000 so maybe not worth that much. Probably still quite novel though.
Readit News
Body $30 https://www.casio.com/us/watches/casio/product.A158WA-1/
Movement $40 https://www.crowdsupply.com/oddly-specific-objects/sensor-wa...
I’ve added a new astronomical face and rejigged the world clock for my rellies (showing AW for Australian Western time.) Dirt simple changes but it’s thrilling to have something that’s partly mine. Because it is based on the Casio body it’s also an iconic design classic too.
I believe a version with tzdata in it is in the works by the author. My thanks to everyone involved in the project and everyone on HN who got me into this hobby!
[1]: https://www.crowdsupply.com/oddly-specific-objects/sensor-wa...
Thank you so much for sharing.
https://github.com/joeycastillo/Sensor-Watch/blob/0ad5fa4733...
At the very least this makes author's watch rather less unique and custom than described. Perhaps it was an one of a kind back in 2020, but it's not anymore.
The cost is around $9K.
¹ since then they also have a collection of non-customizable watches
² this undersells it a bit; most O&J watches (like mine!) are "just" customized realizations of a set of basic designs (which is a good thing, IMO, because those designs work better than what most buyers would come up with). But many of those designs were developed collaboratively in response to specific customer requests. I was in the workshop in 2018 and saw an early prototype of what became the day/night watch (https://www.ochsundjunior.swiss/watches/day-night/) in development for the customer who had proposed it. If you skim through their blog, you'll find lots of interesting projects done for customers with varying degrees of customization (I really love this day/night done with no conventional face: https://www.ochsundjunior.swiss/dirks-day-night/)
I guess they now own and can continue to sell that design. They've gone all in on online customization at least: https://www.ochsundjunior.swiss/customizer-1-1/?watch=112&cu...
I love their timepieces.
This is not a hand-made watch. It's just bespoke made to his specification and he never states its unique and limited edition 1 of 1.
This does however make it incredibly custom as stated as he gave the specifications, and the company made it for him, literally customisation I'd say!
Deleted Comment
Better would be a Seiko with GPS, but too expensive.
The sapphire glass means I don’t treat it especially well and it looks brand new.
With regard to value and cost I would like to add the factor 'time' to the discussion. A watch like this can easily last for decades, possibly longer (and it will retain some value, possibly even appreciate in value, over time).
This is a sharp contrast with 'consumables' like most smartwatches and smartphones, that (given enough time) will add up in costs, too. I am not saying one should "do this or that" - but value/cost is a funny thing when you think of it in more than one dimension.
But for my $200 Garmin to "add up in costs" to your $10,000 watch would require some extremely creative accounting.
Although I suppose time does factor into every discussion of watches, in a way :)
Passions should not be primarily measured in TCO or returns, then no vacation ever makes any sense since you just spend money, no expensive clothing, no expensive car, no restaurants just eating cheap salads whole life and so on. Also one should live in tiniest cheapest shed to maximize earnings. You see where this goes
I look at watches as a piece of jewelry more than an engineering item, they might or might nor keep their value but I like how they look, make me look and make me feel especially if there is a nice story behind the watch.
I see people driving round in cars that cost $100k+. I think this is insane, but it’s relatively normal.
Spend your money on things that make you happy.
Good advice for people that have money to commission custom pieces from lauded swiss companies.
Meanwhile I'm wearing the watch I got for "free" (ended up still costing for maint/repairs), and trying to get my mortage paid.
And of course a book on watchmaking.
We've been making watches for about half a millennium now, and if a craftsman in the 1500s could do it, surely a curious man with semi-modern secondhand tools from the 70s can too.
I'm going to do exactly this eventually and it's going to "cost" me maybe as much as a flagship phone all up, time and effort not included.
The majority of the cost will be time and effort. I think George Daniels estimates it to be 3000 hours for a skilled amateur to make the tourbillion pocket watch described in his book. This number will be decreased if you forego the tourbillion. But even so, other equipment costs: jewelling press, staking set, poising tools, depthing tool, all kinds of abrasives, oils and greases. The largest tool cost will be lathe attachments like collets, cross slide, milling attachment, wheel and pinion cutters. You may be able to cut wheels and pinions on the pantograph but probably not to the precision needed for a wristwatch, maybe for a large pocket watch or clock. Maybe you could put the lathe on the milling table to index the stock and use the mill to cut?
That's not counting all the theory needed to design and build a movement from scratch.
My advice would be to steal the going train, escapement and balance from an existing movement and fabricate the remaining parts
The alternative option is to order some parts from AliExpress and make your own custom watch. Elliot Coll has some videos on how to do that on YT.
Some folks put money into ferraris or porsches and then race them, or watch them appreciate (if smart & lucky). Or boats. Some folks spend money otherwise. Half of this forum spent similar amount on just non-mandatory technical gadgets in past few years.
This watch making is actually an investment that can bring nice returns in the future, barring damage/theft/loss happens. Also an interesting skill learned, plus skill explained to others. I can't do anything but appreciate such folks.
The guy is happy about his watch and goes into great detail explaining how it works and how it's made and why.
Why comment in such a negative way? I can't afford a 20k watch either, but so what? Why such jealousy?
You have contributed nothing, yet made the internet ever so slightly worse.
It doesn't help that the whole post is titled "Designing my own watch" while the actual design work was seemingly mostly done by ochs; mixing up doing something and commissioning something done is another of those things that has echoes of ages past, and not in a good way.
For the authors defence I do say that 5 years ago was slightly different time and back then these sort of things could pass more easily.
This doesn't work. Use the vote button.
Deleted Comment
Is it still all about the product when the product is a luxury item itself?
Why lack of superfluous boxes is good when the product itself is superfluous?
It's not completely custom, i.e. ochs und junior is using their own design, but the blog post is a lovely showcase of why he loves the watch, and watches in general.
(I live in .ch, where people love watched a bit more than I've experienced elsewhere)
$20k is in a ballpark of a Ressence watch [1], which, given a choice, I would choose without any hesitation.
[1] https://ressencewatches.com
The reason he landed on that design is pretty well detailed in the article too.
If you want to make a custom watch, design the case and dial yourself, and buy an off the shelf swiss or japanese movement like a ETA / miyota or a sellita movement, https://sellita.ch/index.php/en/movements these are used in top luxury watches and have great accuracy and reliability.
>Base Movement
> ETA 2824-2 with 38 hours of power reserve. Manufacturer: ETA SA / Grenchen / Switzerland.
it's literally an off the shelf movement.
> Although ETA movements are now unavailable for purchase from ETA, you can still find watch parts suppliers offering replacement movements for sale. The gold tone version (see example below) appears to cost less than the silver (nickel plated) version. Prices generally range from $200-$300 USD, but at the time of this post, the gold tone 2824-2 can be purchased for $236.20 USD here, and the nickel plated for $262.42 USD here.
The main thing that drives the cost in something like this is the movement, and this doesn't have a custom movement at all, there's no way the rest of this is worth around 10k.
Without a nice dial I don't really see the point.
It's like putting a ferrari engine in a mini. Sure it's incredibly cool how it works, but I couldn't imagine buying one of the watches, and I am a watch collector.
The dial and hands design and quality looks just so so poor. The huge lines in the case pieces don't inspire much confidence in the craftsmanship either.
Obviously the article mentions they want the case to be unpolished which is fine if the machining wasn't so poor.
The buyer obviously thought they were getting something custom because they showed him a few CAD screenshots, but the watchmaker is selling this on their website still.
From the image where the caption reads:
> The curved case design is very comfortable on the wrist, as there are no sharp edges sticking in your arm
This isn't even correct, it's literally got flat lugs which do not curve on the wrist.
It has an annual calendar module added on. Surely that's semi custom and worth something, considering how expensive the calendar watches usually are.
(edit): actually there's a secondhand annual calendar longines on chrono24 for less than $2000 so maybe not worth that much. Probably still quite novel though.