Infodump - dNg Design Journal Ch. 14
Hi! If you’re new here, I make watch designs I thought of in my head. Some work, some don’t, all of them are unrealistic. Give me some feedback!
Personal Speil
Just wanted to share most of the stuff I’ve been working on so far. Not much on my mind at the moment, just taking a break from the #defsoneanddone for a bit while I get some other stuff sorted.
Brutalist
This is more of a proof of concept than anything. It’s pretty obvious that this is a Hublot/Bvlgari merger. Makes sense, though, since they’re both in LVMH.
Barbell
An old design from the pencil sketch days. Still got a ways to go with it, especially with the date window at 6 as well as the tachymeter, but I’m really pleased how this one turned out.
Hexameter
Same name, different game - the new Hexameter design takes inspiration mostly from Patek Philippe’s Nautellipse and Golden Ellipse models. Would love to see one of those refurbished vintage manual-mind movements in this one, like what Pohlmann-Bresan did with their Prestige Range.
Relos Travelman
A new rendition of my Travelman model from way back when. The 9o’clock subdial would track home time (controlled by the adjacent secondary crown), whilst the hour hand is independently adjustable. I’d imagine a modified version of a Miyota 9075 would do the trick.
Maybe the second one also has a full-lumed home time subdial!
Oldtimer
Was mainly looking at Kuoe Kyoto watches when I drew this one. I also really love the idea of a grande date on a dress watch. That small central seconds was an idea I took from the Rosenbusch Quest.
Radiance
A vintage and retro inspired remaster of my Radiance 1 model. The concept stays the same - the watch switches between 12 and 24 hour time by having double-sided hour indexes, similar to some vintage Gruens.
I am not Gerald Genta. I like to draw watch ideas. They usually suck. #defsnotgenta for more.
Interesting… I get design its cool but after the design do you factor in the movement sizes ? Also who or where do you go to to make actual cases??? Do you do 3D print out of the case ? I’m all for design but is your design functional?! Just curious … been thinking about making my own watch from scratch… just to for my own personal desire and not for sale or anything…
Interesting… I get design its cool but after the design do you factor in the movement sizes ? Also who or where do you go to to make actual cases??? Do you do 3D print out of the case ? I’m all for design but is your design functional?! Just curious … been thinking about making my own watch from scratch… just to for my own personal desire and not for sale or anything…
I wish I was that far ahead 😭 Im definitely reading up on watchmaking in the meantime, but I would like to hone my skills on some $20 beater i find on eBay before I actually start building 😆
I wish I was that far ahead 😭 Im definitely reading up on watchmaking in the meantime, but I would like to hone my skills on some $20 beater i find on eBay before I actually start building 😆
Yes, design is a great start… when I started thinking of creating my own watch, I was designing cool looking watches well to me at least but when I started building ones I ended up more fascinated with the movements… so now I think about the movement first in terms of design and go from there…like a car almost engine first and design around the engine/movement…
Yes, design is a great start… when I started thinking of creating my own watch, I was designing cool looking watches well to me at least but when I started building ones I ended up more fascinated with the movements… so now I think about the movement first in terms of design and go from there…like a car almost engine first and design around the engine/movement…
Ooo, awesome! I’d love to see your designs as well, would be fun to exchange ideas 🤓
And yes, movements first definitely helps ground designs in practicality. I am not a practical human, so none of mine work 🫠 I will look to familiarise myself with some of the more popular movements out there like Miyotas, but I’m curious how far the low-budget Chinese movements like that Hangzhou 5000 can be taken in terms of quality and reliability.
For Radiance, you can absolutely see if a the dial design is geometrically feasible. The index setup has to have another copy of the same on the same center that does not overlap at the window points.
The hexameter is a neat shape, but (like most rectangular watches) it is a huge waste of space inside and out. I'd love it if there were some magic like that one Brequet lady's watch that ... well this
https://youtu.be/ScNp52q4dz4
and/or if the case curved like an old Gruen Curvex.
For Radiance, you can absolutely see if a the dial design is geometrically feasible. The index setup has to have another copy of the same on the same center that does not overlap at the window points.
The hexameter is a neat shape, but (like most rectangular watches) it is a huge waste of space inside and out. I'd love it if there were some magic like that one Brequet lady's watch that ... well this
https://youtu.be/ScNp52q4dz4
and/or if the case curved like an old Gruen Curvex.
Love (no pun intended) that Breguet! And always appreciated your feedback Oscar!
I agree - the difficulty lies most with the Hexameter and the Radiance, at least from an engineering standpoint. It would be cool to see if there was a unique workaround to see if it was even technologically feasible.
Love (no pun intended) that Breguet! And always appreciated your feedback Oscar!
I agree - the difficulty lies most with the Hexameter and the Radiance, at least from an engineering standpoint. It would be cool to see if there was a unique workaround to see if it was even technologically feasible.
I might try this with software tomorrow, but I suspect that the Radiance dial would need tweaking. All those index aperture areas would need to be able to cock about 15 degrees without overlapping. I just noticed the inside diamond-shaped railroad track indices. In reality those would have even angular spacing with would present as varying linear spacing because the distance from center is not constant. You can see this on a Cartier Tank.
The vertical and horizontal distance per fixed angular increment elongates the furthre it gets from the center.
Ooo, awesome! I’d love to see your designs as well, would be fun to exchange ideas 🤓
And yes, movements first definitely helps ground designs in practicality. I am not a practical human, so none of mine work 🫠 I will look to familiarise myself with some of the more popular movements out there like Miyotas, but I’m curious how far the low-budget Chinese movements like that Hangzhou 5000 can be taken in terms of quality and reliability.
Well one way to find out is to test the movements out… Chinese movemnts I think are pretty decent but like @OldSnafu told me gotta go ETA2428 for a bit higher end builds… but I do love me some NH34 and 35’s movements though… it so easy to work with…
I haven’t fully sat down and write my ideas down and even drawn them out … I just picture it in my head and head over to Aliexpress.com to source out a part that I thought of 😜 but YEs!! Love to talk and collaborate it’s so much fun talking about watches with someone who’s in the same mind set…also my wife as much as she loves me, she’s tired of listening to me about making my own watch 😜😂
I might try this with software tomorrow, but I suspect that the Radiance dial would need tweaking. All those index aperture areas would need to be able to cock about 15 degrees without overlapping. I just noticed the inside diamond-shaped railroad track indices. In reality those would have even angular spacing with would present as varying linear spacing because the distance from center is not constant. You can see this on a Cartier Tank.
The vertical and horizontal distance per fixed angular increment elongates the furthre it gets from the center.
Ohhhh you’re right! Please do - I’d love to see the results.
Ohhhh you’re right! Please do - I’d love to see the results.
Dammit, I wasn't even starting with a perfect square! But we see here why you get either many or large but not both.
If you can do a CNC cad design that is compatible with your local machine shop equipment they can grind you out a cheap brass case as a prototype. Whatever you come up with build it around an easy to use movement like the NH35 which does not use a complicated movement holder. If you want to cast one go with lost wax and make a prototype to make repetitive molds for bronze castings. Stainless is too hard to work with outside a CNC machine. If its a one off go bronze as they are softer and easily worked with. Native Chinese movements are only good if you take them apart and service them but the Malaysian Seiko's are good out of the box. Swiss are top drawer and offer the best quality specs but you pay for that.
Super awesome! I really love the design of the last one. I believe that same idea was executed on a Gruen something or other in the 60s.
This is Awsome brother. I definitely would encourage you to start dabeling in building and making one of your creations comes to life. Obviously you wold want to practice beforehand on inexpensive movements and cases but who knows in a few years time what could come of it.
This is Awsome brother. I definitely would encourage you to start dabeling in building and making one of your creations comes to life. Obviously you wold want to practice beforehand on inexpensive movements and cases but who knows in a few years time what could come of it.
Oh yeah, definitely 😂
I want to start small - maybe buy one of those movement kit bundles and just keep disassembling and reassembling the movements, just so I can understand how they function better.
After that, who knows? Maybe I’ll take a course into repair, read about finishing - eventually I would love to build a movement from scratch, or remaster one from a long forgotten vintage reference.
Oh yeah, definitely 😂
I want to start small - maybe buy one of those movement kit bundles and just keep disassembling and reassembling the movements, just so I can understand how they function better.
After that, who knows? Maybe I’ll take a course into repair, read about finishing - eventually I would love to build a movement from scratch, or remaster one from a long forgotten vintage reference.
One of my first few post was about watch repair of you want to check out the course that I took. It’s all prerecorded so you can go at your own paste and detailed videos to watch along with.