Last week I have been visiting my suppliers in Germany and Switzerland.

It was a very fruitful trip. Lots of details of each of my designs have been discussed. Mostly in a positive sense. The only “drawback” has been the notion that I have to rework the design of the dial and hands of my fourth watch. Since we will start working on it first half of next year, there is lots of time to do so. By the way, that will be a chronograph inspired by a sportscar.

What has thrilled me most has been to see the dials and glasses of The Hourglass and the German dials of The Inkpot (almost finished at last).

Three of the 5 colors of The Hourglass dials came out very nice and they can be easily combined with a whole range of colors for the straps. As I found out at the end of the tour at a strap maker’s. The engraving of the dial looks great too, but a small error made them to have to redo them all, so the dials were regretfully not finished in time to take them with me.

The German dials of The Inkpot are airbrushed, so they are truly individual. Some look great, some are less appealing, but they have a different old paper look than the Swiss dials. Once ready I will show you the difference on finished prototypes so you can help me choose the best execution.

The dials of The Porthole are not up to par after all. The transparent plastic layer does not give the transparent water effect I had hoped for and turned out to be very susceptible to scratches and smudge during assemble. So they will be made again and this time as a satin matte lacquered version to let the effect of the lumen on the backside of the hands come out. At another supplier a new idea materialized for The Porthole dial due to what they can make. It will be a true hit or miss, so I will keep you in the dark for now… ;-).

Each of the suppliers were very enthusiastic of the prototypes. All told me I succeeded in making something new with each of my designs, away from the beaten path, with appealing details and quality. That made me very happy :-).

Meanwhile I am working on a revision of the buckle for The Porthole, which is coming along well. I made a stupid mistake with the shape of the pin, blocking the strap from being taken out of the buckle once fastened. In a way that is good, because why should you take off my watch? No kidding, for the second design I worked and tweaked the old pin to an effective shape through experimenting.

That’s it for now. Please enjoy the pictures that shows how tough the trip was…