Okay, so, I’ve been messing around with watches lately, and let me tell you, it’s a wild world out there. The other day, I got this crazy idea: What if I tried to make the world’s smallest watch? I mean, why not, right?
So, I started digging around online. You type in “smallest watch,” and boom, you’re hit with a million articles about this Jaeger-LeCoultre Calibre 101 thing. Apparently, it’s like, the granddaddy of tiny movements, and it’s been around forever. Also, there is a luxury watch, The Graff Diamonds Hallucination. Priced at $55 million, that is too expensive for me. I thought, “Okay, cool, but can I do better?” Then I got lost in this rabbit hole of luxury brands – Rolex, Patek Philippe, Cartier, IWC. It is said that some of the world’s most well-known watchmakers featured novelties with stunning pieces. All these names are like royalty in the watch world. Rolex, everyone knows Rolex, it’s like the king of watches, right? These watches are insane, all shiny and fancy, but not really what I was going for.
I kept seeing these articles about how “diminutive timepieces are heating up,” whatever that means. And then there’s this Russian dude, Konstantin Chaykin, who just dropped a prototype for a new tiny watch right before Geneva Watch Days 2024. I spent a whole afternoon just looking at pictures of it. It’s pretty neat, I guess, but it didn’t really spark anything for me. I wanted to make something truly unique, something nobody had ever seen before.
The Experiment Begins
First, I needed a movement. After tearing apart a bunch of old watches I found at a flea market, I managed to find a tiny little gear set that looked promising. It was super delicate, I almost broke it a few times just trying to get it out.
- Gathering Parts: I hit up every thrift store and junk shop I could find, looking for old watches and tiny parts. I felt like a real-life treasure hunter, except my treasure was a bunch of old, broken watches.
- Designing the Case: This was tricky. I wanted it to be small, obviously, but also kind of cool-looking. I ended up using the cap of a fancy pen, drilled a few holes in it, and polished it up. It actually looked pretty decent.
- Assembly: This was the hardest part. My hands are not exactly surgeon-steady, and these parts were smaller than ants. I used tweezers, a magnifying glass, and a whole lot of patience. I swear, I almost glued my fingers together a few times.
After many, many failed attempts, like a hundred hours of work, a few mental breakdowns, and one very close call with a soldering iron, I finally did it. I made a watch. And it was tiny. Like, ridiculously tiny. I had to use a magnifying glass just to see the hands move.
Was it the world’s smallest watch? I don’t know, probably not. But it was my smallest watch, and I made it myself. And that’s pretty darn cool if you ask me. I mean, it’s not going to win any awards or anything, and it’s definitely not as fancy as a Rolex or a Patek Philippe, but it’s mine. I wore it around for a day, just to see if I could. It was kind of hard to tell the time, to be honest. But hey, I made it, and that’s all that matters. It’s not about being the best, it’s about doing something cool and having fun, right?
