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Model Series: 52mm Frank Heydrich custom designed for Steve Huyton
Collected By: Steve Huyton
Specs:
Case: Frank Heydrich custom designed and machinined solid titanium case made from a laser sintered blank
Dial: Chapter ring containing a selection of natural stones handpicked for color and pattern
Movement: ETA 6497-1 skeletonized mechanical 17 Jewel Swiss movement small sweep seconds(18,000 beats per hour)
Crystal: Scratch resistant Sapphire 42mm x 3mm thick
Strap: Custom 26mm wide custom South Australian Snapper fish skin leather (Pagrus Auratus) stiched in Phoenix by Jeanna of Stone Creek Straps
Buckle: Custom carbon fiber and damascus steel buckle from Germany (maddog-straps.com and finewatchbuckles.com)
Hands: Frank Heydrich custom full 3-D depth hands
This watch is the most custom of all my creations, I made the titanium case and back, the hands, the crown, and the dial so that only the strap and movement were purchased items.
One will notice it does not follow the theme of my other creations for a very simple reason, it is a collaboration with a designer in Australia, Steve Huyton. The short story of the birth of this concept is detailed below the pictures.
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| Finished with the fish skin strap from Stone Creek Straps | In my standard box to show the scale |
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| 52mm diameter and 20mm tall! | Alternate strap is an elegant brown ostrich leather |
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| Perfectly Skeletonized Swiss Movement | 52mm vs 44mm vs 42mm watches |  |
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| Height comparisons | Opals, Jades, Amethest and other stones form the markers |
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| Custom German made carbon fiber and damasus steel buckle | Rear view through the display back |
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| Finishing the titanium case on my lathe at home | The titanium back and the preliminary hands |
Now for the rest of the story:
Steve was inspired by the ball clock of the famous American designer, the late George Nelson shown below.
Steve sent me an initial sketch of a large watch concept and asked if I could help develop it.
Slowly, over a 12 month period of of conversations, I developed a CAD design that met the design intent of Steve's vision and he greenlighted the project and procured the movement and straps and the laser sintered titanium blank. Below are some of the computer design renderings I used during the design process to show Steve what the ideas in my head would look like when executed.
With little time left for development, we made the bold move to try to show a functional full-sized prototype in titanium at the Swiss watch show Baselworld 2015.
After hundreds of hours of work, the watch was completed with only 10 minutes to spare for the last possible FEDEX shipment. This watch is destined for a small but exclusive production run of very limited quantities. The gemstone selection will allow for infinite bespoke personalization so the customers, can have any gem or color combination that has meaning for them including diamonds/rubies/sapphires/etc. in custom color configurations. The watch is oversized so it will be best for those who have larger wrists or do not mind the obvious attention that this watch commands.
The watch was first featured in Esquire magazine before it was fully completed so it still has the preliminary hands.
Steve has written about it a few times on his site
And finally the story ends like this:
On the way back home to Australia from the show in Switzerland, Steve was sitting next to a gentleman who asked about the unusual watch he was wearing. It turns out he was a book publisher and he later commissioned Steve to write this excellent book on limited edition watches. I ordered my copy on Amazon.
