Need advice.

[smc]

Hey all.

I'm going to shell out the cash and sweat and produce a small batch of my own watches. This is going to be a fun project, and I don't expect to make money - but I might as well try to recoup my costs. I have a plan for the dial and hands that will take a significant portion of the production costs so I need to save some money

1st question...

I need to source a movement that people will like. Apparently the japanese movenets are not a favorite, so how about an SW 200/300 or maybe a seagull ST21? This would be a watch sold on ebay etc for ~$500. This will be a robust diver, and I want it to be automatic. If you have an idea for a movement with a power reserve, that would be great as well. I'm looking for as cheap as I can get, and still have a watch people will buy.

2nd question...

I'm using a macbook pro - what would you suggest as software to design the specs to give to the case manufacturer? I may have the cases done locally but having someone in china do it may make it possible to keep my total production cost to under $500.

smc

[Ztech]

smc do a little search on the internet. Some years ago I was just surfing the web and was able to quite easily find manufacturers in China willing to produce cases/bracelets/etc. for me cheap. Whether it was from a parts catalogue put together to my specs or custom designed and made the prices were surprisingly cheap. I also found that most were willing to produce them in rather small numbers of say 30 to 50 pieces. Now I'm sure there are a multitude of hoops one must jump through to get a quality finished piece, but it might be something that you might want to explore. Best of luck!

[smc]

Thanks Ztech.

To sum up my post, I was looking for an opinion on which movement to use and what software to use.

smc.

[Ztech]

Thanks Ztech.

To sum up my post, I was looking for an opinion on which movement to use and what software to use.

smc.

Sorry smc. I forgot to answer that didn't I? Well, I have a SW 200 movement in one of my watches and it runs quite well. I wouldn't mind paying $500 for a nice watch with a SW movement in her.