If you are a fan of watches what could be better than Building Your Own Watch. Not just any watch but a 200m water resistant Diver’s Watch. The easiest way to do this is with a watch building kit from the DIY Watch Club. A first hand review of their product building a DWC D03 – GMT Batman
Everything is included from case (with crystal in place), to hands, dial, strap and all the necessary tools. This is our journey with the DWC in words and pictures.
DIY Watch Club are an enthusiastic micro brand working out of Hong Kong. The watch I built for the review was the GMT Batman Diver. I chronicled the build experience over 4 videos. For more details read my DIY Watch Club review. If you want to build your own watch – use the promotion code CHRONODIVERS for 5% OFF at the DWC checkout.
Supporting the Amateur Watchmaker
Everything about the product from their representation on their website, to the product photos and technical specifications shouts “QUALITY”. The best thing with DWC is their support and their highly informative instructional videos. When you buy a watch from DIY Watch Club you can rest assured you are not alone on your journey to become a WATCHMAKER. A mission of ChronoDivers is to bring our visitors the very best dive watches – with the DWC watches that’s precisely what you’re getting.
A selection of DIY Watches to Build
The galleries below are just a teaser of the huge selection of watch kits available from DWC. Their products are split primarily in to 4 product lines. For fans of the outdoors they provide a range of Dive and Expedition watches. For the customer looking to reproduce the class and style of the vintage dress watches like the Omega Geneve and De Ville they have the Mosel collection.
If taking flight is your thing then they have their range of Pilot watches resembling the original Laco Type A aviator’s watch. And for something completely unique DWC have their Skeleton watch kits with a see through exhibition dial and case-back.
Diver & Expedition watch kits (incl GMT)
The GMT Batman I selected comes from their range of DIVERS and EXPEDITION watches. These watches have a design style all of their own with hints of classic watches embedded in their DNA. Think iconic timepieces like the Rolex Explorer and GMT Master and the Tudor Black Bay and Omega Seamaster Planet Ocean. But don’t view this range as mere homage watches – far from it. A majority of these watches feature Seiko movements such as the NH24 and NH35 – providing robust and accurate time keeping for years to come.
Buy your DIY Watchmaking Kit here
If you’ve already realised that you need to start building your own watch – please use the button below to visit DWC directly. Use the promotion code CHRONODIVERS for 5% OFF at checkout. If you want to find out more and learn from my own watch building experience – carry on reading ….
Vintage Style Dress Watch – the DWC Mosel
My grandfather had a beautiful Omega De Ville. A classic watch with simple, clean lines that somehow exude good taste and success. The DWC Mosel collection mirrors those vintage classic dress watches with styling cues taken from vintage icons like the Omega De Ville and Omega Geneve
Aviators Timepieces – the DWC Pilot’s Watch
A pilot’s watch has to feature a clean and uncluttered dial. A split second glance at the watch and the pilot should be able to check the time instantly. The DWC range of Pilot’s watches do precisely that. This style of watch goes back to the earliest aviators of WWII who wore classics like the Laco Type A. A deep black non-reflective dial with contrasting white hands and high lume on indexes & hands.
The images below give an idea of the watchmaking journey and the tools provided. I didn’t need to use ANY of my own tools when building the GMT Diver Watch. The hardest part of the experience for me was putting the minute and second hand on. That said – my eyesight isn’t great and shake a little excessively when concentrating on fine hand work.
A review of the DIY Watch Club experience – Building the Batman
From the perspective of a review for the first time watchmaker we’d give the DIY Watch Club a strong 9/10 – Five Stars. The quality of the product was exceptional, from the NH35A movement, to the case, the sapphire crystal and the silicone diver’s strap. Not only that, but the tools were all of an equal quality. Add to that the detailed videos and what we have is an extremely attractive package with nothing omitted or cut back on.
Watch the Video – understand – and watch the video again
All the images below were taken during the build process. Remember that DWC give their customers’ access to a wealth of instructional videos. Every minute of the production process is covered in detail on these videos. I’d recommend > WATCH the video > look at the watch kit and fully understand the instruction > WATCH the video AGAIN > now perform the task in hand.
Was it easy to build this GMT Divers Watch?
Was it easy? – NO. Was it hard? – NO. It was an enjoyable, moderately challenging experience and something I certainly hope to do again in the near future. I think if I had not been playing with the camera half the time and focused more on the job in hand it would have been a lot less stressful.
I have no experience building a brand new watch. I have tinkered with and more often than not broken old watches while attempting to modify or repair them. This was my first attempt constructing a watch from the key component parts. The whole process took me most of the day – HOWEVER – because I was videoing the experience it took far longer than it should have. The actual time spent just following the DWC videos and repeating the process on my own watch kit was LESS THAN 3 hours.
Buy your DIY Watch Kit today
To find out more about the DIY Watch Club please press the button below.
Use the promotion code CHRONODIVERS for 5% OFF at checkout.
Did I make any mistakes
Yes – but nothing that required more than repeating a step and doing it over – this time properly. I cannot blame DWC or their videos in any way – I was simply getting ahead of myself. Also – my hands are a little bit too shaky and my eyesight is far from 20/20 vision. The whole process would have been less stressful if I had watched a couple of the videos more than just once.
I’d recommend – WATCH > VISUALIZE (with the parts in front of you) > WATCH AGAIN > ASSEMBLE. Repeat this loop of watch – visualize – watch again – assemble for all the video steps.
My DWC Watch building experience on Video
This is the FAST FORWARDED version of the videos. I have a PLAYLIST of ALL 4 detailed videos here. Please remember I am NOT a watchmaker – this was done as a Hobbyist having fun. Please LIKE and SHARE if you think it’s helped you understand the process
DWC D03 Divers Watch Technical Specification
The technical specification below illustrates the quality of components that go in to these watches. Sapphire crystal, unidirectional click lock bezel, Superlume hands with C2 lume on the GMT hand etc. When we saw the specification of these watches we just had to get involved.
| Watch Case: | DWC Diver series 41mm 316L stainless steel case (Sapphire Dome / Top Hat Double Dome Sapphire Crystal Available) – 20 ATM / 200m |
| Case Back: | Exhibition case back (Mineral Crystal) |
| Chapter Ring: | CR-01-NH Black chapter ring with white marking (TMI NH Series) |
| Holder: | MH-DI-NH (TMI NH Series) |
| Bezel: | Silver Classic thin profile bezel |
| Click Spring: | unidirectional 120-click |
| Bezel Insert: | Diver Ceramic Batman GMT Bezel Insert (Black & Blue – Type B) |
| Crown: | CN-DI-01 Screw-down dive watch crown (Stem pre-assembled for TMI NH Series) |
| Watch dial: | DWC D03 GMT Sandwich Dial (Japan BGW9 Superlume) |
| Hands: | Silver Diver Hands with Japan BGW9 Superlume (TMI NH Series) Orange GMT hand (24 hours hand) with C2 lume |
| Movement: | TMI NH34 GMT movement by Seiko |
| Strap: | DWC Black FKM Rubber Strap 22mm |
Have you considered a Seiko SKX Homage?
It’s healthy to dream – aspiring to one day purchasing a Rolex Sea-Dweller Deepsea or a Bell & Ross BR 03-92 Diver. But watch collecting is expensive. We’ve seen original “Made in Japan” Seiko Pepsi sells for TWICE their original retail price – old battered watches with no provenance. That’s why ChronoDivers are fans of tribute watches. Good quality homages to those watches we’d all love to own. If high end homage watches is of interest to you we have our own CD200SKX. There is no doubting the DNA of our design – it’s a true Seiko SKX009 homage – right down to the movement inside (Seiko NH35A).
Steeldive watches – from UK seller
If you’re looking for some of the best homage watches available right now then please give Steeldive some thought. With tributes to many of the most iconic dive watches including a stunning Rolex Submariner homage, an Omega PloProf tribute and a range of classic Seiko dive watches – Steeldive have something for everyone. If you like your dive watch to make a statement – then take a look at this beauty – the 46mm Seiko Tuna homage – water resistant to 300 metres. If you’re in the UK, then please support Steeldive UK (VJS Ltd).
