For the better part of the past decade, I have been documenting my development as an amateur watchsmith of sorts, from first tentative fumblings, through gathering confidence and ambition to the point where I feel perhaps that I have become somewhat accomplished. Having said that, I am most emphatically not a watchmaker in the tradition sense. I have no training whatsoever, being entirely self-taught, and correspondingly have made and continue to make plenty of mistakes. I freely acknowledge that the depths of my ignorance on the subject still vastly outweigh whatever expertise or competence I have acquired over the years.

I have no ambition to develop this into anything other than what it is now. A hobby. I do not take on work for other folk, not least because I simply do not have the time to do so, but mostly because in working only on my own watches, I can strike out along whatever flights of fancy occur to me and, yes, exercise the freedom to make ill-considered decisions, some of which end up in minor catastrophe.

It is fair to say that the majority of the projects described here concern Japanese watches but you will see the odd Swiss interloper as well as mention of flirtations with newer watches, most of which are inspired by the classic vintage aesthetic.