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This past year has been a particularly busy one in my day job, leaving less disposable time to spend footling around with watches. However, I have been able to keep things ticking along, with one serious project generally on the go at any one time and a post documenting what I’ve been up to every two or three (or four!) months. With less time to spend on the serious stuff, some of you may have noticed that I have been keeping myself amused by indulging my long-dormant interest in watch-modding. Where my interest in the early days lay in the modification of (mostly) vintage watches using dials, hands and crystals either sourced from third party manufacturers or plundered from other compatible Seiko models, my more recent activity has focussed on putting together bespoke watches using a mix of new parts supplied by an increasing number of third-party manufacturers, and OEM parts from Seiko. I’ve posted some of the results on my Instagram feed as well as here over the past 18 months but I’ve also produced several watches that I’ve been content just to build and wear and enjoy without the additional overhead of documenting the process.
A few months ago, I was approached by Namokimods, one of the third-party makers of mostly Seiko-compatible parts, to see if I might be interested in reviewing one of their pre-built watches. This prospect didn’t interest me especially, but I did reply to say that I might be interested in building a watch from parts. After a few back-and-forth emails, we settled on a build based around their Nautilus case, modelled on the Patek Philippe Nautilus, and with a selection of Nautilus-inspired dials to choose from. They also supplied a steel bracelet and a Seiko-style rubber waffle strap. Here is what I received from them early last month:
In addition to the mid-case, already fitted with its crystal, and supplied with a screw-down crown, the parcel included a Seiko Instruments NH35 movement, three Nautilus-inspired enamel-style dials in three different colours, two sets of hands, a low-profiled caseback, a caseback gasket and the aforementioned rubber strap and steel bracelet.
All of the parts were nicely packaged and supplied in screw-top metal tins. With the case essentially already assembled, this build was really just going to be a matter of selecting a favoured dial/hand/strap configuration and putting it all together. The three dials were all the same style but with one in yellow, one in a light Tiffany teal and one in dark green. All three dials were equipped with four dial feet, one pair for crown-at-3 cases and one pair for crown-at-3.8. As the Nautilus case has its crown at the 3 o’clock position, I snipped off the two dial feet closest to the 3 and 9 positions.
The movement is a Seiko Instruments NH35, equipped with a redundant date complication for this application. I decided to dispense with as much of this redundancy as possible, including the date disk itself, the intermediate wheel and the date driving wheel.
The setting lever spring retains its intermediate (ghost) position but there is nothing I can do about that – or at least nothing that is worth the effort. Next, comes a decision: yellow, Tiffany blue or green?
I opt for yellow.
The dials are nicely made with decent, if not immaculate, print quality. You’ll notice a Namokimods logo appliqué between the centre hole and the 12 marker. I think this looks attractive and suitably inconspicuous yet occupies a space that would otherwise look a bit naked if the dial were completely sterile. With no coordination with the date change to worry about, fitting the hands just requires the usual attention to ensuring that they are correctly aligned with each other.
The next question concerns the choice of strap: steel bracelet or rubber waffle? I had originally thought that the metal bracelet would be the more natural choice, but in the end felt that the overall effect was a bit too ostentatiously dressy for my tastes.
The case itself differs fundamentally from a Patek Nautilus in having proper 20mm lugs rather than lugs designed for an integrated bracelet. In fact, the case is more of a hybrid between the Nautilus and the Aquanaut and for that reason I think works better with a rubber strap.
The movement, by the way, is inserted crown side first to make sure the cut-out in the movement spacer clears the inner part of the crown tube. The movement is then held in place securely just from the interference fit between the movement spacer and the interior of the mid-case.
The final task is to size the stem, fit it to the crown, aided with a spot of Loctite Threadlocker. The end result I think is rather fun. In spite of its source of inspiration, the case presents as quite beefy and masculine, especially when paired with the rubber strap, but the yellow face dials down the attitude and adds a bit frivolity.
This positive impression is helped by the generally high quality to the overall finish of the case, the highly-polished case and bezel sides pairing well with the satin brushwork on the upper lugs. The vertical brushing to the top of the bezel is crisp enough not to distract, but we do need to remember the price-point compared to its inspiration.
I’ve enjoyed putting this together and think the end result works really well as a refreshing change. It has also acted as a New Year palate-cleanser, setting me up nicely before I set about my next vintage revivification.
Footnote
In the interests of full disclosure, Namokimods supplied all of the parts shown here at no cost to me. They have had no input at all into the contents of this post and in fact were entirely vague about how I might document my experience with the build. In the event, I made two Instagram posts and this blog entry.
Adventures in Amateur Watch Fettling 
That’s really nice. Cheers one up in this winter weather. Namokimods is certainly my go to for modding parts just now. The quality is quite remarkable. Good stuff!
Thanks Philip. Glad you like it.
Nice looking watch… Your photography skills are amazing! Thanks and Cheers
Thank you!
Namoki just supplies chinese sourced parts not different from Aliexpress parts, but double or triple their original price. They are a sort of dropshipping business, that is all.
All of the companies selling parts for the thriving watch-modding community are supplying Chinese-made parts. I’ve bought plenty of parts from AliExpress and have a pretty good sense of what’s available there and what is not and I would say that only a small subset of what’s available in the inventory of companies like Namokimods, WatchandStyle, Seikomods, Tokeilab, DLW and so on, is also available on AliExpress.
Most of the parts from these third party specialists are designed around the Seiko SKX case design with parts engineered to be compatible with that platform and universally interchangeable. While there are a small number of SKX-compatible casing parts available on Aliexpress, I don’t see very much, if any, overlap with the parts supplied by Namokimods and their ilk. I do believe that, for example, some of the parts supplied by company X are the same as those suppled by company Y, but I know of no examples of parts from, say Namokimods, that are without doubt also available from Aliexpress at a lower price. Maybe you know differently.
From my perspective, I welcome the diversity of options that these producers provide, including the numerous businesses selling through Aliexpress.
Martin
yes, you are right in saying that the dials marked with namokimods logo are not to be found in Aliexpress with that logo on them.
The same applies to hands, cases, crystals, movements, brazalets etc. you name it.
I can tell you the variations they select over the catalog product at the chinese factory are insignificant and definetively not worth their mark-up
In my opinion, a huge part of their target customer is people who does not know better.
Btw, your blog is gold but the watch from Namokimods is unwearable – did they perhaps send you the parts that nobody wants to buy?
My experience of Aliexpress is that the quality ranges from absolutely terrible to excellent and that, as is generally the case, you get what you pay for. My experience of Namokimods, Watch&Style, DLW, Tokeilab and Seikomods has been universally excellent in terms of customer service, packaging and communications. The quality of product has ranged from good/very good to outstanding. All of these companies operate in a competitive market and will price their products at a level that generates whatever profit margin they need to keep trading. Aliexpress do a roaring trade and I suspect that many of Namoki’s customers know very well what Aliexpress offers.
You have a perfect right not to like the result of this particular project. I described it as a bit of fun and don’t think it needs to be taken so seriously. Namokimods gave me completely free rein in my choice of parts, and in making my selection, I was guided by my youngest son who likes a splash of colour.
We can agree on disagreeing and close the krangle.
I am neither afiliated with Aliexpress or Namokimods and I dont have any reason to promote their business.
l love your work in the blog, your photography, your storytelling and the selection of watches you choose to create posts of. Pure gold all of it.
Congrats, Martin.
Have a pleasant weekend,
Cheers, Ed.
Why didn’t they go with the NH38 ?
The NH36 is cheaper and I have the flexibility to reuse the movement at another time with another watch that may have a calendar function. Even if this movement stays put, I have a spare day and date wheel to add to the parts mountain.
Beautiful build, it’s always a pleasure reading your articles!
There’s a solution to the (nasty) “ghost” position though. And I was surprised by the fact that you apparently don’t know about it. It’s the NH38 movement which is designed for a simple three-hander. I’ve used it in my WD10 build and it works like a charm. It’s the “smaller” simpler brother of the NH family. Give it a try.
best
Hi Vincenzo,
Another reader raised the same point further up in the comments and you can see my reasoning in my response to his post. In short, I wanted the flexibility to be able to recycle the movement at a later date into another build and the calendar parts farmed from an NH36 might come in handy. However, the most pertinent reason was that these parts were supplied and paid for by Namokimods and they do not stock the NH38.
All the best
Martin