Malaysian Born Watchmaker says Hello from Phoenix, Arizona

[FrankHeydrich]

Hello and greetings from the Desert. 

I found your forum quite by accident and thought I would drop in.  My friend in Penang warned me there were some serious watch enthusiasts here and I see that is certainly true.  Its been a long time since I have been back but perhaps will have to come and meet the group in person before too much time elapses. 

Best regards,

Frank

ps.  If you want to see something completely different, I make one of a kind watches with colored meteorites frankheydrich.com

[Primus]

Nice custom watches. In our recent get together there was a few people interested in the meteorite dials.

[danny]

Hi Frank,
Welcome to Malaysia Watch Forum.
Can you tell us a bit of your custom watches and how you ended up in the watch making industry in the Desert?
I'll bet there's a real interesting story there.

 

[dpkong]

Hi Frank,
Welcome to Malaysia Watch Forum.
Can you tell us a bit of your custom watches and how you ended up in the watch making industry in the Desert?
I'll bet there's a real interesting story there.

 

Most meteorite land there?

[FrankHeydrich]

Ah my story is quite inconsequential....

Chinese mom from Sitiawan meets German dad in university in Australia and get married have a little Frank.  Then dad, becomes mechanical engineer and gets hired by Boeing and we go to the US.  After a while we settle in Arizona and I go to university there an become an engineer myself some 25 years ago.  I work designing turbine engines to pay the bills and make watches late at night when the wife is asleep.  My background in turbine alloys which are not too different in some ways from nickel-iron meteorites gives me some ideas about treating the material to obtain beautiful colors nobody else has seen in this material.  And that is how I got stuck away from the tropics and oceans I love so much.  Arizona has a lot of variety though, mountains over 12,000 feet are only a couple hours away and California and Mexico oceans are only a days drive. 

There are quite a few meteorites found here, the distribution is no different but the open terrain in some places makes for good hunting.  I personally have never found one.  There are a few professional collectors and hunters here that I buy from.  Here is a small sample of what I am producing.  I have also made one from a piece of mars and am working on a couple slices of the moon at present.

blue meteorite 42mm ss case with omega 2500c coaxial and 22mm stingray band, "meteor" polishing




Bronze meteorite with fusion crust left intact, skeleton 6497, 44mm pvd, 22mm leather band


blue-purple meteorite 42mm ss case with eta 2892a2, 22mm stingray band


Martian meteorite with omega 1120, 42mm ss case, 24mm bracelet


Titanium 44mm titanium case and skeleton 6498, 24mm sharkskin band


Best regards,
Frank

[JOS2012]

hi Frank,
nice meteorite colors...
Superman must be avoiding Arizona...uhh kryptonite is a kind of meteorite or am I too far off?
btw your caseback says All Swiss Made so do you commission an atelier in Switzerland to put your ideas into production..
Care to share how you source the co-axial movements (not specific sources as that's a trade secret, I'm sure) or are they cannibalised from existing watches...
Lastly if we have a design using a meteorite dial  with colours of our choice and wanting to pair it with a specific movement of our choice, do you undertake such jobs...

Thanks and good show...

[FrankHeydrich]

hi Frank,
nice meteorite colors...
Superman must be avoiding Arizona...uhh kryptonite is a kind of meteorite or am I too far off?
btw your caseback says All Swiss Made so do you commission an atelier in Switzerland to put your ideas into production..
Care to share how you source the co-axial movements (not specific sources as that's a trade secret, I'm sure) or are they cannibalised from existing watches...
Lastly if we have a design using a meteorite dial  with colours of our choice and wanting to pair it with a specific movement of our choice, do you undertake such jobs...

Coincidentally, I have childhood friends that I met in Seattle who have since returned to their homeland Switzerland so I have been able to make contact with some fine Swiss folk who are retired from the various workshops.  Sometimes I find they are hoarding some cases or movements that I can use.  I have made only  50+ watches over the last few years so I am too small to make a minimum order through the factories.  So basically I am taking what I can find and modify adapters to fit movements into cases they were not designed for. 

After scouring the planet I was only able to acquire 5 coaxials, I doubt I will ever find more.  4 have yet to be committed to a build.  the mainstay of my builds are eta 2892A2 for which I pay retail and which are getting more expensive by the day on the secondary market it seems.  Likely they will disappear altogether in the coming months and I will have to take a hard look at the A10 from Soprod.  Someone mentioned they are friendly to to the little guys.  I have a background in Catia and Unigraphics so designing my own cases is not a problem but the costs of tooling up a minimum order are a bit prohibitive for a hobbyist. 

As for pairing meteorite colors choices with movements, that describes most of what I build for my customers.   I make a few demos to show what is possible but most of what I do is custom orders.   It takes a few discussions, I go on a  scavenger hunt and show them what I can find then I show pictures of the build in stages letting them choose hands, surface finishes, bands etc as the build progresses.  It is slow but I never build the same exact watch twice.  I tell people to go to my website and look at the individual webpages (every watch gets its own) and pick elements they like or tell me their ideas for something I have not tried yet. 

[JOS2012]

Dear Frank,

Thanks for your explanation so that we know what we can ask of you and what we cannot...
I'm sure some of us here will keep you in mind for our own bespoke meteorite watch..
who knows maybe a MWF Project watch in future?

Regards...
Jos

hi Frank,
nice meteorite colors...
Superman must be avoiding Arizona...uhh kryptonite is a kind of meteorite or am I too far off?
btw your caseback says All Swiss Made so do you commission an atelier in Switzerland to put your ideas into production..
Care to share how you source the co-axial movements (not specific sources as that's a trade secret, I'm sure) or are they cannibalised from existing watches...
Lastly if we have a design using a meteorite dial  with colours of our choice and wanting to pair it with a specific movement of our choice, do you undertake such jobs...

Coincidentally, I have childhood friends that I met in Seattle who have since returned to their homeland Switzerland so I have been able to make contact with some fine Swiss folk who are retired from the various workshops.  Sometimes I find they are hoarding some cases or movements that I can use.  I have made only  50+ watches over the last few years so I am too small to make a minimum order through the factories.  So basically I am taking what I can find and modify adapters to fit movements into cases they were not designed for. 

After scouring the planet I was only able to acquire 5 coaxials, I doubt I will ever find more.  4 have yet to be committed to a build.  the mainstay of my builds are eta 2892A2 for which I pay retail and which are getting more expensive by the day on the secondary market it seems.  Likely they will disappear altogether in the coming months and I will have to take a hard look at the A10 from Soprod.  Someone mentioned they are friendly to to the little guys.  I have a background in Catia and Unigraphics so designing my own cases is not a problem but the costs of tooling up a minimum order are a bit prohibitive for a hobbyist. 

As for pairing meteorite colors choices with movements, that describes most of what I build for my customers.   I make a few demos to show what is possible but most of what I do is custom orders.   It takes a few discussions, I go on a  scavenger hunt and show them what I can find then I show pictures of the build in stages letting them choose hands, surface finishes, bands etc as the build progresses.  It is slow but I never build the same exact watch twice.  I tell people to go to my website and look at the individual webpages (every watch gets its own) and pick elements they like or tell me their ideas for something I have not tried yet.

[davidtth]

Hi Frank,

i'm a person who always admire independent watch maker with passion, unique idea, interesting design and finally, the very best finishing. there are few collection caught my attention the most such Chronometeorite, Glacier and Fire Water. Glacier is my top choice

welcome aboard and glad to know about the existing, just only one lil thing would like to comment hope you dont mind... do get a good photographer for the watch photo 

[tonykpk]

Hi frank, welcome to MWF very nice watches there . Did you do the skeleton engraving yourself ? Fabulous job. regards tony

[FrankHeydrich]

To answer a couple of questions...

LOL,  I know I need pro photos.  I am usually in a hurry to send them off and just take a few snaps as they go out the door.  The meteorite being metallic and  highly reflective, becomes a real challenge to capture.  Everyone who gets to see one in person for the first time is amazed at how they change with each subtle shift of light, kind of like an opal.

As for skeletonizing, no I cannot take credit for that.  I have considered trying it but it would be better to do in process before jeweling rather than on a finished movement. I don't have plating ability either so I would have to sub that out.

Thanks all for your kind words about by amateur attempts.  It is frustrating because I have a head full of case and movement designs I don't have time to execute the way I would like.  Perhaps someday after I retire I can go all out and get a small  cnc machine to replace my manual lathe. Sadly there are only 24 hours in a day, I could do more if I did not have to spend some of them sleeping.  Anyway the good thing is by working this way I can keep costs down and my friends can afford a custom watch that would otherwise be priced out of reach if made in Canton Helvetica.

Best regards,
Frank

[ckng2000]

Nice work...

[Yoda]

Dear Frank

Welcome abroad

Youre really a watch connousieur,  miles apart.

Welcome again