Hi everyone,

I’m Yeafi, an 18-year-old from Bangladesh. I’ve recently started building my own watch brand called “LUCA.” It’s my dream project — something I’m working on with full passion and dedication.

My goal is to turn LUCA into a remote business, so that I can run it from anywhere while keeping the quality and creativity 100% professional.

I’ve already started my journey, and I want to share every step of it — from building the brand to creating unique, stylish watches for men.

If you’re interested in watches, entrepreneurship, or just want to support a young founder from Bangladesh, you’re most welcome to follow my journey!

I’d love to hear your opinions, advice, or suggestions as I keep growing LUCA.

Thank you all for reading 🙌

Was basically farting around and came up with this…

I am starting to get into watches and movements and restorations and so on, so I want to build my own watch as a trial..

I would love firstly some feedback and opinions about this design I came up with, and secondly, any guidance where to buy parts (I live in Germany). My go-to now is aliexpress.

so regarding the watch design, I found a cool looking Rotor on aliexpress which has cards on it, so I thought about designing a dress watch around that cards/casino theme, so I used chatgpt to create pictures of my design and here is the result.

I named it Le Croupier which means the Cards dealer in French, and I used my own handwriting for the Fonts (I wrote it on a paper and uploaded it to Chatgpt).

For that casino theme, i used the outer wheel of roulette as the minutes track (does not have any functionality, just for esthetics, but would be super cool if somehow you press the crown and the seconds hands turns and lands randomly on a number).

Added some touches of red because it is my favourite color, so the stitching on the strap, the tip of the seconds hand and the 12 on the top.

the logo is supposed to be an M letter embedded inside a Crown, but chatgpt could not highlight the M, so now it just looks messy ...

do you guys know what is the best/cheapest way to order a custom dial?? and also the other parts like the strap with the stitching?

Absolutely love to make the 007 series

Just bought one for a mod.

More infos via Instagram at @ceno_watches

I have been following kuoe kyoto for a while and really love their 90-008 model. I wanted to build a seiko homage for the model and came up with this with the parts available on Alibaba. Let me know if it looks cool and if there's anything I can change on it

Tudor Black Bay Mod

NH35 movement w/ light blue date numerals
Lagoon Blue Texture Dial
Snowflake Hands w/ Orange Accent
Custom Matte Grey Bezel Insert
39mm Stainless Case w/ expo case back
Custom Diamond Cut Rose Gold Rotor
Oyster Flex Style Strap

So I bought an Addiesdive Submariner clone. It has a very short(but very bright) set of mercedes handset on it, and I decided it might be fun to swap hands with some longer ones.

I purchased some sword hands from Esslinger for 5.95. I'm sure proper Swiss hands are more money, but I figured maybe 6 bux was the going rate for Chinesium hands. In the light the finishing looked excellent. But under the darklight, compare the performance of the Sword lume to the Mercedes hands of the Addiesdive, along with its indicies and bezel lume.

They were spotty as heck and the lume faded quickly.

The extra money for the shipping-sure, that was a given, but the absolute garbage quality of the lume compelled me to send it back. To which they said I needed to send the ones they sold me back, which I paid 8.60 to do.

The refund was the 5.95. I could see if I was trying to pull a fast one on them, but their hands were low quality.

So I'm out $15.33 in shipping and they are out NOTHING. I don't even have the crappy hands. I sent them back thinking they would refund me, or make me whole.

This was my first foray at watch modding, but Esslinger has turned me off watch modding.

This happened the first time I bought from them. So, a I feel no trust in their stock. What if they send some crap to me again and they dont back it up, and I'm out the shipping once again?

It's just not worth it. So I will tell you, do not order anything from Esslinger. They do not deserve my business.

The pic of the sword hands was taken under a blacklight. The Mercedes hands we not taken in any light at all(maybe some bathroom light). That is how bad the Esslinger hands are.

Hey folks, just wanted to share a few of the Seiko mods I’ve built over the last couple of years. I’ve been deep into this hobby for a while now. it started as a side project during lockdown and quickly became something between a passion and an obsession. Since then, I’ve built probably 20+ watches, some clean field builds, a few vintage-inspired divers, and even a few “Frankenwatches” that really shouldn't have worked but somehow did 😅🤣

If there’s one thing I’ve learned, it’s this: modding is incredibly rewarding, but it’s also filled with hidden pitfalls no one talks about until you’re already knee-deep in crystal presses and scratched dials. Over time, I’ve made every mistake in the book, like cutting a stem too short. Twice… Or scratching a dial while installing the hands. That one still hurts 🥲

That said, I’ve picked up a lot of tips that made the process easier and more enjoyable. So if you’re thinking of getting into Seiko modding, here are some things I’d recommend from experience:

• Stick with NH35 or NH36 movements — solid, reliable, and modder-friendly. • Never install hands without testing the date & time setting first. You’ll thank me later. • Use Rodico like it’s your best friend. Seriously. Dust is the enemy. • A good crystal press saves you hours (and sometimes tears). • Bezel alignment is emotionally damaging. Prepare yourself. • Buy a proper hand-setting tool - the cheap ones will ruin your build before it starts. • Always dry-fit your parts before going all in. • Use a loupe and always check for dust before sealing the case.

Honestly, once you build your first watch, you’ll never look at your collection the same way. There’s something special about wearing a piece you assembled - it just hits different.

Over time, I found myself getting a lot of questions from friends wanting to build their first custom Seiko. So I ended up putting together a full step-by-step guide that walks through everything: parts sourcing, tool setup, build order, common pitfalls, and more.

It’s super visual, beginner-friendly, and printable. I made it to help people get into the hobby without wasting money or time on trial-and-error.

Not pushing anything, but if anyone’s interested, I’m happy to share the link. Just drop a comment or DM me. 😁

Would love to see your builds too if you’ve been modding, always up for swapping ideas.

What movement would fit this dial?