Asymmetric Watch Case Program for an Amsterdam Design Studio

We picked up this order from a small design studio in Amsterdam — they do geometric jewelry and small accessories, and this was their first time trying a watch. A hexagonal case, asymmetric on one side, 300 units, tight budget, eight weeks to deliver. We quoted it the way we quote most orders like this, using standard stamping tooling, and didn't think much more about it — it looked like just a shape variation.

About three weeks into production, the workshop flagged a problem: the stamped cases had edge burrs that wouldn't clean up, and the asymmetric side wasn't holding the curve the design called for. That wasn't the client being difficult. We'd picked the wrong process from the start and didn't catch it until parts were already coming off the line. Production switched over to CNC turning and milling, which meant new tooling and reshuffling the schedule mid-run.

Around the same time, a separate argument came up over the new tooling cost — about ten thousand yuan extra — and it took a few days of back-and-forth email before we agreed to split it. Neither side was really right about it, and it had nothing to do with the case itself, but it happened, so it's part of the story.

After the switch, cases went through CNC turning, then drilling for positioning, then polishing to get the burrs off. It took a second round of tooling before the edge finish was acceptable — not great, just acceptable. The order shipped about ten days late. The client took delivery without much comment either way. Later, in an email, they mentioned maybe having another geometric idea next year. Nothing came of that.

Looking back, the easy story is that the client's design was unusual. The real one is that we quoted the job without walking it through the workshop first to check whether it could actually be made on the tooling we had. “Looks like a different shape” and “can be made with what we have” are two different questions, and we answered the first one before checking the second. There's no clean ending here — the client wasn't especially happy, they just took the watches. But next time a design like this comes in, we'll check with the workshop before we quote.