How do you breathe new life into your watch? Well, one way is to swap out the strap. We have covered a lot of straps here on the site, but that only goes so far. What if you really want to change things up a bit? Or what if you like a watch, but just not the exact color scheme on offer? The folks at Lew & Huey have you covered (if you have a Cerberus or Orthos) with their current pre-sale on Lew & Huey modification parts for these two watches. You can either order them for a watch you already own, or order a new modified watch from the brand.
The whole concept started with some requests from fans of the brand and the birth of the “Blurple” Orthos. Stumbling into this untapped desire among owners to personalize their watches, Lew & Huey crafted a set of dial, hand a bezel combinations that can be put on your watch, or built onto a new one. They may be the first brand that is offering modification parts for their own watches and covering them under warranty (if you let them do the work).
So how does all this work? Chris Vail was kind enough to lay it out for me, and he described it as akin to ordering a Harley with some custom options. If you buy a new watch, you can specify the new parts as well (there is an extra charge) and they will build the watch for you and then ship it with the mods in place (and the original parts on the side), and you get the full warranty.
If you already own a watch, you can buy the parts and ship them the watch, then they will give it to their trusted watchmaker who makes the mods. The watch comes back to you, along with the original parts, and you still get the balance of your warranty. Or you can buy the parts and do it yourself or by your local watch service center, but that will void the warranty.
So what can you do with your watch? If you own (or like) a Cerberus, you can lose the color and go for the monochrome black and silver. The dial, chapter ring/rehaut, and white-tipped seconds hand are all sold as a package, and putting it all together would make the Cerberus a black-and-stainless watch. They don’t have to be installed as a unit however; so you could keep, say, the orange rehaut and just swap out the rest.
With the Orthos, you can order either a black or grey bezel or a black, blue or purple dial, so you could (for instance) keep your original orange bezel insert and just go to a purple dial. The Cerberus mod kit is $40, and the dial and bezel for the Orthos are $22.50 and $12, respectively. If you want the brand to do the work, it is $50 in labor to swap out one component, $75 for both the dial and bezel on the Orthos. lewandhuey.com
