If you’re like me, you’ve probably not heard of the company 121Time. That said, I’ve rather pleased that I’ve run across this company, and I think you will be as well.
And while 121 has plenty of pre-built watches ready to go (both men and women’s models), their big claim to fame is that they allow you to custom build your own watch. And this isn’t just any watch – they can actually feature a rather nice Swiss automatic movement (the one I built houses a ETA 2824-2). But, before we get into the watch itself, let’s step through the build process, shall we?
Appropriately enough (for someone who’d be building a custom watch), you start with the movement. You can opt for a quartz ($33), quartz chronograph ($72), or an ETA 2824 automatic mechanical ($264). This is then housed in one of four different case styles, which range in price from $46 – $72. On top of that selection, you can also change up the bezel some (depending on the case). With the one I built, I could have chosen a polished bezel (silver or gold tone), or a stepped bezel ($22-33).
I should mention, as you’re stepping through this process, the screen is building the watch for you, so you can literally see it coming together. Next up would be the dial. With that, you’re primarily choosing the type of markers (Arabic, Roman, or indices) that you want on the dial. You can also choose from one of eight colors for the dial, as well as the color of the seconds hand (choosing from five colors).
As you can see, there’s a lot here that you can select from – and there’s actually a little bit more to it; we’ll pick up the remainder of the build process tomorrow.
