Watch Winders Made-In-Singapore

Most Singaporeans didn’t realize that there were two former companies fabricating watch winders in Singapore some years back.


If my memory serves me well, one such company was “Oscillo”, which appeared in the local newspapers for making Singapore’s largest Watch Winder cabinet, winding as many as 120 watches. I believe they were situated somewhere in Upper Thomson Road. The cabinets with glass windows were nothing to shout about, perhaps something you can find in V-hive Furniture. Wooden veneer turntables were used to rotate watches and a programmable industrial timer switches the motors on and off. I don’t recall seeing any winding sequence stated in their website but I remembered seeing many pictures of their lighted cabinets. Sad to say, I didn’t see their website since 2005. But I still do have those pictures saved on my dead hard drive.

Another Singapore company was listed on a trade website specializing in handcrafted teak winder cabinets. No other information was given besides their location near our Botanic Gardens.

I’m not too sure if both exist today.

In bringing this up, I just want to highlight that there are companies right in our own backyard that make winders we all talked about today. These companies have not found fame here with any recognizable brand names but I’m certain they have technical expertise in their separate fields of making true Singapore Quality winders that users can trust.

With automatic watches gaining popularity here in Singapore, I would encourage them to come out of hiatus, reinventing themselves to make winders to serve the local market.

Labels: aesthetics of watch winder, made in singapore

The Aesthetics of a Watch Winder

From a consumer stand-point, the first impressions are most important. That’s why the aesthetics of a watch winder unit has to be impressive. Manufacturers painstakingly coat the housing with multiple layers of polyurethane (PU) to give it a lustrous glossy finish that reflects your smile on it.




Some manufacturers add inlays to decorate the wooden housing; others use exotic woods to enhance the looks.



From my search in the internet I found that having many layers of PU will not only make the housing glossy but also make it brittle. I’ve seen cracks and peeling happening on a wooden watch box yesterday in one of a Watch outlet. It happened when the seller accidentally hit it against the glass door of his display cabinet when he took it out for me. Once the box cracked at the corner, slowly it began to propagate further from the corner and started to peel-off. That was when I got a chance to peek into its’ under-layers. The wooden box is made of plywood but laminated with a thin “veneer”. This veneer (could be PVC) has motifs of burl wood.



With this technique, I’m sure many cheap watch winders are built in a similar fashion. I don’t think they’ll use genuine wood because they’ll warp in different climates. And once warped, doors may not close properly or gaps may appear on the housing. There’s always moisture content in any wood and if not well kiln-dried, warpage occurs. Only aged genuine wood would not warp. But aged wood is very costly! Perhaps I could use re-cycled wood from a kampong house for my next project.



Another thing about inlays; I’ve seen up-close and personal some room doors that are really not inlayed. They are actually printed decals which are then precisely pasted (molded) onto the door frame made from plywood. These inlays come in sheet form and act much like your temporary tattoos. After transferring onto a selected surface, factories then add layers of lacquer to cover-up traces of these decals. The end result is a glossy, impressive, aesthetically pleasing exterior.



Here are some pictures of decorative films/foils I’ve found on the web.



Take a look at this link to get an idea… http://plus.en.alibaba.com/



So don’t just look at aesthetics when you purchase a winder unit. I feel the most important thing is the product’s quality and its agent’s after-sales service that counts. Looks is after all skin-deep.

Labels: aesthetics of watch winder