Stella

The Stella Automatic is a stainless steel, automatic watch that I designed, machined, and assembled over the course of ten weeks for an independent study that I completed at Stanford. The first iteration of the project, which I dubbed the Series I was made as a gift for my brother, who has always been a big influence on me, and sparked my own love of watches. Accordingly, the dial design is a constellation chart for the city of Shanghai on 3/18/94, which are his birth city/date.

The watch is powered by a Tianjin Seagull TY2806 movement, and features a screw-down style case back with a custom threading profile that I calculated, designed and machined. The case itself was largely machined on a Haas VF2 CNC Mill out of stainless steel, though some operations were completed by hand on a Bridgeport manual mill. The dial is composed of black anodized 5005 aluminum, which was then laser etched to create the star pattern. The machining of this watch also featured the use of 4 different workholding fixtures/jigs that I also designed and fabricated.

To say that this project challenged me is the understatement of a lifetime. Stella was by far the most ambitious project that I have ever attempted, and the difficulties that arose in designing a high-precision series of parts out of a challenging material to machine were innumerable. However, I can confidently say that the lessons I learned during this process were equally innumerable, and the satisfaction that I felt when I finished it and presented it to my brother made the whole journey worth it.

I had always had plans to complete a second iteration of the project with various improvements to the machining process and design, but was delayed for over a year due to the COVID-19 pandemic. After finally getting back into the shop, I completed the Series II version of the watch, which has rapidly become my everyday watch.