The Indiegogo campaign is live! 30% OFF ($85) for the first 30 backers:
www.indiegogo.com/at/itemproject
As many of you reading this know, I spent 6 months in Prague in 2015 studying abroad. This was right after my huge 4 month backpacking trip - I was so inspired that I wanted to live there and the only way I could do that was to continue my studies. One of my friends I met while studying there mentioned they had modeled a watch for his engineering school project. At the time, I was running an e-commerce business filled with products I had designed myself and I thought that a wrist watch would be a cool thing to try. I never modeled something like a watch in CAD before, so it became my design project - a way to take a mental break on the weekends (I know I'm a total nerd).I worked on this project on and off for a few months. When I spoke to my machinist in Asia, I briefly mentioned that I had designed a simple wrist watch. They told me that they could probably help find a production company to get a prototype made - something I actually never even considered. After some back and fourth with this company, I had a working prototype sent to me. It was a really exciting project since it was so different than what I was usually doing - and that was supposed to be the end of that.
I took some photos posted them up on my Facebook to show some friends. I instantly got a flood of messages asking if they could purchase one. Only having a couple prototypes made I didn't know what to tell them. I was convinced that maybe I could do a small run of these watches for the friends who asked. A few of them were actually already good customers of mine.
I focused on the development more in 2016. The production company claimed I needed a minimum order quantity to actually put this into production. So I started refining some of the designs on the watch itself such as the crown and strap (you can see the small changes in the picture above). I got in contact with the print shop who was already making my packaging and sent them the designs I came up with. Package design is one of my favorite things to do because you have so much creative freedom. I knew if I wanted to put this thing into production it had to be absolutely spectacular.
And now you are reading this page. Nearly two years ago I drew up these drawings as a weekend project in my small apartment in Europe. And now its become this full blown thing. Its been a monumental amount of work - but now I need your help to bring it to life. With a large minimum order, crowd funding seemed like a good way to get it moving.
So if this project interests you, check out the Indiegogo campaign. Every bit big or small helps make this project get a little closer to reality. Share it with everyone you know on every social media platform you use. Word of mouth is so powerful - it would mean the world to me.
If you'd like to contact me directly do it here:
www.itemproject.co/pages/contact-us
Jeffrey Pang
Author